#53 AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDY

                                                

                                         DENNISTON MARTIN KNOX NETTERFIELD

Maryborough Chronicle: Brisbane: Friday, May 17, 1929: A double tragedy was discovered in New Farm Park about 6:30 this morning when a young woman and a young man were found dead in a motor car. Both were shot through the head. The victims were Nora Campbell (19), a pharmaceutical student, employed by a Brisbane chemist, and Denniston Martin Netterfield (22), who was employed in the insurance department of a city firm. The young woman, whose body was found in a sitting position in the front seat, had been shot through the head from the back, evidently unawares, while the young man was lying in the back seat with a revolver under him. Netterfield had purchased the revolver only the previous day.

Both were highly spoken of. The girl's employer said she had apprenticed with him for 18 months during which period he had found her to be of the highest possible character and never at any time had he any indication of her being worried. She was invariably bright and happy.

Denniston Netterfield was one of the seven children of Richard Wetheron and Constance Netterfield and was described as a "youth of cheerful disposition whose bright personality made him many friends." He had been in the service of the New Zealand Insurance Office for a few years. But in the last few days, his manager remarked that Denniston had become careless in his work, was behind in his books, and was not in his usual bright spirits. He was told on May 10 to have his books ready for audit the next day, but he did not show. An examination disclosed that he was in financial difficulties with the firm.

Denniston and Nora had been on friendly terms for a while, but towards the end she had shown that she was tiring of his attention. On that night, he asked her to go for a ride with her, explaining that he was going to Sydney to see his ill mother. The tragedy likely happened because Denniston realized he had lost Nora's affection and that his misappropriations of his firm's money would be disclosed. 

Nora was an unsuspecting victim of the tragedy. When the bodies were discovered, she was sitting in a natural position in the seat with her hands resting on her lap, while Netterfield was reclining in the back seat with his legs hanging through one of the doors, which was open. On the floor of the car were lying a half empty flask of whiskey, a bottle of soda water, and two glasses. On the car seat beside Netterfield's body was a bottle of an arsenic solution; at first it was suggested  the poison was a death pact, (but it was later learned that it had been bought by Dennison for dental trouble.) It was Denniston's jealousy that caused the tragedy.      

Denniston is buried in an unmarked grave in Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    

DENNISTON MARTIN KNOX NETTERFIELD                                                                                               b. June 29, 1907 in Queensland                                                                                                                     d. May 16, 1929 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia                                                                           my 3rd cousin 2 x removed  (Homuth-Netterfield line)