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FF GEORGE
GREAVES/GRAVES
Boatswain
‘HMS Sirius’(c1740-1788)
George Graves, able seaman aged 46 from
Fife Scotland, joined Sirius on 28th
October 1786.
He died on 10th July 1788 and
was buried at Port Jackson, in Sydney’s first cemetery,
at Dawes Point, near the present site of the southern
pylons of the Harbour Bridge.
On the day he died he made a will to
Abraham Kimmey, pensioner at the Royal Hospital,
Greenwich. The will of ‘George Greaves’ was proved to
Kimmey on 13th June 1789, apparently with
permission only to administer the probate. A fresh
probate was granted on 29th January 1791.
A headstone erected to his memory was
discovered in 1871 as a paving stone in Bethel Lane off
George St in the Rocks.
It was then taken in the possession of
the Archives of NSW and reads “in memory of George
Graves late boatswain’s yeoman on HMS Sirius who
departed this life ye 10th July 1788 aged 48
years”
It is the oldest extant headstone in
Australia.
HISTORIC TOMBSTONE.First Fleet Pioneer.
There has been placed on exhibition at
Vaucluse House a tombstone which marked the grave of
George Graves, Boatswain on H.M.S.
Sirius, flagship, of the First Fleet
to arrive in Australia, which put into
Port Jackson in January, 1788.
The tombstone records that Graves, who
was 46 years of age, died on July 10, 1788, less than
six months after the first settlement was formed at
Sydney Cove.
The tombstone was unearthed in Lower
George Street, Circular Quay, about 60 years ago, and
for many years was stored under a staircase in the
Public Library. The stone was sent to Vaucluse House
several years ago, and has now been made available for
public inspection.
The discovery of the tombstone in Lower
George Street is probably explained by the fact that the
first interments in the colony were made at the rear of
Campbell's Wharf.
That was before a burial ground was
established on the present site of the Town Hall, which
was known as the old George Street Cemetery.-·The
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)Sat 29 Apr 1939
Page 4
The Fellowship of First Fleeters
installed a FFF Plaque on George Graves’s Grave on 10th
September 1988 and rededicated it on 10th
October 2012.
Complied by John Boyd 2020.
Refer FFF Web Site:http://www.fellowshipfirstfleeters.org.au/graves.html
Under
 see
FFF Plaque 61 – Installed 10th September 1988
-Rededicated on 10th
October 2012 for
FF GEORGE GRAVES/GREAVES
Boatswain’s Mate‘HMS Sirius’(c1740-1788)
Source:-The Founders of Australia by
Mollie Gillen p148.
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