Mary (Tanner) Diggins (1879 - 1938)

Born 1879 in Avoca, Victoria

Ancestors

Died 28 Aug 1938 at about age 59 in Port Pirie, South Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Bruce Bennett [send private message]

Biography

Mary was born in 1879 in Victoria and she was brought to South Australia when a baby by her parents. [obit in The Advertiser, 7 Sept 1938 and The Recorder, 30 August 1938] her father having obtained employment at Crystal Brook. The family later removed to Telowie and then to Western Australia. and some years after Alice died married her sister’s widower, Charles Diggens, them employed in the preliminary work in the construction of the Bundalee reservoir and with him went to Port Pirie in 1899. She may well have been helping him to raise the children. They had four themselves increasing the family to seven children of ages spanning fifteen years. Charles was from UK and could not read or write. He was a labourer and worked at the smelter for many years. He suffered lead poisoning, and in the depression years could get no work. He cut his own throat with a razor and died on 2 June 1921 aged 63 at Lily Street Harristown, Port Augusta. Mary survived him by seventeen years and died on 28 August 1938 aged 59 and was buried at Port Pirie where she had lived for nearly forty years.[MI] She lived at 10 Emma street in Solomonstown Port Pirie in 1925 and in Bransford Street Solomonstown in 1938..

Sources

• obituary in The Advertiser, 7 Sept 1938 and The Recorder, 30 August 1938