from the site Elizabeth Gold

For a number of years Elizabeth had been married to Captain Charles de Garburgh Gold. She was his second wife and though there is no record of the Gold's having a child together, two adult step-children lived in New Zealand. Captain Gold died in Coolgardie in May, 1897, at the age of fifty-seven. Prior to Captain Gold's death, Kenneth Snodgrass had boarded with the Gold's and, on the Captain's death, Kenneth Snodgrass undertook the funeral arrangements and also managed the meagre estate.

A short while after her husband's death, Elizabeth took on the role as housekeeper at Kenneth Snodgrass's Bungalow Dining Rooms. A month later, Mrs Snodgrass and her seven children arrived in Coolgardie. The Bungalow Dining Rooms failed after only eight weeks.

Five months before her death, in an effort to support herself, Elizabeth was engaged as a probationer nurse at Coolgardie Government Hospital. Elizabeth worked with and shared her tent (or camp) with Janet Snodgrass, the daughter of Kenneth. The matron, Rosa Snodgrass, was Kenneth's cousin.

On the last day of autumn, May 31, 1898, the weather was unseasonably humid and oppressive, but the off-duty nurses were looking forward to the Cinderella Ball at the Mechanic's Institute that evening. Elizabeth was one of the nurses preparing for the Ball when Kenneth Snodgrass, armed with a revolver, called at the nurse's camp.

By half-past seven Elizabeth, aged thirty-two, was dead.


at the above link there is:

"The Tragedy"
- with photos


"The Newspaper" (The Coolgardie Miner in 1898)
Shocking Tragedy at the Hospital
The Victims
Further Particulars
The Funerals
The Cinderella Dance
The Weather
Notes and Comments - by Smiler


"The Inquest"
William Pope Seed: The Medical Evidence
Helena Snodgrass: The Widow's Evidence
Janet Snodgrass: The Daughter's Evidence
Fanny Marian Warland: The Neighbour's Evidence
Archibald McIntyre: The Wardsman's Evidence
Rosa Snodgrass: The Matron's Evidence
PC Matthew Toohey
Ernest Cochrane
The Verdict


"The Statements"
Plan of Nurse Gold's Camp
William Pope Seed: The Medical Evidence
Helena Snodgrass: The Widow's Evidence
Janet Snodgrass: The Daughter's Evidence
Fanny Marian Warland: The Neighbour's Evidence
Archibald McIntyre: The Wardsman's Evidence
Rosa Snodgrass: The Matron's Evidence
Toohey, Cochrane & Sellenger
The Inspector's Letter
The Telegram to Perth
The Inquest Findings