Some (Very) Local History

There have been a considerable number of changes to our family home since 19th January 1951, but the kitchen floor is the same kitchen floor where 26 year old Marjorie Holgate lay mortally wounded from a pistol shot to the head, and the driveway is the same driveway where former bookmaker and Member of the House of Assembly John McDonald was detained by houseguests before being handed to police and later charged with her murder.


I suppose, for the sake of accuracy, I should point out that it was not our family home at the time of those events, and did not become so for another half a century.  But it is the place where we have lived very happily and raised our family.  If the spirit of Marjorie Holgate remains - as our hyper-perceptive God-daughter insists it does - then it is, at worst, a benign presence in our lives.


In January 1951 this house was packed to the gunwhales.  It was occupied by Jack and Valerie Gregory and their infant daughter, Julie.  Valerie’s parents, William and Rachel Anderson, and Valerie’s sister and brother, Elvie and Billy had also been temporarily living here.  And further, Elaine Thomas was staying here temporarily while away from her home in Melbourne.  The reason that the house was so full was likely  to be at least partly due to celebrations for the baby, Julie, turning one year old on 19th January.  


Directly across the street from the front of our house is a lovely old house of similar vintage. In January 1951 it was occupied by John McDonald and Marjorie Holgate.  McDonald was then a 46 year old former miner from Gormanston.  He came from a family of union organisers, his brother and father both having served as Labour Party members of the Tasmania Parliament.  McDonald became the state president of the Tasmanian Textile Workers Union, and was himself elected to parliament in 1934.


During the term of his parliamentary service, McDonald also served during World War II as an enlisted member of the Army 1st Motor Brigade.  After his parliamentary career and war service concluded he became a registered bookmaker and moved to Burnie.


We don’t know much at all about Marjorie.  She was 20 years younger than McDonald and, although she was known both as Majorie McDonald and Marjorie Holgate, it is believed that she was never married to McDonald.  John McDonald and Marjorie enjoyed a friendly relationship with their neighbours across the street, Jack and Valerie Gregory.


Jack and Valerie Gregory hosted a party here in celebration of Julie’s first birthday on 19 January 1951.  During the course of the evening most of the family were present, and were joined by Archie & Iris Alexander and Garney Shepherd.  John McDonald and Marjorie Holgate attended the party at around 8pm. It was clear that John and Marjorie had been arguing.  McDonald was morose and spent some of the evening wandering between this place and his own house opposite.  Each time he returned it was to try and entice Marjorie to return home with him, and each time Marjorie refused to do so, telling Valerie Gregory, “I’m not going home to be bashed up.”


Near midnight that evening, McDonald tried again to get Marjorie to go home with him, which led to Valerie Gregory telling him to leave the house.  McDonald headed for the back door, which required him to pass through the kitchen where Marjorie was standing.  They were the only people in the kitchen when the shot was fired which killed Marjorie Holgate.


Valerie’s father, William Anderson, ran to the back door of the house and saw John McDonald standing at the foot of three steps outside the back door (which remain there, underneath the deck we built many years later).  Anderson pushed McDonald down to the driveway and brought him to the ground where he and Archie Alexander detained McDonald until the police arrived.  It was only then that McDonald was found to be in possession of the small calibre revolver which had fired the shot which would end Marjorie Holgate’s life later that morning. 


The inquest into Marjorie Holgate’s death was held in Burnie in early February 1951 and evidence was heard from several witnesses.  McDonald did not give evidence, and was represented at the inquest by the solicitor who would go on to defend him at his subsequent trial.  During a break in the proceedings of the court on the first day of the inquest, McDonald’s solicitor claimed to have been examining an exhibit (the coat taken from Marjorie Holgate’s body the night she was shot) when he discovered a .22 calibre bullet in the pocket of the coat.  This discovery would later add weight to the central claim of McDonald’s defence: that Marjorie Holgate brought the revolver to the party on 19 January.


McDonald was charged with murder and his trial commenced in the Supreme Court at Burnie on 16 April 1951.  Evidence was heard from most of the people mentioned above, as well as the police who responded.  During the trial, the defence asserted (as expected) that Marjorie Holgate brought the revolver to the party without McDonald’s knowledge and produced it when she and McDonald were in the kitchen.  McDonald claimed he recognised that she was about to shoot herself and attempted to prevent her from doing so, by taking the revolver from her.  He said that it was during this struggle that the revolver fired the fatal shot.  McDonald said that he went to the back door, and threw the revolver into the driveway. 


McDonald was convicted of the manslaughter of Marjorie Holgate and sentenced to 10 years in prison.  He was released in 1956, and worked for the Public Works Department at Poatina until his death.


I’ve checked, and will keep a future eye on it, but I can find no record of McDonald’s solicitor going on to bigger and better things.