Alexander Tolmer Adelaide Observer, Saturday 15 March 1890. OBITUARY. DEATH OF CAPTAIN TOLMER, AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER. We regret exceedingly to announce the death in his seventy-fifth year of Captain Alexander Tolmer, K.T.S., which occurred at his residence, Mitcham, at about noon on Friday, March 7. The immediate cause of death was inflammation of the brain. Until quite recently Captain Tolmer was seen in his accustomed vigorous health, a familiar figure in the city, often observed riding in the streets. A week before his death, however, he was taken seriously ill, and though he seemed much better on the Wednesday, and was able to sit up, a relapse took place, with the result stated. By Mr. Tolmer's death the colony has lost one of its most enterprising pioneers, to whom it owes a great deal for its advancement. The career of the deceased gentleman was full of adventure; a career with which were associated many of the vicissitudes experienced in the early days of colonial settlement, and, indeed, with many stirring events which have characterized the colony throughout its history. Mr. Tolmer was born in England in 1815. His mother died when he was an infant, and he was sent to France in charge of relatives. Leaving France at eight years of age he went to Plymouth, where his father was a professor and teacher of languages. He was placed in the local Grammar school, and making rapid progress he quickly obtained a good knowledge of English. Thus early, too, under the tuition of Collins, the celebrated violinist, known afterwards as the 'English Paganini,' he learnt to play the violin, and was up to the time of his death an efficient performer upon that instrument. For some years young Tolmer studied in the Military School at Rouen, in France, which he left at the age of thirteen to enter the Grammar School at Maidstone. At the time Professor Tolmer and some other relatives were instrumental in inducing the late Earl of Beaconsfield to stand for Maidstone in the Conservative interest. Mr. Disraeli consented to do so, and was returned. In his reminiscences published a few years ago Captain Tolmer says: I remember Lord Beaconsfield on this occasion. He was quite a young man, tall and handsome, with long flowing black curls. Longing for more active pursuits young Tolmer ran away from school at fifteen. He was captured, however, and to cure his love for adventure was sent by his friends to sea. The treatment he received aboard the wretched craft sickened him, and partly because of his liking for more active pursuits he went as an articled pupil for three years. Again, he disliked his situation, and reading in the newspapers about an expedition fitting out in England under the auspices of Donna Maria to go against Don Miguel in Portugal he enlisted in the cavalry of the British Legion. Landing close to the Castle of San Juan in Oporto he joined the lancers under the command of Colonel Bacon, the husband of Lady Charlotte Bacon, who at one time was well known in Adelaide, where she lived. Oporto shortly after Mr. Pointer's arrival was in great stress through the siege kept up by the troops of Don Miguel, and the fare was so scant that a slice of dog, well peppered, devilled, and fried in a little oil and butter on the lid of a mess tin, was considered a luxurious repast. Cats were also at a great premium for food. The pressure for food was so great that the foraging parties made sorties to steal turnips from fields which were exposed to the full fire of the enemy. On one occasion the youthful soldier on going through the streets saw a little boy and girl at play, and hearing the sound of an approaching shell he seized the children by the arm, rushed into an adjoining house, and slammed the door after him. The shell exploded immediately. These two children were none other than the son and daughter of Lady Charlotte Bacon, and when in Adelaide in 1881 Frank Cates, the popular actor, thanked Mr. Tolmer for preserving in this campaign the life of his (Cates's) mother. The English soldiers on the Peninsula were chafing under the restraint incidental to a beleaguered city, and amongst other rash things they did was rushing out when the shell dropped to pull the fuse out before it exploded. The authorities offered a pound each for all the shells which were saved from bursting. Mr. Tolmer had many narrow escapes in the active service which followed, especially in the guerilla skirmishes. After the siege of Oporto, he suffered numerous escapes of his life, and was praised along the lines for his dashing bravery. At the age of seventeen he was made corporal. In the severe engagement at Alimda his horse was shot from under him, and he was very severely wounded. It may be mentioned that whilst going off the field to the hospital he met Mr. Inman, afterwards associated with him in the South Australian Police Force. Whilst lying ill in the hospital at Oporto Corporal Tolmer was decorated by Don Pedro with the Order of the Tower and Sword in consideration of his having remained throughout the siege, and having been one of the few lancers who accompanied the Duke and captured Lisbon. In a skirmish near Pernes Mr. Tolmer was again wounded in the leg and also in the head. Returning to Lisbon he was an unwilling witness to an attack of cholera, when people who were dying from the disease were bundled in scores into trenches which were filled up with quicklime. Whilst here he distinguished himself as a swimmer, even beating the feat of Leander and Lord Byron in crossing the Hellespont. Mr. Tolmer was six hours in the water, and had to contend with conflicting currents as he swam amongst the shipping, and though he was near to death whilst performing the feat, he was wont to add in reciting