REVEREND FERDINAND GREENLEAF, LUTHERAN MISSIONARY 28TH FEBRUARY 1838 – 1ST JANUARY 1916
There were many expressions of regret in the town of Massacre Plains yesterday morning.
The late Reverend Greenleaf born in Sachsen in 1838 was the only son of Norman Greenleaf, a landholder, and has been laid to rest. A religious gentleman who was a well-known and combative figure in the interior, his death comes after this newspaper recently, and controversially, republished his heartfelt and passionate letter to the British Society of Ethnography.
The letter was smuggled out via the renowned photographer Mr Paul Dubotzki. His message stirred our readers’ deepest sympathies and enraged the Anti-German League. It has been reported that Mr Greenleaf, who was interned on Torrens Island before being transferred to Holsworthy Internment Camp, died of natural causes. The editors here at The Australian Argus, however, would like to think he might have died of a broken heart, such was his fierce commitment to justice for his friends the Aborigines. We will remember him as a British subject and a soothsayer of our turbulent age.
The deceased has no immediate kin.
The Australian Argus
2nd January 1916