Historical information
Alfred Patrick Armstrong was born in England in 1825 and was employed under the renowned Isambard Kingdom Brunel as a civil engineer during the construction of the Great Western Railway and the South Wales Railway. He came to Melbourne in 1852 and purchased property in Eltham. He became a mining surveyor and was Inspector of Mines and the Mining Registrar for the St Andrews Division of the Castlemaine Mining District.
In 1855, he chaired a meeting calling for a bridge to be erected across the Yarra River between Eltham and Temple Stow. He was registered as an innkeeper in 1858, was a recognised collector of the £110 raised for the building of the first building of State School No. 209 (Eltham Primary) and was a Trustee for the Church of England site on the Eltham Cemetery Trust in 1860. He was elected to the Eltham District Road Board (forerunner of Eltham Shire Council) from 1867 to 1871 and then served as an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1871 to 1878 (including Shire President in 1873).
Margaret Armstrong to whom he was married in 1854 at St Pauls Church, Melbourne, died on the 27th March 1887.
Alfred died in 1893, having been in ill health for some time, and is buried in Eltham Cemetery with his wife Margaret. The monument features a tall pillar capped with a draped urn: a symbol of death.
In Loving Memory
of
Alfred Armstrong
Died May 27tth 1893
Aged 68 years
Also of his wife
Margaret
Died March 27th 1887
Aged 63 years
This burial site is of special interest as the monument has the tallest pillar-a vase-a draped cloth top (unfulfilled life) and additional panels of names around the sides and the base, which include:
Ada Gertrude Armstrong, beloved daughter of Alfred & Margaret Armstrong, died May 30th 1878, aged 21 years
Mary Armstrong, beloved mother to Alfred Armstrong, died April 10th, 1886 aged 82 years
Arthur Vivian Harrison, died 4th Nov. 1899, aged 8 years
Arthur Reynolds Stockwood Armstrong, son of Alfred Armstrong, died 4th Nov. 1908, aged 43 years
Laura Augusta Harrison nee Armstrong, died 26th July 1921, aged 64 years
Physical description
Born Digital