the affair, 'Anyhow, I won the bet'. In due course Alexander Tolmer sailed for England. The ship was driven about for days by gales, heavy rains falling all the while. Mr. Tolmer returned to Maidstone. Shortly afterwards he entered an Academy at Guineas, near Calais, and on his return to England joined the 16th Lancers. Maidstone was the depot for the cavalry regiments serving in India, and was also the establishment where a corporal and private from the regiments in the British army were for the time detached to perfect themselves in equitation and the use of every arm in the service. Before he had been eighteen months in the barracks Mr. Tolmer twice passed examinations in equitation and the sword, carbine, and lance exercise. He was appointed corporal. Transferred from the 16th Lancers to the staff as sergeant he was appointed by the General Commandant as riding master and drill instructor in the yard, in which position he suggested certain improvements in the sword exercise, which were authorized by the Commandant. At this time, it is worthy of notice that he gave full play to his artistic powers, and a painting of his in Summerfield, taken from one of Rubens's pictures, was presented to the Queen. At the age of twenty-one he was placed in the responsible position of Superintendent of all drills in the yard and Acting Adjutant. A better appointment offered, which by seniority should have been given to Mr. Tolmer, but as it was conferred upon another officer, he was so disgusted that he resigned from the service and came to South Australia. On arrival in those days people found Port Adelaide in a very primitive condition. There were no wharfs or other facilities for landing passengers who were carried on shore on the backs of sailors, luggage being thrown on to the beach. On February 19, Mr. Tolmer was gazetted Inspector of Mounted Police, and shortly afterwards he was appointed Inspector of Mounted and Rural Police. In the same year, upon the establishment of the local Volunteer Militia, he was chosen Adjutant of Cavalry, with the rank of Captain. When he joined the state of the Police Force was not very creditable, and chiefly owing to the want of action in preventing escaped convicts from the other colonies overrunning this colony the crime records were appalling. Cattle-stealing was carried on to a terrible extent by these people. Captain Tolmer's first capture of special note was that of some cattle-stealers in the Mount Lofty Ranges. Subsequently he made a daring arrest of cattle-stealers in the Black Forest, on the Holdfast Bay Road. Towards the end of 1840 he arrested a notorious character named Stag, who was subsequently hanged in Adelaide for the murder of a fellow burglar named Gofton. In the capture of this man assistance was given by a trooper named Lomas, and many will remember that a great sensation was caused by the unfounded report that Lomas had years after confessed that he had killed Gofton, and that Stag was hanged innocently. In July, 1840, the murder of some twenty-six white people by the blacks in Encounter Bay was reported. These people were the crew and passengers of the Maria, which left Port Adelaide on June 7, bound for Hobart, Tasmania. Captain Tolmer took an active part in the arrest and subsequent punishment of the ringleaders in the murder, and also recovered and properly buried the bodies of the victims. In connection with this expedition he performed valorous feats at the risk of his life in swimming across the lakes to procure the capture of some of the black fellows. Captain Tolmer had a mechanical as well as an artistic turn of mind. While at the Murray Mouth it occurred to him that if some contrivance were devised the strong current would clear and deepen for itself a passage sufficient to allow vessels drawing from ten to fifteen feet of water to enter the river at all times with perfect safety, and to accomplish this he suggested a plan for a breakwater. He had several skirmishes with the blacks, who were then very ferocious in the neighbourhood of the North West Bend, and in fact was the means of rescuing several overland parties from death or from the loss of their sheep and cattle. In 1842 Mr. Tolmer was requested by Governor Gray to illustrate a book on South Australia, which His Excellency was writing, but the Governor was removed before he could finish the task. Captain Tolmer's illustrations were, however, used in the late Mr. G. French Angas' work dealing with South Australia. About this time Captain Tolmer was sent out to investigate murders by the Port Lincoln blacks, and to strengthen the Police Force in that district. These duties he carried out in such a way as to earn the commendation not only of those in his department but of the Governor and the Government. In this expedition, too, he sustained his ever-reckless bravery and met with some of his usual ill-luck, as he was nearly killed by a fall from his horse near Mount Arden. Returning from Port Lincoln, he went to Encounter Bay, where the native tribes were doing their utmost to slaughter each other. It is noteworthy of him that on one occasion he ran between two bodies as they were hurling spears and waddies, and came out of the melee without serious injury. In 1843 the police party, under Captain Tolmer, made a capture of a negro robber named Dyer, who for a long time inhabited a cave at Brownhill Creek, Mitcham, where the late Mr. Tolmer's residence stands. In the same year he was instrumental also in stopping to a great extent the smuggling carried on at different localities along the coast between Noarlunga and Port Adelaide. While camping on the sand between the Coorong and the sea he noticed the fibrous properties of an indigenous plant called the Leptospermum platiada, and