Johanna’s story is memorable for a number of reasons. Not only was she the first burial in the Roman Catholic area but she was also the first suicide burial for Waikumete.
Unusually for a suicide, Johanna was buried in consecrated ground with a memorial stone. Often a person who committed suicide was denied funeral rites because such a death was considered a mortal sin. The deceased may not have been permitted to be buried in a church cemetery, or if burial was permitted, this would have to take place in ground which was not consecrated and the plot would not be marked. In Johanna’s case, the priest who took her service knew Johanna and she was given full rites.
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| Photo by Kath Kingswood |
It transpired that her adoptive father Thomas O’Sullivan paid for her headstone in 1893 and perhaps chose Johanna’s maiden name to be inscribed to reflect how Johanna had felt towards the husband who, in her mind, had deserted her.
Johanna as a child had lived through difficult times. She had lost her parents in the Irish Potato Famine of the 1840s and was taken in by Thomas and Catherine O’Sullivan who took Johanna with them when they travelled by ship from County Kerry to London and from there to Auckland, where they settled on a small farm in Avondale.
Johanna worked on the farm for a time before moving to Thames, where she likely found work in the thriving mining township. It was here she met and married George Binning, a gum digger, on the 22nd of June 1872.
The couple adopted a part Maori girl and named her Nellie, and the small family moved up to Auckland where George found work as a slaughterman.
By the 1880s Johanna was struggling and her mental condition was deteriorating.
Nellie was a headstrong girl and had been in trouble with the Police because of petty thieving. George was at work all day, Johanna was not coping with Nellie and did not feel supported by her husband.
Johanna’s adoptive parents offered all the support and assistance they could but Johanna was evidently very depressed, she had told them that she wanted to kill herself.
A desperate Johanna took Nellie to the Auckland Police Station where she asked that the police take charge of her child, she told the duty constable that her husband had left her and that she could not control her child. Johanna added that if the police did not take the girl she would do away with herself.
As it was so late, Johanna was told to come back the next morning and the police would do what they could. Johanna left the Police Station and took Nellie her friend Rose Ertl’s house where she knew they would both be welcome to stay the night.
Johanna left the house late that night and made her way to the waterfront near Customs St West in Auckland City. She took off her wedding ring, wrapped it in paper and put it with her shawl, boots and hat in a neat pile covered with 2 large stones. She then took "one step forward a plunge into darkness and the cold dark heaving sea enveloped Johanna"(an excerpt from the poem Oblivion written by Roy Kellett).
A passerby, Joseph King, spotted the body a few hours later, floating face up near a ferry steamer.
The corpse was retrieved and placed in the city morgue where it was soon identified by Rose Ertl and Nellie. It was Rose who had noticed her missing at around 9.45pm and, after hearing a body had been found in the harbour, had set off with Nellie to the mortuary.
A coroner's inquest into Johanna’s death showed that she had been delusional for a number of weeks, convinced that numerous people, including Police, were out to get her. Her biggest concerns revolved around Nellie, whom she believed had fallen foul of the law. There was also her belief that her husband, George had left her.
Nellie testified before the jurors at the inquest that mother had not been eating in the week of her death and had all but stopped drinking as well. She too had heard her mother discuss suicide, the last time just a few hours before the sad deed was done.
The coroner judged Johanna to have been "mentally afflicted" and a unanimous verdict was reached "Found drowned without marks of violence."
A graveside service took place on April the 18th 1886 at Waikumete Cemetery officiated by the kind and compassionate Father Walter McDonald, the family priest, who wrote in the cemetery records book next to Johanna’s name “So glad to see my old friend”.
George Binning, Johanna’s husband died, 10th of July 1889 aged 39. He is buried in Anglican Division C, Row 4, Plot 40
Of Your Charity Pray for the Repose of the Soul of
JOHANNA McCARTHY
of Co Kerry. Ireland.
The beloved wife of
GEORGE BINNING.
who died April 12th 1886
aged 30 years.
May she rest in peace.
Roman Catholic Division A, Row 1
Plot 1: Johanna Binning (30) 1886
Sources:
Paul Gittins “Epitaph” article “Oblivion”.
A significant contribution to background and research for the Epitaph article was made by Mr Roy Kellett. Mr Kellett has tended Johanna’s grave for many years, although he has no family connection. He also wrote the very moving poem “Oblivion” which featured in Epitaph, and I have used an excerpt to describe Johanna’s last moments.
Tales from the Crypt, Western Leader article by Matthew Gray dated 10/7/2011
Compiled by Susan Reid, Discover Waikumete.
