Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery is the largest in the southern hemisphere, and dates from Victorian times.
When retired Sydney schoolteacher Arthur Apsey died on May 24 1925, he was buried just two days later in Rookwood’s Anglican section.
Apsey had lived in a substantial property called The Pines, on the corner of Madeline Street and Punchbowl Road, Enfield. His death and funeral notices were brief and made no mention of family members.
The only published memorial was published in the Labor Daily on May 26.
Enfield lost a sterling battler in democracy’s cause when Mr. Arthur W. Apsey died yesterday at the age of 58 years. He had lived in Enfield about 12 years, where at one time he was a Labor alderman. Mr. Apsey died a staunch Labor supporter.’ The piece mentioned that he had contested the seat of Burwood in 1920 and had been one of those who started the first Labor Publication, ‘The Hummer’. He had also published a book for schoolchildren on arithmetic for day-to-day life.
Several days after the funeral, Arthur Apsey’s relatives were given permission to have his body exhumed.
In the presence of police and a solicitor, the coffin was removed and unscrewed. This was not an investigation into possible foul play, but the search for a will. It was said to be the only time such a thing had occurred in the history of NSW.
Inexplicably, Arthur Apsey had been buried in the pyjamas he was wearing when he passed away. Whatever happened to the custom of laying out a body and dressing the deceased in a suit or similar? His family were aware that he had written a will involving a large estate, but after his death it could not be found. Press reports stated that he was, ‘known to do peculiar things.‘ Since he had been confined to bed for the final week of his life it was thought he may have kept the document in his pyjama pocket. Sure enough, there it was, along with his spectacles and some bank notes. The will was rather damp but legible. The details of it were not revealed, although I can imagine the family’s shock if it had all gone to charity.
Frederick Apsey later refuted the suggestion that his brother was eccentric, but the whole thing seems very odd.
When I found a photo of Arthur Apsey’s grave in Rookwood I was surprised to discover that he had been married. The first words on the stone are difficult to decipher, but they read;
IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY DEAR HUSBAND.
Somehow, this makes Arthur’s burial in his pyjamas seem even stranger. Edith Apsey (nee Goodyear) had married him in 1903. There were no children from the union and Edith did not remarry. She passed away on October 17 1953 at North Sydney. There were no death notices published.
FOR A FASCINATING VIDEO ON ROOKWOOD CEMETERY, CLICK HERE.
