Sarah Candish was born in June 1832 at Pimlico, London, England to Joseph Candish (1800-1868) and Charlotte Smith (1802-1858). Sarah arrived in Port Jackson on 1 January 1833 on the ship Palabam ith her father Joseph Candish, a cabinet maker, her mother Charlotte Candish and older brother Frederick Candish aged five. Sarah Charlotte Candish married Colville Armstrong on 10 January 1849 in Melbourne. They produced the following children: Sarah b. 1850 Melbourne; Elizabeth b. 1852 Melbourne ; Joseph b. 7 November 1854 Chewton; Elizabeth b. 1857 Castlemaine, d. 10 September 1951 Ballarat; Jane b. 1858 Castlemaine, d. 26 March 1866 Chewton; Charlotte b. 24 March 1861 Castlemaine,d. 12 September 1955 • Cheltenham, Victoria; Thomas b. 1863 Castlemaine ,d.1935 Creswick; Colville b.26 May 1866 Chewton, d.13 May 1962 Kangaroo Flat; Hume b. 1868 Chewton, d.19 January 1959 Berrigan, NSW , Australia; Jane b.1871 Chewton, Victoria, d.2 MAR 1965 Morely, WA. Colville Armstrong committed suicide in 1889 at Junction Reservoir near Chewton.
Sarah’s husband, Colville Armstrong, signed the 1853 Bendigo Goldfields Petition. Agitation of the Victorian goldfields started with the Forest Creek Monster Meeting in 1851, but what became known as the Red Ribbon Movement was centred around the Bendigo goldfields in 1853.
