Page 39 - rigneymaster

One Man’s Goldfield: the story of the Horseshoe Bend Diggings, William Rigney and Somebody’s Darling

A lonely end

In 1911 Rigney joined two hundred other ex-Gabriel’s Gully miners to attend the
Gabriel’s Gully Jubilee celebrations in Lawrence. A year later he was found collapsed
in his hut by Mr Leopold Faigan, the Millers Flat storekeeper. The police were called
to help and Rigney was transferred to Lawrence Hospital where he died.

In 1901 Rigney wrote "I have always felt a special interest in that grave [Somebody's
Darling] as I have a foreboding that in the end my lot will be the same- viz., a lonely
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grave on a bleak hillside." [link to original record in Papers Past]

In 1912, apparently in accordance with his often expressed wish, Rigney was buried
alongside the grave of Somebody's Darling. The grave-side service was conducted
by Father O'Connell from Lawrence. An old deed of agreement from one of Rigney's
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mining ventures was buried with him. Rigney's headstone reads "Here Lies The
Body of William Rigney, the Man who Buried Somebody's Darling".

It is impossible to determine whether Rigney changed his mind or whether the same
well-intentioned person(s) who wrongly credited him with burying Somebody's Darling
also wrongly interpreted his foreboding of a lonely grave on the side of a hill with a
wish to be buried beside such a grave. Whatever the truth, time has provided Rigney
with a worthy memorial. Through his name and his story, the existence of the
Horseshoe Bend Diggings where he spent much of his life will not be forgotten.

63 Rigney, W. Letter to the Tuapeka Times. Tuapeka Times. 19.1.1901 Sourced from Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand
64 Obituary, William Rigney. Tuapeka Times. 19.1.1912

© Jeff Robertson 39