Mining Investor

Location: Pres*I*80

Born at Wattle Street, Bendigo on 4 March 1862 the eldest son of John Boyd Watson (1828-89) and Mary née Covell; his father was a well-known mining and property investor in Bendigo who left considerable wealth to his children. Watson junior followed in his father’s footsteps and achieved considerable wealth as a mine owner, and later as a land holder at Kyneton. 

After a mining accident in one of his mines, in late 1889 he founded the “Watson Sustentation Fund”, a scheme to compensate injured miners in honour of his father, The Bendigonian reported;

“many miners in this city can testify to the inestimable benefit this fund has proved to the [Miner’s] Association…by the death of Mr. Watson the Bendigo miners loses a staunch friend”. 

Described as a “purveyor of fine art and antiques”, Watson however is best remembered as the owner of Labassa – 2 Manor Grove, Caulfield between 1904 and 1920; designed in 1890 by John Koch (Boroondara Cemetery), by the mid-1920s the French Renaissance styled mansion had been subdivided into twelve self-contained flats. The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) took over the property in 1980, not long after being the scene of many wild parties by the bohemian set of the 1960s and ’70s. Watson died on 5 November 1911.

Source: 
ADB Volume 6 1851-90 (R-Z).
The Argus 9 November 1911.
The Bendigonian 14 November 1911.
The Age 1 February 1999.

Writer & Journalist

Location: CofE*A*152

Born in Tottenham, London on 31 December 1834, the son of AJ Walstab (q.v.) and Georgina née Steele; the family migrated to Victoria in 1852 and shortly after Walstab joined the Mounted Police. This led to service in India where he sustained a leg injury that would hinder his movement for life and by 1860 he had turned to journalism becoming editor of the Calcutta Englishman; he also wrote his first novel “Looking back, or, pique, repique and capot” (1864) that was critically received.

By 1865 Walstab was back in Melbourne and went on to work briefly with The Age before a long association with The Herald (1865, 1882-1909) which he co-owned with others in 1889 after the death of John Halfey (Boroondara Cemetery). As a writer, Walstab penned many novels and short stories including “Looking Back”, “The Bushranger”, “Double Harness” and legend has it chapters for “Long Odds” (1868) the first novel by Marcus Clarke (Melbourne General Cemetery) a close friend and co-founder of the bohemian Yorick Club; Walstab was with Clarke when he died in 1881. 

However, by 1870 Walstab was bankrupt and after a brief period in Castlemaine, Victoria where he edited the Castlemaine Representative and Chronile, he landed a job under James Casey (q.v.) in the Department of Lands and Survey (1873-80) and by 1880 was said to have been the highest-paid clerk in the department with £400 per annum. A contemporary of Adam Lindsay Gordon (q.v.), Walstab was first editor of Australian Journal founded by Alfred Massina (Boroondara Cemetery) in September 1865 – it was Massina who refused Gordon a loan on the day Gordon committed suicide in 1870.  

He resided at Clarinda Street, Elsternwick and died on 8 February 1909 from chronic ulceration of the legs.

Source: 
ADB Volume 6 1851-90 (R-Z).
The Age 9 February 1909.

Headmaster

Location: CofE*ZF*245

Born at Sherwood, Queensland on 24 March 1872 the son of John Walker, school teacher and first headmaster of Kalkie State School, Bundaberg who had migrated from Scotland in 1862 and Janet née Wilson. Henry was educated at Bundaberg state School and Brisbane Grammar School before studying at Melbourne University (MA, 1892) with first class honours in Logic and Philosophy. 

Soon after graduating he was appointed junior master at “Wadhurst” – Church of England Boys’ Grammar (1895) followed by a number of years at “Cumloden” – Geelong College (1896-1900) before returning to the Senior School staff (1901-18); from senior master in chemistry to headmaster of the Lower School (1911-18), Walker was in the first flight of teachers. Described as one who “could inspire the brilliant, encourage the dull, reform the lazy, and teach the average as very few men can”, in July 1918 he was appointed second headmaster of Grimwade House Preparatory School (1918-24). As a headmaster he selflessly devoted his time to the students, even to the smallest boys “he was always approachable, always unaffected, and always transparently straight-forward…every boy felt that he had in him a friend as well as a headmaster”. 

