Eh! but she was a good girl – grave tales

It is a far cry from Coolgardie to Corbie in the Somme Valley in France. Still, in 1916, a Salvation Army Chaplin, Benjamin Orames, who as a boy had been on the Goldfields of Coolgardie, found himself in Corbie seeking the town mayor who he located in a dugout. While shells blasted the historic building overhead, the Chaplain conducted his business with the town mayor.
Said the mayor: “I am always happy to do what I can for the Salvation Army. When I was a boy on the Goldfields in Coolgardie, my father and mother were both smitten with fever. I was too young to be of any assistance and was filled with terror at the possibility of losing both my parents.

The First Salvation Army Barracks in Sylvester Street, Coolgardie 1896 – Photo SLWA

“My fears were allayed however as there came on the scene a Salvation Army woman, who with skilful hands and tender touch, did all that was possible for my suffering parents. I have often wished I could meet that lassie again, I wonder if you know where she is now? Her name was rather unusual:- “Lieutenant Zilla Smith”.

The mind of the Salvation Army Chaplain flashed back to Coolgardie and he replied, “If you were to visit the Coolgardie Cemetery today you would find there a tombstone to the memory of Lieutenant Zilla Smith and engraved on it are these words” –

Away from home and the friend of her youth
She hoisted the standard of mercy and truth
For the love of the Lord and to seek for the lost
Soon, alas was her fall, but she died at her post.

She was the first officer in Coolgardie to succumb to the fever. Exactly one month to the day, almost to the hour of her arrival, the funeral procession for her wended its way to the cemetery. At her memorial service one good fellow with his voice full of emotion said:

“Egh, but she was a good girl, and did a mighty lot of good to us fellows in the short time she was here”.

The War Cry’ Melbourne 29 Nov 1947 – The Salvation Army erected the following headstone to her memory. She was 31 years old and never married.

Zilla SMITH  :   Coolgardie Cemetery – Photo Find a Grave

Zilla Smith was born on the 4 Aug 1864 inValleys nr Nairne, South Australia to Edis SMITH and Ellen HAINES. Her sister Rosina ‘Rose’ SMITH was also to join the Salvation Army and on her way to Coolgardie she told this story:

My sister Zilla died in Coolgardie, Western Australia, at age 31, from typhoid fever, caught from a miner who she, as a Salvationist, was nursing. He recovered and, some years later I was was travelling on a train in Western Australia and a man in a carriage told me (when he saw my Salvationist uniform) that he had a great deal of respect for the Salvation Army because one of the lassies had – literally – saved his life. I was able to declare: “She was my sister”.

Commission and Mrs J Evan Smith standing by the grave of Lieutenant Zilla Smith 

The restored grave as it is in 2023

Zilla Smith Coolgardie Cemetery 2017 – Photo Outback Family History.

Plaque on the grave of Zilla Smith

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Moya Sharp

Owner at Outback Family History

My name is Moya Sharp, I live in Kalgoorlie Western Australia and have worked most of my adult life in the history/museum industry. I have been passionate about history for as long as I can remember and in particular the history of my adopted home the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. Through my website I am committed to providing as many records and photographs free to any one who is interested in the family and local history of the region.

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