subsequently demonstrated for the benefit of the community that it formed the raw material for an excellent paper. Hundreds of tons of paper are at present made from it in Melbourne. He further discovered like properties in what is commonly known as the cutting grass. At the risk of his life Captain Tolmer pursued and caught some desperate characters who had settled upon Kangaroo Island, amongst them being Gilkes; and in one of these expeditions he discovered gold in a fresh water creek on the island. He had a hand-to-hand encounter with a man named McDonald, who, observing the captain asleep, was about to blow his brains out when Captain Tolmer awoke and handcuffed him. In the contest McDonald severely injured Captain Tolmer, who, retaliating, struck McDonald with such force as to knock the knuckle of his third finger right in, and it remained in that condition till the day of the man's death. In 1844 the Captain distinguished himself by arresting a number of murderers on Yorke's Peninsula. He was in November 1846, sent to Tasmania to arrest a defaulter named Anderson, who had proceeded thither after swindling a number of people here, and performed that duty with his customary ability. Following up his work into which he was thrown through his prominent connection with the Civil Service, we come to the fact that in July 1847, Captain Tolmer opened up an improved overland mail route between Adelaide and the other colonies. In the next year his principal exploit was the capture, at imminent danger, of several bushrangers from Tasmania, near Oyster Bay, Yorke's Peninsula. The prisoners were afterwards hanged at Hobert. In 1849, during an expedition to Port Lincoln to bring to justice the murderers of Hawson and others, Captain Tolmer discovered a prolific bed of oysters in Coffin's Bay, and reported on an extensive bed of guano in the neighbourhood. In August of the same year the Commissioner of Police (the late Mr. Dashwood) resigned his position, and Captain Tolmer was appointed to temporarily fill it. He held the office for fifteen months, and when Mr. Dashwood resumed his duties, Captain Tolmer was complimented upon the way in which he had performed the work. Among other things which he did for the benefit of the police was the establishment of a Superannuation Fund. Mr. Dashwood continued Commissioner of Police but for a short period, and upon his retirement in January, 1852, Captain Tolmer was permanently appointed to supply the vacancy. In 1851 the discovery of gold in Victoria almost depopulated South Australia, indeed, in a very short time most of the business establishments were closed and even sanguine people believed that prosperity had left the colony. It was about this time that the Bullion Act was passed in Parliament. Captain Tolmer suggested the establishment of a police escort to enable the South Australian diggers on the Victorian goldfields to transmit their earnings to their wives and friends here without leaving their claims. The escort was established, and conducted by Captain Tolmer with extraordinary energy and success. When Captain Tolmer and his comrades arrived at the goldfields they were hailed by the miners with intense enthusiasm, and when they returned to Adelaide laden with gold they were applauded and feted with extraordinary unanimity. Their entry into the city was like a triumphal procession. Not alone had Captain Tolmer conducted the escort to and from Victoria, but he had opened up a better means of communication between the colonies. His ability was such that he was offered the position of Chief Commissioner of Police in Melbourne, and he was also made a Justice of the Peace for Victoria. Under his personal supervision three trips were made to Victoria, and gold to the value of 90,000 pounds were thus brought to the colony, exclusive of an enormous quantity subsequently brought over. Throughout the colony the name of Tolmer was held in high esteem. By his efforts Adelaide, which had been deserted, gradually recovered its lost population, shops which had been shut were opened, and tradesmen who had day after day nothing whatever to do were kept busy. In fact, the turning point of the colony came. In a very short time after the establishment of the escort the flood tide of prosperity was even greater than the ebbing adversity which but a very brief period before had set in. Leading citizens subscribed testimonials and money; Parliament voted a sum, and Captain Tolmer was entertained at a banquet at Government House, at which his health was proposed by the Governor, Sir Henry Young. Amongst other presents were a gold watch and a hundred guineas. Just now internal dissensions seriously affected the efficiency of the Police Force, and in July, 1853, Captain Tolmer was reduced to the position of Inspector. The question of Captain Tolmer's disrating need not be entered upon now, as many colonists knew that he was badly treated, and that opinion was endorsed by the leading papers in Adelaide at the time. To the new office of Superintendent, which the Government created, Captain Tolmer was appointed, and among his varied duties he had the control of city fires. In 1856 Captain Tolmer's services as Superintendent were dispensed with, and he left the force on a retiring allowance. This proceeding on the part of the Government caused very bitter denunciations at public meetings and in the press, and led to the presentation of numerous petitions to the House and the Governor. Upon retiring from the police, Captain Tolmer began trading with a small cutter between Milang and Goolwa, carrying stores for the residents; but he soon stopped this, as it did not pay. In 1859 he completed a party to be led by himself to cross the Continent from the southern to the northern