- Details
- Transcribed by unknown author unknown author
- Edition: Sat 30th Dec 1882 Sat 30th Dec 1882
Departure Of A Keswick Character
Mr Thos Moore Edmondson, better known as "Tommy Moore," who has for many
years been a notable character at the Lake Side both as a boatman and
fisherman , left Keswick on Tuesday with his family to seek a new home in the
rising colony of Queensland Australia. Blunt as Tommy is in his manner he
has a kind heart and his straight forward ways won for him a list of friends
among the visitors as well as his more immediate neighbours who recognised
in him the "rough diamond".
Only last summer there was occasion for Tommy to show how he could feel for
others in distress. When that poor young fellow from Egremont
was drowned in the lake Tommy dragged almost incessantly until the body was
found not that he had any hope of reward for the friends were but in humble
circumstances but because he saw and could not help: but pity the sorrow
into which they were thrown. A large crowd assembled at the railway station
to witness the departure of Tommy and his family by the 4-15pm train. Among
them were all his more familiar chums some of whom seemed to have had a
feeling akin to that of Lord Byron when he wrote slightly altered:
Thy boat is on the shore
And thy bark is on the sea
But before thou go,st Tom Moore
Here,s a double health to thee
As soon as Tommy was comfortably seated in the train the Volunteer Band who
went into the station purposely commenced to play " Should auld aquaintance
be forgot," and the strain was continued as the engine steamed slowly from
the platform. The scene was not without its pathetic side and a good few
were affected even to tears at the parting with an old friend. Three other
young fellows left Keswick by the noon train, John Johnson, J P Wilson and
a young man from Portinscale and will sail in the same ship the Earl
Granville for Brisbane .