Walker’s life was tragically cut short on 15 January 1925, aged 52 when he and two others were hit by an unlicensed driver in a Buick vehicle at the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets while returning from Queenscliff; before Chief Justice (Sir) William Irvine (1858-1943) with Hugh Macindoe (q.v.) prosecuting, Rachel May Foster aged 33 was found guilty of manslaughter and fined £250 and given a suspended sentence for life. The Prime Minister Stanley Bruce (1883-1967), a former old boy of the school, attended Walker’s funeral. He was survived by his wife Henrietta (d 1964); the year before his death he published “Matt, jeune australien” (1924).

Source: 
The Argus 16, 17, 19, 21, 30 & 31 January 1925, 3, 21, 24 & 27 February 1925.
The Age 16 January 1925.
The Herald 16 January 1925.
The Melburnian 15 May 1925.
James, A., “A Portrait of Grimwade. The First 75 Years 1918-1993” (1993).
“1918 Grimwade House 1968” (1968).
“A Biographical Register 1788-1939” (Vol II).
Wendy Neaton of Brisbane, first cousin of Henry Walker, three times removed.

(Image reproduced with kind permission of Melbourne Grammar School)

Singer & Comedian

Location: Bap*F*74D

Born John Norman Lett on 20 May 1848 in Collins Street, Melbourne, the son of Richard Lett, a brickmaker and Jane née Williamson; he first earned a living as a clerk and then as a tea-taster and blender. Vernon’s first appearance on stage as a tenor singing “A Bird There Sat on a Hawthorn Spray” caught the eye of the theatre entrepreneur George Coppin (1819-1906) when he pulled a trick on the violinist Johann Kruse (1859-1927) (“My boy, you are a comedian”); and later in 1873 in his first comic opera in a season of “Barbie Bleu” as ‘King Bobeche’. By 1874 Vernon had formed his own company with a small group of singers and toured Australia, New Zealand, India, China, England, America, Singapore and in 1877 to Japan becoming the first European actor to appear in a Japanese theatre.

On his return to Australia Vernon achieved his greatest fame through his performances in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas; such was his fame that he was able to choose “by inheritance of right and merit” any part at a time when the principals were frequently changed. He first played ‘Major-General Stanley’ in “The Pirates of Penzance” (May 1881) followed by ‘Bunthorne’ in “Patience” (December 1881) at the Royal Theatre in Sydney, ‘Ko-Ko’ in “The Mikado” (November 1885), ‘King Hildebrand’ in “Princess Ida” (July 1887), ‘Shadbolt’ in “Yeoman of the Guard” (April 1889) and finally as ‘Don Alhambra’ in “The Gondoliers” (October 1890) at Princess Theatre in Melbourne. 

Twice married to actresses – Mary née Walker (d 1905) and Lavinia néede Loitte (d 1962) – he died at a private hospital in Windsor on 26 July 1921 and was buried near Adam Lindsay Gordon (q.v.) whom he held a lifetime of admiration. High praise came from The Age who reported on his death that “the appreciation in which the late Mr Howard Vernon was held by Melbourne theatregoers will live as long as the Gilbert and Sullivan operas” while Alfred Cellier the conductor of the original orchestra at Savoy Theatre in London who worked with WS Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan spoke of “Vernon’s impersonations stating that they compared most favourably with anything that had been seen in London”.

Source: 
ADB Volume 12 1891-1939 (Smy-Z).
The Argus 27 July 1921.
The Age 27 July 1921.
Table Talk 4 August 1921.
Irvin, E., “Dictionary of the Australian Theatre 1788-1914” (1985).

(Image courtesy La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, A/S12/08/82/245)

Head Gardener

Location: Meth*O*17

Born at Hanover, Germany in 1864, Diedrich Ueckermann served as the Caulfield City Council’s head gardener, a position he held during the Great War. His loyalty to Australia was brought into question prompting this report in the Sandringham Southern Cross:

“The loyalty of Mr Uickerman [sic], head gardener of the Caulfield Council, has been questioned, but after two investigations the Council have expressed their confidence in him. On Tuesday, the Council received a letter from Mrs Perkes, asking that a deputation of women be received to discuss the question. Mrs Dixon also wrote as a Red Cross worker, expressing surprise and indignation that the gardener was still employed, and she considered the employment of Germans in public positions was hindering recruiting. She urged the Council to brush away the cobwebs from their eyes, and put on the cap of reasoning.

