Walter Craig’s Melbourne Cup Death Premonition.

Walter Craig’s Melbourne Cup Premonition.

Walter Craig’s Melbourne Cup Death Premonition.

In 1870, Victorian newspapers reported an extraordinary tale of a prophetic dream involving a Melbourne Cup winner and the death of a Ballarat businessman. At the centre of the story was Walter Craig, the proprietor of Bath’s Hotel, and a racehorse named Nimblefoot.

Walter Craig had emigrated to Australia from Cumberland, England, around 1850. Initially working as a surveyor, he was involved in extensive work on the Mount Alexander railway line before turning his attention to land speculation, buying and selling property.

However, ill health eventually forced Craig to reconsider his occupation. In 1858, he purchased Bath’s Hotel in Ballarat, seeking a business that demanded less physical exertion. The venture proved highly successful, allowing him to expand the premises and establish the hotel as a prominent local landmark.

It was during this period that Craig reportedly experienced a remarkable dream. He recounted the details to his medical adviser, describing a vision in which he attended the 1870 Melbourne Cup. While at the racecourse, he approached a jockey and asked why he was wearing a black armband.

The jockey allegedly replied, “It’s for the old gentleman at Ballarat: he’s gone at last.”

Craig was deeply affected by the dream, interpreting it as a premonition of his own death. Convinced that the vision would come true, he insisted that if he died before the Melbourne Cup, his horse must still be entered in the race.

He also urged a friend to back the horse, basing his confidence entirely on the dream. His insistence reportedly attracted ridicule, but Craig remained convinced that events would unfold as he had foreseen.

Tragically, Craig died on 8 September 1870, aged just 45.

The Melbourne Cup was subsequently delayed by a week because of heavy rain. When the race finally took place, Nimblefoot was entered as Craig had requested. The jockey wore Craig’s racing colours, along with a black armband in his memory. Against the odds, Nimblefoot won the 1870 Melbourne Cup.

For those who knew of Craig’s dream, the victory appeared to fulfil his extraordinary prediction: the horse had won the race, the jockey wore the black armband, and the “old gentleman at Ballarat” was indeed dead.

Was Walter Craig’s dream a genuine premonition of events to come, or a remarkable coincidence given added significance after his death? Whatever the explanation, the story of Craig and Nimblefoot remains a fascinating piece of Victorian racing folklore, connecting a celebrated sporting victory with a chilling tale of foreknowledge and mortality.

Such was the impact of Walter Craig’s dream upon the psyche of Melbourne Cup supporters, that it inspired a poem:

CRAIGS DREAM

" THERE are more things in heaven and earth

         Than dreamt of by philosophy;"

Which, when vouchsafed by men of worth,

          All sceptical ideas defy.

Thus, of all dreams of which men tell,

       Nought could be clearer or less vague

Than that so strangely which befell

        The lost, the much-loved WALTER CRAIG.

One night, the veteran, on his couch

         I’ll, 'twixt the intervals of pain

(As next day to his friends did vouch),

         Dreamt he beheld that Racecourse plain,

Where yearly meets the sporting crowd,

         Anxious to see "the numbers up,"

And warmly greet, in accents loud,

          The Winner of the Melbourne Cup.

He dreamt he saw the well-known scene—

         The Stand, the leaps, the wall, the logs;

Crowds greater, too, than e'er had been;

         The usual swarm of worthless dogs.

He saw the horses at their post

         Before the starter's flag parade,

Of which his own nag pleased him most,

         Whose jock in violet was arrayed.

It seemed, besides, that he (whose loss

         Of late the sporting world must grieve)

Noticed the rider of his horse

          Was wearing crape upon his sleeve.

He watched the struggle down " the straight,"

          His own horse winning at the Stand

He saw (in dreams), with pride elate

           (Whose rider wore that mourning band).

Though from our midst he's passed away,

          This instance of the second sight

Has been fulfilled—and, strange to say,

          In every point minutely right.

Nought stranger fiction could invent.

           As dreamt, the horse so resolute

That carried off " the Great Event,"

          Was " Panic's" son, fleet "Nimblefoot."

