Robert and Janet Chalmers were no doubt a loving couple, but through an unfortunate accident Janet’s kindness was the death of her husband. Robert was born in Scotland about 1834 and came to New Zealand in 1858 on the Robert Henderson with his parents when he was 24. Two years later Janet Fyfe arrived in Otago on the Pladda. Robert and Janet were married the same year and were early settlers at Waiwera in South Otago. They eventually retired to Dunedin where they lived at Preston Crescent in Belleknowes.
In mid November 1913 Robert was struck down by an attack of influenza. Janet went to get him some medicine. Unfortunately she was very short-sighted and accidentally offered her husband a dose of vapour cresolone, kept in the house for her grandchildren’s whooping cough. After ingesting the treatment Robert immediately fell unconscious and could not be revived. He died a couple of hours later despite the immediate attention of a local doctor. He was 79. Poor Janet died four years later in 1917, also aged 79.
Robert and Janet Chalmers (née Fyfe)