The special committee appointed to investigate the matter submitted a declaration, in which the gardener stated he was born in Hanover in 1864, prior to its amalgamation with Germany. His father joined the Hanoverian Army when war was declared on the Prussians, and ten years later, not being satisfied with Prussian rule, sailed for England. At the age of 16 years he (the gardener) left London for Australia, where he had resided ever since. He was naturalised, and had married an Australian-born woman of British parents. He could not speak German; had not corresponded with the German Consul, or anyone in Germany, and his children were taught in the Victorian State schools. He had invested in the War Loan, and by personal effort had assisted the Red Cross Society. Two of his brothers, who took part in the Boer War, were wounded, and were now receiving pensions from the British Government.

Cr Thomson moved the adoption of the report. He hoped that at last the people would be satisfied. The gardener was one of the best servants of the Council. If the gardener were not a loyal subject, he (Cr Thomson) would have resigned long ago.

Cr Wood seconded the motion. He said the gardener and his family had exhibited loyalty in a manner that many of the native-born Australians were not doing.

Cr Phillips said the report was very satisfactory. He ventured to say that no honest ratepayer would ask the Council, in the face of the declaration, to discharge the gardener.

The motion was carried.”

Source: 
Sandringham Southern Cross 10 February 1917 p5.

If you have any further information to add to this biography, please contact us. All contributions will be gratefully acknowledged.

Soldier, Brewer & Murder Victim

Location: CofE*ZH*88

Born at Ballarat, Victoria on 16 April 1883, the eldest son of William Tulloch, brewer (“Tulloch’s Breweries”) and Agnes née Wheeldon, Tulloch was educated at Melbourne Church of England Boys’ Grammar (1897-99) where he distinguished himself as a sportsman; in 1899 as a member of the first eight-oared schoolboys’ race that included Stanley Bruce (1883-1967), future prime minister of Australia, he won the first school boat race rowed in Australia defeating Geelong Grammar. Gaining experience under his father as a brewer, Tulloch was later employed at “R Mark’s & Co”, Maldon (1904-06) and “Swallow Brewery”, Perth (1907-09). At the time of his death he was employed with “Victoria Brewery” in East Melbourne (1919-26). 

At the outbreak of hostilities, Tulloch was a commissioned officer with the citizen forces, and enlisted with the rank of Captain in late January 1915 with the Western Australian-raised 11th Battalion. At the landing at Gallipoli, Tulloch’s name will always live in the annals of Australia’s military history.  With orders inculcated into all officers and other ranks to advance, and when in doubt, to keep advancing, on that fateful morning amid all the chaos and confusion, Tulloch in command of ‘B’ Company found himself and about sixty men on the south-west slope of Battleship Hill – his immediate objective and some 1,000 yards beyond the settled line.  Only one other group that morning managed to gain their objective.

Finding the situation hopeless, Tulloch ordered his men to retire some 500 yards having held the position against all odds for half and hour. While sheltering near the edge of Malone’s Gully he was badly wounded in the leg. He returned to Australia in February 1916 to recuperate and did not return to his unit until October 1917; he was believed to have been gassed during the Second Battle of Passchendaele. Returning to the unit in May 1918, he took part in all the units’ operations until given temporary command of 12th Battalion in September 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross on two separate occasions, the first on 23 August 1918 near Chuignolles, when in charge of two companies to capture Froissy Wood. He led his men with great dash under heavy machine gun fire overcoming all resistance until he gained the objective.

Likewise on 18 September, while in charge of the left attacking company on the Hindenburg Outpost at Hargicourt near Villeret, with two other men he led a spirited assault on two machine gun posts killing the crew with his revolver and enemy stick bombs capturing six prisoners. It was in this battle that Allied intelligence revealed that the German soldier refused to fight against the Australians. He was later promoted to command the 12th Battalion.

Returning home in August 1919, Tulloch continued as a brewer and in 1921 was gazetted Lieut-Colonel, 22nd Battalion, Commonwealth Military Forces; he was also an original member of Legacy. While head rowing coach of Melbourne Boys’ Grammar School (1921-26), he was murdered early on the morning of 8 May 1926 and was accorded a funeral with full military honours; thousands of mourners lined the mile-long funeral procession along St. Kilda Road (“every section of society was represented in the crowd…so still was the throng that the rattle of breach bolts as the cartridges were driven home, was heard to its farthest limits”). On 15 April 1908 in Perth, he married Lilian née Temby (d 1962); they had no children.

