Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Edward Theodore CRONAU was born in Fernvale , Queensland on 28th February, 1875

His parents were Johannes Jost CRONAU & Anna Elizabeth BANFF

He died of enteric fever in Bloemfontein, South Africa on 2nd April, 1900

Private Edward Theodore Cronau, known  as  Teddy,  was  born  on  28 February  1875  to  Prussian  emigrants  from Ernsthausen,  in  the German  state  of  Hessen-Nassau. Edward’s parents, Ann (Annie) Elizabeth Banff & Johann (John) Jost Cronau, had sailed to Australia on the Beausite with their baby, Mary, arriving in 1863, aged 22 and 25.   Edward was a child of a typically large first generation Australian family.  All Cronau families in Australia today are descended from this line.

He was preceded in death by one sibling who was an unnamed male baby (b 1873) and his mother who died on the 2nd of October 1889.   Edward was born and raised in Fernvale, 10km west of Lowood, in the Brisbane Valley, Queensland, his mother being the first burial recorded at the Fernvale Cemetery. Edward’s father survived him by a couple of years before dying in a bush fire in January 1902.  

There is a record of Edward having a sweetheart, Christina Poulsen (b.8 Oct 1876) and that they had a daughter, Annie Elizabeth (b.30 Nov 1896), who has two Queensland birth records, one with the surname Poulsen, and one mis-spelt (as was often the case) as Cronan.  Annie was mentioned in her father’s Will.

Edward was listed in The Queenslander newspaper of 20 January 1900 as number 108 of the 144 of the Second Queensland contingent, Edward was a single man described as being well known in Fernvale. His obituary remembered him as a “splendid all-round athlete” and a good footballer and cricketer, and a member of the Lowood Cricket Club.   Edward died of enteric  fever  (a  form  of  Typhoid)  at Bloemfontein  in  South  Africa  on  the  2nd of  April  1900 and  his  death  was  widely  reported  in  newspapers throughout Australia, although his name was often mis-spelt  to  read ‘Cronan’ and   sometimes ‘Cronin’.   

  Private ‘Teddy’ Edward Theodore Cronau Edward was  one  of  three young  men  from  Fernvale  to die in the Boer war and, along with  Private  W.  Damrew  (1st contingent)  and  Private  W. Poole  (4th contingent),  was remembered,  and  a  toast raised  in  their  honour,  at  a welcome  home  for  returning local  soldiers  on  the  19th of  June  1901  at  the  Fernvale.

A newspaper article from September 1900, noted that Privates Poole and Cronau were ‘school mates’ from Fernvale State School.  Edward was the 21st Australian to die in the service of his country. His name appears on a memorial in King George Square, Brisbane and on the National Memorial in Canberra where it had been misspelt for a century.  Although there is a War Memorial in Edward’s hometown of Fernvale, it does not include the Boer War,  the  Boer  War     soldiers being honoured by the Lowood Memorial.   On  5  October  1900,  a  couple  of  months  after  Teddy’s death,  one  of  his  older  brothers,  policeman  Charles    Jacob  Cronau  (1871-1929)  and  his  wife  Margaret  Mary Thomas (1879-1945) had their first son, Edward Reuben Cronau (1900-1968), known as Ted, who was named in memory  of  Edward.    In  subsequent  generations,  the name ‘Edward’ has  been  honoured  within  the  family,   being a common middle-name.  

Written by: -   Dr Deborah Ann Cronau.   (great niece of Edward Theodore Cronau and niece of Edward Reuben Cronau)