MALLON, Richard 1778-1832
Richard Mallon [1778-1832] was one of ten former soldiers who were granted allotments of one hundred acres each along Dapto Creek in 1829. A shoemaker from Armagh in Ireland, he enlisted in the 61st Regiment of Foot on the 25th September 1799. After training, he joined his regiment in South Africa where they suppressed hostile Kafir tribesmen.
In 1801, Mallon and the 61st arrived at Alexandria, Egypt after an arduous desert march from South Africa and a journey down the Nile. They joined the siege of Alexandria that eventually brought about the defeat of Napoleon’s army.
Between 1809 and 1812 he was part of the British forces fighting against the French on the Iberian Peninsula. He participated in some of the most famous battles of the campaign against Napoleon. His future veteran neighbours at Dapto also served in some of the same battles.
In 1813, he was declare unfit for military duty and became an out-pensioner of the Chelsea Hospital in London. In 1825, he enlisted in the Royal New South Wales Veterans. In May 1826 he and his wife Elizabeth sailed for NSW.
After almost four years of guarding convicts and doing sentry duty, Mallon was discharged from the Veterans on 24th September 1829. An assessment of his behaviour as “very bad while in the NSW Veterans Company” did not recommend him. Despite his bad behaviour, Mallon received his 100 acre land grant at Dapto. Under the conditions of the grant, the Mallons were entitled to a log hut, a cow, and farming implements as well as rations to assist them get established.
Richard Mallon was the first of the Dapto veterans to succumb to illness. On 10th April 1831, local magistrate Lt George Sleeman reported Mallon’s death to Governor Darling. Shortly afterwards Sleeman supported the widowed Elizabeth Mallon in her claim for the grant made to her late husband. Elizabeth remarried to William Cray [Creagh] and dnated land for a Roman Catholic cemetery at West Dapto. Mrs Cray died i 1855 and was buried at West Dapto. Richard Mallon was also buried there after being disinterred from the Wollongong Roman Catholic cemetery.
| Richard Mallon - veteran settler at West Dapto | Article published in Illawarra Historical Society BUlletin Oct-Dec 2019 - by Lorraine neate |