Source: 
ADB Volume 12 1891-1939 (Smy-Z).
The Argus 10 & 11 May 1926, 30 June 1926.
The Truth 22 May 1926.
“Liber Melburniensis”, Centenary Edition (1965).
Blatchford, C., “Legacy: The Story of the Melbourne Legacy Club” (1932).
Kiddle, J. (ed), “War Services of Old Melburnians 1914-18” (1923).
Bean, C., “The Official History of Australia in the War 1914-18”.
AWM “Biographical Cards for the Official History 1914-18”, AWM140.

(Image reproduced with kind permission of Melbourne Grammar School)

Artist

Location: RC*G*289

One of Australia’s greatest artists, Tucker was born on 29 December 1914 at 90 Francis Street, Yarraville, the youngest of three children to John Tucker a railway worker and Clara née Davis; his paternal grandfather Albert Edwin Tucker (Melbourne General Cemetery) was a politician and prominent Fitzroy identity. Growing up as a kid of the depression era in Malvern, Tucker left the local Spring Road state school at the age of fifteen (“a lively, cocky kid”) with eyes set on becoming an artist; he found work in commercial art at “Foy and Gibson’s” (“pure exploitation”) and after a series of similar positions found it tedious and repetitive as a career.  

Tucker’s training as an artist in the 1930s was informal, largely self-taught and influenced by Marxism; fastidious, fearlessly independent and self-absorbed with a combative personality, his first turning point came in 1937 when he enrolled in art school, gave up full time work and achieved critical public recognition at the Victorian Artists’ Society autumn exhibition for “Self Portrait” (1937) (“confrontational, haunted and passionately self-conscious”). But financial success eluded Tucker until the early 1960s making for a long period of precarious living largely supported by the generous patronage of John and Sunday Reed née Baillieu who were both committed to modern contemporary art through the creation of Heide (1935-81). Described as the ‘technician’ of the 1940s “Angry Penguins” group of artists that included Arthur Boyd (q.v.), John Perceval (q.v.), and (Sir) Sidney Nolan (d 1992), Tucker’s paintings often focussed on the unrest and savagery of the times.  

In 1941, he married fellow artist Joy Hester (Box Hill Cemetery) (“sunny, casual and extrovert”); his self-absorption and obsession with Hester during the ten years they were together would both inspire Tucker’s art to a new level and leave an emotional labyrinth of feelings in which his art would never fully recover from. His thirty-odd “Images of Modern Evil” series (1943-47), depicting the sordid behaviour of prostitution and soldiers on leave during WWII with its signature crescent mouth icon are his greatest works of art; inspired by his reactions to his time at Heidelberg Military Hospital during his short stint in the army (“brutish, unsavoury environment”), the Leonski ‘brownout’ murders (May 1942) and the images of wartime Melbourne, the series “quivers with ambivalence and sexual tension, pleasure and terror, fear and loathing”.

Hester’s sudden departure in 1947 left Tucker (“a man whom she respected but was not in love with”) with a yearning to get away from Australia; he spent the next thirteen years in Europe and America but financial success continued to elude him. Still scrambling to survive as an artist with a terrifying sense of failure, Tucker’s return to Australia in 1960 coincided with the rise of commercial galleries and a boom in Australian art that would deliver Tucker not just the financial success that had evaded him for nearly three decades but also prominence and reputation in the art world. But while his time overseas had hardened his resolve as an artist it had also weakened his confidence and his art never reached the critical heights of the “Images” series. Along with Nolan, Tucker popularised modern art in Australia through his ‘antipodean images’ – Tucker with his “Explorer” series (1958); and Nolan with the famed “Ned Kelly” paintings.  

Shortly before his death on 23 October 1999, Tucker and his second wife Barbara née Bilcock endowed the Heide Museum of Modern Art more than two hundred works totalling $15 million.

Source: 
Burke, J., “Australian Gothic. A life of Albert Tucker” (2002).

(Image by permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an23531481)

Cricketer

Location: Meth*H*11

Of the test cricketers interred at Brighton General Cemetery who played for Australia – Laver (q.v.), Ransford (q.v.) and Moule (q.v.) – Harry Trott had the distinction of captaining the national team (1896-98) as well as the first to preside over a series defeat of England. Born at Vere Street, Collingwood, Melbourne on 5 August 1866, Trott was the son of Adolphus Trott, an accountant and Mary née Stephens; his younger brother Albert (1873-1914) also played for Australia as an all-rounder in three tests averaging 102.5 runs.  

