Trove Tuesday – Struck by Lightening

Walter Lillico BROOKS (1903 – 1935) was my great grandfather’s first cousin. His father Charles Walter BROOKS (1863 - 1935) was the youngest brother of my great great grandmother Frances Eliza LONG nee BROOKS (1846 - 1922).

They were two of the twelve children born to Tasmanian convict Thomas BROOKE (c1810 - 1894) and Jane CUNDELL (c1821 - 1904). Thomas and Jane were among the earliest settlers in the Mt Shadwell / Mortlake area in the mid 1840s. All the children lived to adulthood - quite amazing in those times.

Their grandson, Walter was killed by lightening in June 1935, and his father died in the same district in November 1935.

Quambatook is a long way from Mortlake – I wondered why they were both there.

One of Walter’s sisters, Agnes Eliza SUTTIE nee BROOKS (1899 - 1934) died in Mortlake but her son Ronald Wallace SUTTIE had died in Quambatook in 1929.

One of the death notices show that Walter was engaged to a Floss Suttie, possibly the sister of Agnes’ husband Norman Wallace SUTTIE.

Walter’s mother, also named Agnes nee GEDDES (1863 – 1954) lived many more years, outliving at least three of her four children.