Biography

John James Monaghan, was a well-known publican and hotel-keeper at Edjudina. He died of heart disease accelerated by the use of alcohol. Although his funeral was a solemn affair, there was a ridiculous aspect to it mainly through the efforts of Edjudina's Justice of the Peace, Bob Alderson, who undertook the arduous task of conducting the burial service. The deceased was a Roman Catholic, but Bob knew nothing of the Latin solemnities characteristic of burying the Roman Catholic dead, nor, in fact, of any other kind of religious incantations.

The deceased, noted as being a hotelkeeper and pastoralist, left an estate of £1300 5s. 4d to Letitia Jane Monaghan.