Walter Duggan (1898 - 1934)

Born 1898 in Brunnerton, Grey, West Coast, New Zealand

Ancestors

Died Dec 1934 at about age 36 in Ahaura, Grey, West Coast, New Zealand

Biography

Walter was born in 1898. He was the son of Francis Duggan and Isabella Fisher. ^[1]

He died in a mining accident in 1934.

MINING TRAGEDY

MR W. DUGGAN THE VICTIM. FALL OF DEBRIS IN A CUTTING. :Buried under a fall of stone in a claim at Riverview, near Ahaura, where he was working alone, Mr Walter Duggan, 35, single, of Runanga, was killed, apparently late on Tuesday afternoon. The old claim, which he was working under the gold subsidy scheme comprised a tunnel, leading a cutting, about 30 feet deep. When last seen alive, at 2 o ’clock on Tuesday afternoon he was working in this cutting. He did not return home from the claim, as was his usual practice, at 7.30 p.m. and a search party as organised. An inspection of the claim revealed that there had been a fall of sandstone in the cutting, and Duggan’s body was recovered at four o’clock yesterday morning, buried under the fall. His brother, Robert, had been working with him on the claim, but was away on Tuesday. The cutting was not where the deceased had been working, but where previously work had been done in order that when rain came it would assist to clear the cutting. The deceased, iwhen rain came, went into the cutting to observe the effect, and it was some time between 2.30 and 4.0 on Tuesday that the fall of debris occurred whereby he lost his life.

The late Mr Duggan was in his youth a noted boxer. He was amateur featherweight champion of the West Coast in 1918. He entered the ring in 1913, and became well known at amateur tournaments, as “Chalkey’’ Duggan. For twelve years he followed the occupation of a sailor, on intercolonial and Home vessels. Follow this period he was employed as an engine-driver at the State Colliery. In addition to his parents, Mr and Mrs Frank Duggan, of Pitt Street, Runanga, the late Mr Duggan leaves four brothers, John, Henry, Robert, and William and three sisters Miss Elizabeth Duggan (Barrytown School) Mrs M. Buckley (Greymouth) and and Mrs W. O’Neill (Runanga).^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ NZ BDM 1898/5247 Duggan Walter Isabella Francis
2. ↑ Grey River Argus, 18 October 1934, Page 3