Harry’s rise as a cricketer began when he first played for Victoria in 1885-86 and went on to win the second Sheffield Shield competition defeating arch-rival New South Wales by three wickets in 1893-94. It was in 1888 that Trott first played for Australia against England at Lord’s in a forgettable debut, averaging just six runs; a further tour in 1890 was no less spectacular, Australia losing 2-0 with Trott averaging 19 runs. 

As a batsmen and a handy bowler, Trott excelled when the game demanded a leaders role and by 1896 he was appointed captain of the side in the first of eight tests (5 wins, 3 losses) but an English series defeat still eluded Australia; during the tour the team won 20 of 34 first-class matches drawing eight, only for England to win the series 2-1. Rated by Hugh Trumble (1867-1938) as the best captain to have led Australia, Trott had an uncanny ability to exploit opponents’ weaknesses and established himself as a tactical captain. His finest hour came during the 1897-98 tour at home when he won the series 4-1 heralding the renaissance of Australian cricket. His tactical planning was useful against the Indian-born run machine Kumar Ranjitsinhji by playing two fieldsman ten metres on the off-side with a deep man to save a boundary; while not an overwhelming success it resulted in ‘Ranji’ being caught five times. Trott confessed to doctors to losing sight in one eye during the fifth test in Sydney and he played his last match only to suffer a mental breakdown. Overall, Trott’s record of 24 tests stood at 921 runs at 21.92, 1-100s and 7-50s, 21 catches and 29 wickets for 1019 (av 35.13). 

Loved and well respected by many people, Trott died from Hodgkins disease on 9 November 1917 at the age of 51. He resided at 40 Phillipson Street, Albert Park.

Source: 
ADB Volume 12 1891-1939 (Smy-Z).
The Argus 10 August 1898 & 12 November 1917.

(Image courtesy La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, IAN/01/04/95/13)

Senator, Trade Unionist, Labour Renegade & Bootmaker

Location: Pres*S*60

Born to convict parents on 15 July 1846 at Launceston, Tasmania the son of William Trenwith, a shoemaker and Beatrice née McBarrett; he followed his father’s trade and by his late teens was unschooled, barely literate and handicapped with atrocious eyesight. But Trenwith possessed two remarkable gifts that was to make for a remarkable life: a flair for organising and a sharp oratory tongue. With a loose coalition of groups that made up the National Reform League he agitated for protective tariff, a land tax and reform of the Legislative Council; he fiercely defended the action of (Sir) Graham Berry (Boroondara Cemetery) in the ‘Black Wednesday’ troubles of January 1878 that saw many public servants dismissed without distinction including H Byron Moore (q.v.). 

The following year he founded the Bootmakers’ Union later serving as its secretary (from 1883) where he gained a reputation as a militant organiser during the great 1884-85 lockout; he fought for the abolition of out-work to eliminate cheap labour. By 1886, he was president of the Victorian Trades Hall Council and a hero in the labour movement but friction remained within the Executive that would threaten his relationship with the rank and file members. Later during the 1892 maritime strike he proved a shrewd strategist but much of the radicalism had gone and he argued for compulsory arbitration over violence. 

After a number of attempts to enter the political arena, Trenwith was elected in May 1889 with George Bennett (Boroondara Cemetery) to the double-member seat of Richmond (1889-1903) where he championed the cause of the working class seeking reforms in education, unemployment and tariff protection that would remain his abiding obsession throughout his political career. But as the lone labour representative until April 1892 when an additional thirteen labour-aligned members were elected, his reforms were ineffective and attempts to introduce bills for an eight-hour working day were easily defeated; in (Sir) George Turner’s (St. Kilda Cemetery) Liberal ministry, Trenwith aligned the support of the labour members and served on royal commissions on constitutional reform (1894) and factory legislation (1900). But Trenwith’s shift to the left alienated him from the radicals within the Trades Hall and from the mid 1890s he could no longer rely on the support of the labour movement. Nonetheless, he served as Minister for Railways, commissioner for Public Works and vice-president of the Board of Land and Works (Nov 1900-Feb 1901) in the (Sir Alexander) Peacock (Creswick Cemetery) ministry and briefly as Chief Secretary (1901-02). 