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2019

Bibliography

'REMARKABLE DREAM.', The Australasian, (12 November 1870), p. 21.

'CRAIG'S DREAM.', Melbourne Punch, (17 November 1870), p. 7.

‘A CAULFIELD CUP DREAM.', The Horsham Times, (21 October 1902), p. 3.

'THE DREAM HORSE’, The Age, (11 November 1916), p. 14.

'DEATH OF MR WALTER CRAIG.', Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser, (8 September 1870), p. 6.

'NIMBLEFOOT.', Weekly Times, (19 November 1870), p. 9.

The Demise of Thomas Pengilley – Old Geelong Gaol

The Demise of Thomas Pengilley – Old Geelong Gaol

 

Main Street Birregurra 1907 - Royal Mail Hotel

 Thomas Pengilley had been a successful prospector in Victoria. In 1855 he established the firm of Pengilley and Childs, general storekeepers in Mercer Street, Geelong. He later had business’ at Morrison and Stieglitz gold diggings, before buying a hotel at Sebastopol near Ballarat

In 1880, Thomas Pengilley was the publican at the Royal Mail Hotel, Birregurra, in which he lived with his wife and young family. The 47-year-old publican had become unhinged, and over a four-year period had begun to attack his wife making her feel unsafe in her own home.

 
 Mrs Pengilley, afraid for her children contacted the local police and had Thomas detained. He was sent to the Kew Lunatic Asylum. Pengilley spent time in and out of Kew over a span of a few years. His erratic and unpredictable behaviour caused problems for the hotel’s income. Often Pengilley would become unfriendly and hostile toward patrons, causing his wife to shut the doors.

 Eventually, Mrs Pengilley had enough and being abused by her husband and had him arrested. He was taken to the Birregurra Police Court where he was charged to keep the peace with his wife for six months. Pengilley could not meet the requirements of the securities of his sentence and was instead sent to Geelong Gaol to serve a short term.

Pengilley was placed in a cell away from other inmates. He arranged to have his meals provided by an outside source.
 On the night of his death, a warder brought him a glass of water around 6pm. The Warder noticed that Pengilley was morose and slightly unhinged. He left him be and returned at 9pm. The warder pushed the cell door open and discovered Pengilley had hung himself by tying a valise strap around his neck and attaching it to a gas bracket above the door, hanging himself.

 It is believed that Pengilley became addicted to hard liquor, which eventually led to him physically and mentally abusing his wife and family. That alcoholism also led to his insanity and eventual suicide.

Yarra Ben Asylum - Victoria

 The tragedy of the Pengilleys does not end there. Thomas's oldest son, Thomas junior was accused in 1889 of not paying maintenance of a child he had had out of wedlock. In the same year, Thomas, like his father before him, found himself admitted to Kew Lunatic Asylum.
 In 1890, Thomas Jr. Was formally charged with deserting his child. The child’s mother, Phillis Labatt stated in court that Pengilley had fled to Broken Hill, she also stated that he was a frequent resident of the Yarra Bend Lunatic Asylum. Pengilley died at the age of 38 in 1899.

Victoria Police Gazette - May 21 1890

Researched and written by Allen Tiller ©2019

Bibliography:

'BIRREGURRA NEWS.', Geelong Advertiser, (2 September 1889), p. 3.

'BIRREGURRA.',The Colac Herald, (11 July 1882), p. 3.

'Family Notices', The Argus, (9 October 1899), p. 1.

'Family Notices', Geelong Advertiser, (6 February 1880), p. 2.

'GEELONG.', The Age, (5 February 1880), p. 3.

'POLICE COURT.', Geelong Advertiser, (9 November 1889), p. 4.

'SUICIDE IN THE GEELONG GAOL.', The Ballarat Courier, (6 February 1880), p. 3.

'TOWN TALK.', Geelong Advertiser, (23 May 1890), p. 2.

Victoria, Australia, Police Gazettes, 1855, 1864-1924 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.
Original data: Victoria Police Gazette Indexes. CD-ROM. Ridgehaven, South Australia: Gould Genealogy and History, 2009.