ich adjoins the General Post Office, there is
a cloister bearing the inscription, 'In Commemoration of Heroic
Self-Sacrifice.' Within it are tablets to the memory of heroes of
humble life, and one of the most interesting of these is that on which
is inscribed:--'Alice Ayres, daughter of a bricklayer's labourer, who
by intrepid conduct saved three children from a burning house in Union
Street, Borough, at the cost of her own young life. April 24, 1885.'

GRACE BUSSELL AND THE WRECK OF THE GEORGETTE

The steamer Georgette had sprung a leak while on a voyage from
Fremantle to Adelaide, and the captain knew that there was little hope
of saving his ship. But there were forty-eight passengers, including
women and children, and to save these and the crew was the great desire
of the captain. The ship's lifeboat was lowered, but this too was in a
leaky condition, and the eight persons who put off in it were drowned
before the eyes of their friends on the Georgette.

Seeing, soon, that there was absolutely no hope of saving his vessel,
the captain decided to run her ashore, hoping by that means to be able
to save all aboard her. The vessel grounded some 180 miles south of
Fremantle on December 2, 1876; but she was some distance from the
shore, and it seemed to the captain that no boat could pass through the
surf which would have to be crossed to reach land. He swept the coast
through his glass, but not a house or human being could he see, and he
gave up all hope of receiving help from the shore.

A boat was launched, but it had scarcely quitted the steamer's side
when it capsized, and before the crew could right it and bring it back
to the ship an hour had elapsed. Once again it was lowered, but it
capsized again in two and a half fathoms of water, and the women and
children who escaped drowning clung to the overturned boat, and called
to those aboard the steamer to save them. But help did not come from
that quarter.

Grace Bussell, the sixteen years old daughter of an English settler who
lived some twelve miles from the point opposite to which the Georgette
had gone ashore, was riding through the bush, accompanied by a native
stockman, and coming out towards the edge of the cliff saw the steamer
in distress, and witnessed the overturning of the small boat.
Horrified at the position of the poor people on the upturned boat, she
moved her horse forward and descended the steep cliff.

It was a terribly dangerous