Trenwith is best remembered as being the only Labour representative at the Federal Constitutional Convention (1897-98) that led to the Federation of the six Australian colonies in 1901. As the sole representative of the working class, Trenwith’s support of Federation much to the outrage of the labour movement was considered crucial to the success of the subsequent referendum against the charge by the powerful Age newspaper that the Bill had been “wholly shaped in a conservative direction”; he argued passionately at the Convention on the benefits of protection, adult suffrage, and proportional representation. Alfred Deakin (St. Kilda Cemetery) wrote of Trenwith;

“master of a sledge-hammer style of oratory, very loud, very forcible and very logical, he softened away its excrescences of violence, watched and studied the temper of the House and gradually allowed his way through its crowd of speakers into the front rank of its debaters”. 

Trenwith later went on to become an Independent Federal Senator (1903-10) but committed the fatal sin of withdrawing his support from Andrew Fischer’s (1862-1928) Labour government and was defeated at the next election. 

Residing at Tamar – Staughton Road, South Camberwell he died on 26 July 1925 survived by his third wife, Helen née Sinclair.

Source: 
ADB Volume 12 1891-1939 (Smy-Z).
Lahey, J., “Faces of Federation. An Illustrated History” (2000).
Lumsden, D. (ed), “Sands & McDougall’s Victorian Parliamentary Companion” (1889).
Sayers, C., “David Syme. A Life” (1965).
Deakin, A., “The Federal Story. The Inner History of the Federal Cause 1880-1900” (1963).
The Argus 26 March 1910, 28 & 29 July 1925.
The Herald 29 July 1925.

(Image by permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an21399820-35)

Barrister

Location: CofE*E*12

Born on 13 June 1850 at Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England the youngest son of Samuel Topp, a wool-importer and Sarah née Clapham; Topp’s two elder brothers were Arthur Maning (St. Kilda Cemetery), a journalist with The Argus and Australasian, and Charles Alfred (Boroondara Cemetery) who had a distinguished career as an educationist and civil servant. Before migrating to Melbourne in 1861 some three years after his family, young Topp attended Kind Edward’s School, Birmingham later continuing at Church of England Boys’ Grammar School, Melbourne (1862-65); forced to leave school early, he worked as a legal clerk with (Justice) George Webb (Melbourne General Cemetery) and studied at night to attain his matriculation before entering Melbourne University (LL.B, 1877; BA, 1878). He was admitted to the Bar on 13 September 1877.  

Topp had a brilliant career as a leading Equity barrister. His most successful case was the famed Oriental Banking Corporation (1884) before Justice (Sir Robert) Molesworth (Boroondara Cemetery); a winding-up order had been obtained in England but it had never been tested whether such an order was valid in the colony. Of vital importance was the question whether the colonial courts could act independently of the decision already arrived at by the English court on the same issue; Topp appeared in support of the application and won in a long and gruelling case. In the Bell vs Clarke case (1886) that lasted for some 21 days, £1,000,000 was at stake leading to the retirement of Justice Molesworth from the Bench before he stood in judgement (“How long am I to be tortured by this case?”). Renowned for his “slightly audacious” court manner, witty speech and outspoken views on social issues, Table Talk noted that;

“like all successful Equity men, Topp does not aspire to be an orator. He does not possess the forensic ability of Mr [James] Purves (1843-1910), or the calm and dignified power of Dr [Sir John] Madden (Melbourne General Cemetery), nor are these qualities required in his particular branch of the profession…the successful man in Equity must be possessed of ‘staying’ powers; he must be able to talk for days on dry legal law”.

Twice married (Mary née Chesterton in 1876; Emma née Dunn in 1881), Topp died at his residence Langdale– Seymour Road, Elsternwick on 1 August 1902 after a sudden seizure the week before; amongst the pallbearers to attend his funeral were Sir Samuel Gillott (Melbourne General Cemetery), (Sir) Leo Cussen (Boroondara Cemetery), Henry Bournes Higgins (Dromana Cemetery), and Sir Frank Duffy (1852-1936). A daughter, Sarah, married Archibald Gilchrist (b 1877), Xavier College 1891-93 and Melbourne University.

Source: 
ADB Volume 6 1851-90 (R-Z).
Table Talk 22 July 1892.
The Australasian 20 November 1897.
The Argus 2 & 4 August 1902.
The Age 4 August 1902.
Corfield, J & Persse, M., “Geelong Grammarians. A Biographical Register Vol I 1855-1913” (1996).