From post to paddock:
Writermade his name under a different title
A mystery tombstone contains an ode to ‘‘Gipsy King’’, a columnist whose race ended in December 1897 at the age of just 32.
In a corner of Palmerston North’s Terrace End cemetery, there’s an unusual headstone. Carved in marble, it reads: ‘‘Erected to the memory of George Slater, ‘Gipsy King’, died December 17, 1897, aged 32.’’
Underneath is a poem: ‘‘The race is now over, and well it was run/ Though death be the verdict, the favourite has won/twas a straight race, a fair race, and noble the fight/ May the great Clerk of Scales give the verdict: ‘All right.’’’
The stone is mounted on a marble base, carved with a racing plate tied with a ribbon knot and inscribed with the words: ‘‘Friendship’s token. From post to paddock.’’
Who was George Slater? And how did he die at such an early age?
The cemetery database provides no information. But a paper chase through old newspapers unearths at least a partial picture of this young man.
On August 5, 1898, ‘‘Augur’’, the Whanganui Chronicle’s sports columnist, had this to say: ‘‘Friendship’s token – simple words yet thoroughly expressive ... The late George Slater made numerous friends by his kindly disposition and sterling qualities, and there are not a few who received at his hands many kindnesses and help ... Prominent in those instrumental in raising a fund for a suitable monument to Slater’s memory was Mr George Gibson, of Hawera ... who found a ready response from the friends of the deceased in the Taranaki district.
‘‘Thework was entrusted to Mr S Dowdall, the well-known monumentalmason of Palmerston North, who is to be congratulated upon the neat and effective design chosen.
‘‘Thewhole rests on a ledger stone, placed horizontally over the grave, forming, with the upright stone, a very handsome monument ... It forms in every way a fitting tribute of esteem and affection, and better still, by telling its own tale in the simple headline words.’’
Slater first appears on August 1, 1890. The Whanganui Chronicle of August 1 notes: ‘‘Mr A Ford, stationmaster, leaves today for a three-week holiday, his duties being taken up by Mr George Slater, who will officiate during his absence.’’
Slater, then 25, had started out working for the Railways Department, but soon he would leave that job and follow his passion for horse racing – as a sports journalist.
He gave himself a nom-de-plume, ‘‘Gipsy King’’, echoing the name of a famous thoroughbred stallion and sure race winner of the time, and headed to Wellington.
From 1892 to 1894 he became a leading sports columnist on the New Zealand Times and Mail.
In amemoir, The Old Days of the New Zealand Mail, ‘‘CW’’, a former editor (1902-1901), wrote that ‘‘a new sporting writer on the Mail became necessary ... I had the good fortune to meet and engage Mr George Slater, a smart youngwriter, who at one time was in the railway service and was well known under his nomde-plume of ‘Gipsy King’ to readers of more than one provincial journal.
‘‘Mr Slaterwas amost amiable fellow, who had an excellent knowledge of racing in all its branches, and he continued to do good work until at last he began to suffer from that dread complaint – consumption.’’
Consumption, known today as pulmonary tuberculosis, attacked the lungs and until the advent of modern antibiotics almost always led to an early death.
In September 1895, the
Inangahua Times and the
Reefton Guardian told readers Slater had ‘‘retired [from the
Christchurch Press] into private life and intends to take up farming in the Rangitı¯kei district. As a New Zealand tipster, he was one of the most successful in New Zealand. We wish him every success in his new venture.’’
Slater may have hoped sunshine and open air would cure him. But the farming idea soon collapsed.
In 1896 he was admitted to Auckland Hospital. Over the next year, his health did a topsy-turvy dance of small improvements followed by setbacks.
Despite constant newspaper articles tracking Slater’s progress and mention of his ‘‘crowds of visitors’’ there is no mention of parents, siblings or awife. It would seem that the constantly cheerful Slaterwas a loner – except for one small clue in the New Zealand Times of June 10, 1897. Though visiting hours were on Thursdays and Sundays, ‘‘on other days, if relatives or intimates apply for admittance, having driven perhaps a considerable distance, their request is rarely, if ever denied’’.
The updates continued through the last months of 1897. Slater’s last stop on the hospital trail was in Palmerston North. On September 23, 1897, the Manawatu¯ Herald told readers a ‘‘brighter’’ Slater had left hospital and his friends had ‘‘provided other accommodation for him at the Empire Hotel’’.
But at 4pm on the Friday of December 17, in amain St boarding house called Willowbank, Slater died. His funeral cortege departed at 2pm on the Sunday, five days before Christmas. There seems to be no report of his funeral service.
Three years later, in 1900, during the second Boerwar, aman named Charlie Enderby, an experienced horseman from Inglewood, was killed at Pretoria. His July 31 death notice in the Taranaki Herald reads: ‘‘Charlie was not long in following, to that ‘bournewhence no traveller returns’, his bosom friend George Slater, who wrote under the nom-deplume Gipsy King.’’
‘‘Mr Slater . . . had an excellent knowledge of racing in all its branches and he continued to do good work until at last he began to suffer from that dread complaint – consumption.’’
Quoted in the memoir ‘The Old Days of the New Zealand Mail’