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the first three children were born at Port Pirie. Alice was born at Semaphore and Doris in Palmerston (Darwin), her
parents having returned to the Territory in 1886.
Two months before Doris was born the women’s suffrage legislation was passed in South Australia, enfranchising
Caroline. A few days before Caroline enrolled to vote, in April 1895, her father Samuel Brown died, heralded as
one of the pioneer identities of the Territory. Another family member who enrolled was Caroline’s sister-in-law
Harriett, nee Wedd, married to her brother, Samuel T Brown.
During her time in Darwin Caroline was very active in the community and took part in church activities,
the agricultural show, the rifle club and concerts. The family left the Territory in 1914 and returned to Adelaide.
A farewell was given to Caroline, when her many friends presented her with a purse of sovereigns. She was
toasted for her ‘kindness, sympathy and cheerful readiness to do all in her power to help others’. She was also
acknowledged for being a staunch helper and worker in any movement that was for the welfare of the Methodist
Church. The press noted that ‘both Mr and Mrs Cleland leave the country where they have sojourned so many
years with the best wishes of many friends’.
Caroline died in Adelaide on 4 October 1927, aged 68, survived by her husband, one son and two daughters,
a son and a daughter having predeceased her. Shortly before she died Caroline and John celebrated their golden
wedding anniversary. She is buried in the Cheltenham cemetery, Adelaide.
B James, Occupation Citizen, 1995; Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 17 January 1928.
BARBARA JAMES, Vol 3.CLELAND, JOHN (1848–1936), stockman, mariner, shipping agent, pearler, prospector and mine manager, was
born at Port Adelaide on 13 November 1848, second son of Robert Cleland and Eliza, nee Reynolds. His father,
who was Scottish born, was the principal of the firm of shipping agents, R Cleland and Sons, of Port Adelaide.
Cleland had a very varied and chequered working life. He first came to the Territory in 1865, one of five
stockmen under the direction of JV Lloyd, who brought livestock to Escape Cliffs in the barque Bengal in 1865.
He worked for a time on the construction of the Overland Telegraph line and left the Territory aboard Gothenburg in
February 1875. The ship foundered in a cyclone off the Queensland coast, Cleland being one of the few survivors.
For his bravery he was awarded the sum of 155 Pounds, a gold medal and a gold watch, afterwards owned by his
son Claude. The Adelaide Advertiser in commenting on the bravery of Cleland and his fellow survivors, Fitzgerald
and Brazil, stated that they were ‘South Australian youths, of whom the colony may well feel proud’.
Among the Gothenburg survivors only John Cleland is known for certain to have returned to the Northern
Territory. He had been shipwrecked before and commented that he had ‘quite enough of that sort of thing’.
He returned to the north in April 1876 and became manager of Skelton’s store at Southport. In May 1877 he was
again commended for his rescue efforts when SS Darwin sank at Southport.
On 30 May 1877 he married Caroline Brown, daughter of Samuel Brown of Southport. Caroline was only
17 and John gave his age as 25 though in fact he was 28. There were five children of the marriage. Between 1879
and 1886 the family lived at Port Pirie and Semaphore in South Australia and returned again to the Territory in- In 1888 he was in the Kimberley area, and at the time of the 1891 census was a mining manager resident
at the Union. For some months in 1897 he was employed with the railways as a wagon examiner but resigned on
4 September. In 1901 he was a mine manager at Bynoe Harbour and he then mined at Horseshoe Creek near the
Mt Todd mine, application number 1778 for a mineral licence being approved on 18 July 1902. At one time early
in the century he apparently prospected in the Tanami.
In 1914 he and his family returned to Adelaide, his first visit in 20 years. A reunion was held of some of the
surviving members of the Overland Telegraph Line, principal among whom was R R Knuckey and J W Wauchope,
then over 90 years old. At that time the local press noted that Cleland had been pearling for seven years on the
northern coast and mining for 10 years at Horseshoe Creek.
The family settled at Norwood and John and Caroline celebrated their golden wedding in May 1927, shortly
before Caroline’s death. John died in Adelaide on 23 August 1936, aged 87, and he and his wife shared a joint grave
at Cheltenham cemetery. Daughter Doris Kathleen joined them on 22 July 1975.
N Driscoll, Cleland family papers, 1995; B James, Occupation Citizen, 1995; Genealogical Society of the Northern Territory records; Northern
Territory Times and Gazette, 28 September 1906, 22 April 1910, 28 May 1914; H J Wilson, ‘The Loss of HMSS Gothenburg’, Journal of
Northern Territory History, 1992.
BARBARA JAMES, V T O’BRIEN and HELEN J WILSON, Vol 3.
CLOWES, CYRIL ALBERT (1892–1968), army officer, was born on 11 March 1892 at Warwick in Queensland,
the son of Albert Clowes. He attended Toowoomba Grammar School before entering the Royal Military College,
Duntroon in 1911. In 1914 he joined the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a Lieutenant in the Field Artillery.
He accompanied the Gallipoli landings in 1915 as an observer for the naval guns but was wounded and evacuated
in May that year.
A year later, Clowes joined the AIF 2nd Division in France as a trench mortar officer. From February to July 1917,
he was Brigade Major to 2nd Division Artillery, during which time he won the Military Cross. He then took up the
same position with the 12th Division (British) Artillery. He was awarded the Serbian Order of The White Eagle
whilst in this position, before returning to his former post with the 2nd Division Artillery in early 1918. His AIF
appointment terminated in June 1918. His staff work in that year brought him the Distinguished Service Order.