BACK                                                                          HOME On board was Percy Brookfield, returning to Sydney after visiting his constituents. As the travellers began to straggle back along the station platform a few minutes before the train was due to resume its journey, a Russian named Koorman Tomayoff suddenly opened fire with a revolver, injuring four of the passengers. Brookfield's natural courage promptly asserted itself. He ran forward to disarm the gunman, who fired two bullets at close range, wounding Brookfield in the chest and abdomen. As Brookfield collapsed, off-duty constable E. A. Kinsella, assisted by Gerald Campbell overpowered Tomayoff. Percy Brookfield died at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on the same day. (Constable Kinsella later received a Royal Humane Society bronze medal for his action). One of the injured victims was William Henry Crowhurst, a farmer of Parnaroo, whose family later became residents of Broken Hill.  Following the death of Crowhurst 10 days later, Tomayoff was tried in Adelaide for the double murder.  In May, upon production of medical evidence, he was declared insane and died at an Adelaide mental institution on 13 August 1948. The shooting of Percy Brookfield stirred the hearts and minds of the people of Broken Hill. It struck an echoing response in the pen of Mary Gilmore who had spent two years as a schoolteacher at Silverton in 1887-1880.  By now an accomplished poet, author and journalist, Mary Gilmore wrote a tribute under the title of “How Brookfield Died”. Brookfield's grave at the Broken Hill cemetery is marked by a tall column at the foot of which is inscribed several verses, including the Red Flag, Not Understood and He Died For Others.  The obelisk is surmounted by a dome bearing the words Workers of the World Unite.  The impressive tombstone was unveiled before a large crowd on 14 April 1922.  Among those present were Ernest Wetherall (President of the Brookfield Memorial Committee), Michael P. Considine MP and Senator Donald Grant, formerly one of the imprisoned IWW agitators but now elevated to the comfort and dignity of a member of federal Parliament. In a period of less than 10 years since the Merseyside bachelor had drifted into Broken Hill, Brookfield had become a legend in the torrid industrial life of the city.  Yet he had toiled for only a short time as a miner and, in terms of positive achievements, his record as a trade unionist and politician was undistinguished. His nature and character - supreme confidence, enthusiasm and a warmth of personality - far outweighed practical issues, and he retained his popularity with the people of Broken Hill. It is the opinion of many of his contemporaries that, looked at with hindsight, it was the manner of his death which established the Brookfield legend.  For, in death at the hands of a crazed gunman he became a martyr, and a symbol of the working man's constant struggle against oppression and injustice. Percy Brookfield's devotees acknowledged the enigma of his character with the inscription upon his tombstone of a verse from the best-known work of New Zealand poet, Thomas Bracken:                                                         Not understood.  Poor                                                       souls with stunted vision                                                      Oft measure giants by                                                      their narrow gauge;                                                      The poisoned shafts of                                                      falsehood and derision                                                      Are oft impelled against                                                     hose who mould the age.                                                              Not understood.                                                                         END                           PHOTOGRAPHS OF PERCIVAL BROOKFIELDS FUNERAL