![]() The Staffords were an established Mount Kembla family who had settled in Mount Kembla in the early 1840s from Benares, India, where William was a quartermaster with the 50th Regiment. ![]() ![]() Elizabeth Stafford was born on the island of St Helena where her father had served as one of Napoleon Bonaparte's guards. The American Creek Chapel initially doubled as a schoolhouse when it was first opened and prior to its establishment, Anglican services were held in nearby Cordeaux. In 1860 Cordeaux schoolteacher Alfred Wilson donated the Church Bible, and that same year the chapel was licensed as a place of worship. On 31st July 1902, an explosion at the nearby Mount Kembla colliery claimed the lives of 96 men and boys. The disaster remains the worst industrial accident in Australian history and left an indelible mark on the local community. Nearly one third of those killed in the 1902 explosion are buried in the cemetery surrounding the Anglican church which, over the years, has become a focal point for commemorations of the disaster and the history of the village. In 1903 the first anniversary of the disaster was commemorated by a service at the church, an annual event which has become Australia’s longest continuous act of commemoration. That same year a stained-glass memorial window was installed in the sanctuary of the chapel depicting Christ the Shepherd leading his sheep through a gate into the safety of a pen.
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