Benjamin Bryant, Cornwall & Australia FMF

Name: Benjamin Bryant
Date and place of birth: 29 January 1851, Altarnun, near Bodmin Moor, Cornwall
Names of parents: Joseph Bryant and Anna Ford
Date and place of baptism : 5th May, 1851 C of E Altarnun, Cornwall
Marriage: 2 March 1875 Stawell, Victoria
Occupation: “Captain Bryant is one of a mining family, his two brothers, Mr Robert Ford Bryant, J.P., of Ballarat, Vic., and Captain Joseph Bryant, manager of the Morning Star Mine, at Mt Magnet, being well known mining identities, and his father and uncle managed some of the best known mines in Cornwall. Leaving for Australia in 1871, he has had nearly 30 years of practical mining in Australasia. A native of Cornwall, Captain Bryant had many years experience in the copper, tin, lead and silver mines of his native country. He was the Manager of Adeline and Mascott Mines, Drake, NSW. He took charge of the Premier Gold Mine (Kunanalling, WA) in September, 1898, having resigned his position at the Gibralter Gold Mine, Adelong, NSW, in order to accept the new post above mentioned”.
Military service: Nil
Addresses where they lived : Broadlane, Altarnun, Cornwall: 1851 Census aged 2 months; and 1861 Census – 10 years.
Shipping; Not confirmed "Colonial Enterprise" 1871.
Stawell and Ballarat, Victoria; Drake and Adelong, NSW; Kunanalling and Leederville, WA
Date, place and cause of death: 11 September 1910 Perth, Western Australia “The adjourned inquiry (concerning the death of Benjamin Bryant, 59 years of age, who died on September 11 as a result of injuries received whilst working in a sewer at East Perth) was continued yesterday afternoon before Mr H J Holland, J.P., acting coroner and a jury. Sergeant Kingston conducted the inquiry, and Mr A D Stone for the Crown, Joseph Bennett, an engineer, said that on September 2 he was in charge of the sewerage works in Primrose street, at East Perth. On that day about half-past 10 deceased was working in a trench timbering. Witness was about three yards from the trench, and heard a click. He knew that some steel girders had to be removed. In removing the girders a traversing jack had also to be removed. He produced a plan of the jack. After hearing the click he looked down the trench and saw Bryant in the bottom seemingly unconscious. The trench was about 1 ft deep. Bryant was badly cut on the left side of the head and was bleeding. Dr Officer, who was called to the scene, ordered Bryant to be removed to the hospital. Witness could not say how Bryant received the injuries. To a Jury man: There was nothing lying on the deceased's head. The jack was lying about four feet away from Bryant. It was the deceased's duty to release the jack, and he had often done so. The weight of the jack was approximately 35 lb. To Mr Stone: Deceased was cautioned to be careful when removing the jack. To a Jury man: The steel girders could not fall when the jack was released. Dr Tymms, superintendent of the Perth Public Hospital, said that when Bryant was admitted to the institution on September 2 he was suffering from severe scalp wounds, and was unconscious. He afterwards became more unconscious, and became paralysed in the left arm and leg, and became comatose. Bryant died on September 11. He made a post-mortem examination, and had come to the conclusion that the cause of death was coma, subsequent on laceration and concussion of the brain. The injuries could have been caused by a fall from a height or else by something falling on him. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence to show how the accident occurred.” (Family story is that he was helping his son who was an engineer with council)
Date and place of burial: Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth Probate and administration. Perth, Oct. 30 1910. The following probates and letters of administration have been lodged at the Supreme Court during the past week : — Probate: Benjamin Bryant, late of Leederville, mine manager, to Catherine Mary Bryant, £595/ 9/4.
Memorial inscription: On Wife Catherine’s Headstone in Tenterfield NSW written across the top of the two –
“THE BIRD OF TIME HAS BUT A LITTLE WAY TO FLY” ALSO OUR LOVING FATHER BENJAMIN BRYANT INTERRED 13TH SEPT. 1910 IN KARRAKATTA, W.A.