The Geddes Mystery
Author: Brian Jones
This book tells a true story from the colonial past of a pioneering family in Caboolture north of Brisbane who ended up in Sydney.
The author is Brian Jones who was instrumental in setting up the first national Missing Persons Week and became an advocate for the families of missing persons. In 1986 he wrote about the disappearance of his brother Tony in Searching for Tony.
This time he is writing about another missing person in his family, his great grandfather. In 1877, wealthy, clever, 21-year-old Goodwin Geddes, foundation pupil and dux of Brisbane Grammar School and a brilliant surveyor drowned though his body was never found.
The AMP paid out a life insurance claim almost immediately. But then rumours began to circulate. Goodwin Geddes had been seen in Melbourne, in San Francisco, maybe he was in Fiji, could he be in New Zealand or Tasmania? The AMP started to have doubts about their payout and began rigorous, clandestine investigations on the family.
Was it an insurance swindle? Yes. Goodwin Geddes turned up 12 years later…..in the Adelaide Lunatic Asylum. There was a wife and family. Mad with syphilis, Goodwin, the “golden boy” died aged 38.
The AMP retrieved their money. With interest.
This book is written from a set of documents which Brian Jones recently discovered. Dating from the 1870’s to the 1880’s they reveal all the secrets of The Geddes Mystery and give a glimpse of colonial life in the late 19th century. The AMP archives in Sydney were helpful in providing further material.
It seems uncanny and cruel, that within 105 years two members of the one family should go missing, both in Queensland. But while Goodwin Geddes staged his own disappearance, Tony Jones has never been found. In February this year, 20 years after he disappeared, the coroner concluded Tony was dead.
rrp. 29.95 ISBN 0 86786 375 7