seas, arranging with the Government to fit out a schooner to meet the expedition in the Gulf of Carpentaria. From various causes, chiefly to the death of horses and lack of water, the party fell through and it was never revived, heavy financial loss to Captain Tolmer being the result. When he retired from his official position in the Police Department Captain Tolmer was granted a pension under the Superannuation Act, and he received this until 1858, when a repealing measure was passed abolishing compensation and granting each person in receipt of same a bonus of 550 pounds. Captain Tolmer started a sheep station on the Long Desert, in the South-East, but this speculation ended disastrously. In 1862 he accepted the appointment of Crown Lands Ranger, an office which was changed five years afterwards to the post of Crown Lands Valuator, which position he held till 1885. In 1884 Parliament made some provision in recognition of Mr. Tolmer's services. In 1885 he retired on account of ill-health, drawing the usual allowance, and in the same year the Assembly voted him a gratuity of 1,000 pounds. Since his retirement he lived at Mitcham. Buying largely into Broken Hill mining shares Captain Tolmer was fortunate in securing to himself and family a very comfortable competence. In 1889 the deceased gentleman visited the scenes of his youth and of his exploits on the Continent, and colonists will remember his pride when he returned privileged to wear the insignia of the Order of the Tower and Sword, with which he had been decorated, but which he had not obtained permission to wear. The deceased gentleman was a remarkable man even in his later days. He was an accomplished horse man and a splendid swordsman, and when in the colony never missed attending Militia Camps. Captain Tolmer leaves several sons and daughter in the colony. He was twice married, and leaves a widow and family. The funeral of the late Captain Tolmer, K.T.S., who died at Mitcham on Friday, took place on Sunday afternoon, March 9, and was attended with military and police honours in recognition of his many years' active and prominent service in connection with the forces. The extremely hot weather was no doubt the cause of the absence of a number of public and official men and old colonists, who were intimately acquainted with the deceased gentleman. However, the inhabitants of the town and District of Mitcham, where Captain Tolmer resided, turned out in full strength to pay their last tribute to his memory, and there were indeed many manifestations of mourning over the loss of the worthy colonist. Between 2 and 3 in the afternoon, trams left Victoria Square for Mitcham crowded with members of the Defense and Police Forces and citizens, and by 4 o'clock the soldiers and policemen were drawn up at the gates of the Mitcham Church yard to await the arrival of the body. The remains of the deceased, conveyed on a gun carriage in charge of a detachment of the field artillery, were removed from Belle Vue, the residence at Upper Mitcham, to St. Michael's Church, where the Incumbent (the Rev. F. W. Scammell) read the service for the dead in the presence of a crowded congregation. The coffin was then replaced on the military carriage and the procession formed. Two troopers mounted on horseback led the way. Then came the firing party, comprised of members of the Permanent Force under Lieutenant Hawker, followed by the Police and Military Bands under Bandmasters Howlett and Youlton respectively. Immediately behind was the Incumbent, and next the appropriately draped gun-carriage bearing the coffin which was literally covered with beautiful floral wreaths, on either side of the vehicle being Captains Dean and Bowell, of the Lancers, and Inspectors Hunt and Sullivan, of the Police, as pall-bearers. Next in order came the chief mourners; Mr. Alexander Tolmer (a son), the sons and daughters of the second marriage, and others. Behind these walked eighty foot-police and a dozen mounted troopers, followed by a large muster of nearly every branch of the Militia, the officers bringing up the rear. As the cortege left the Church the 'Dead March in Saul' was played on the organ, and by the bands with muffled drums to the cemetery. The route was lined with people and carriages, and at the pretty Church of England Cemetery at Upper Mitcham crowds of persons, including a host of young folks, assembled to witness the burial. Reaching the entrance to the Cemetery the firing party and the band extended and the coffin was taken through the lines up the hillside to the grave. Around this stood old colonists from far and near and a crush of people, almost all available standing room being occupied. The Rev. F.W. Samwell conducted the burial service, and afterwards the customary volley was fired over the grave; the solemn and impressive ceremony ending with the Military Band playing 'Go Bury thy Sorrow.' Those present at the grave, besides those already mentioned included Major-General Downes, Brigade Major Lovett, Captain Tomkinson, A.D.C., and Veterinary-Surgeon Bickford (Staff), Lieutenant-Colonel Madley, Majors Plummer, Bowell, and Ferguson, Captains Taylor and Foster, and Lieutenants Bickford, Cate, Downes, Nelson, Thomas, Hughes, Smith, and Morley, of the Militia, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. W.J. Peterswald and Sub-Inspector Shaw; Messrs. A.S. Neill (Railway Commissioner) and T. Duffield (Crown Lands Department). Other relatives of the deceased were prevented from attending through being in the country. *** If you would like to find out more, please go to HOME PAGE for more information. Thank you for visiting Flinders Ranges Research, We hope you enjoy your stay and find the information useful. This site has been designed and is maintained by FRR.