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Married Rowland Barbenson Robin (1848-1931) and lived in South Australia. She had five children Philip De Quetteville(1884 - 1915), Dorothy Margaret(1887 - 1969,) Beatrice Ruth(1888 - 1958), Mary De Quetteville(1894 - ) and Rowland Cuthbert(1898 - 1951)

Mother of Louisa Ann Meredith (nee Twamley)(1812-1895) , sister of George Meredith (1777-1856) and wife of Thomas Twamley (1757-1834), miller and corn inspector.

Tracks Dance Company is located in Darwin and produces original and contemporary dance works that celebrate an important part of Australian culture – the frontier of the Northern Territory. For more information see: https://tracksdance.com.au/about-tracks

First wife of George Meredith married in 1805 and died suddenly in 1820. They had five children: George (1806-1836), Sarah Westall (1807-1869), Louisa (1808-1890), Sabina (1810-1877), Charles (1811-1880).

The Diocese of Calcutta, Church of North India was established in 1813 as part of the Church of England. It was led by the Bishop of Calcutta, the first being Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (28 January 1769 – 8 July 1822). He became the first Bishop of Calcutta in 1814 and was was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on the basis of being "a Gentleman well known to the literary world as the author of several classical works, and conversant with various departments of science" in the same year

Birchalls Pty Ltd is the oldest bookshop in Tasmania. Samuel Tegg established a bookshop in Hobart Town in 1833, then opened his Brisbane Street outlet in Launceston in 1844. Blake, Huxtable and Duthie were the next owners. In 1863 the Hobart firm of J Walch and Sons bought Duthie out and opened a northern branch.

Andrew W Birchall (1831–93) was appointed manager and became a partner in 1867. The firm traded as Walch Bros and Birchall until he acquired the shop in 1893. As was customary in family businesses, he was succeeded by his son who registered Birchalls as a proprietary company in 1921. Stanley V Tilley (1898–1985) joined Birchalls in 1928. The Tilley family bought the business and property in 1969. SV Tilley passed on his knowledge of the trade to his descendants, who now run the 160-year-old store and other retail outlets throughout Tasmania. FROM http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/B/Birchalls%20Pty%20Ltd.htm

The Examiner was first published on 12 March 1842, founded by James Aikenhead. The Reverend John West was instrumental in establishing the newspaper and was the first editorial writer. At first it was a weekly publication (Saturdays). The Examiner expanded to Wednesdays six months later. In 1853, the paper was changed to tri-weekly (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays), and first began daily publication on 10 April 1866. This frequency lasted until 16 February the next year. Tri-weekly publication then resumed and continued until 21 December 1877 when the daily paper returned. The Weekly Courier was published by the company from 1901 to 1935. Another weekly paper (evening) The Saturday Evening Express was published between 1924 and 1984 when it transformed into The Sunday Examiner a title which continues to this day.
Once owned by ENT Limited, The Examiner was owned by the Rural Press group and is now part of Fairfax Media.

The Tasmanian Council of Education was established in 1859 to hold university entrance examinations ‘in imitation of the Oxford and Cambridge annual local examinations’. The TCE awarded scholarships for higher school education, an Associate of Arts award (equivalent to matriculation) and two annual scholarships for study at a British university. Its elaborate seal, bearing an open book, a star and a rose, was designed by Bishop of Tasmania F.R. Nixon. When the University of Tasmania was established in 1890 it took over the functions of the TCE

Wilson and Sons, shipbuilders, was founded by John Wilson (1842–1912), who began building wooden boats in 1863, at his home in Cygnet. The first boat was the Huon Belle, launched in 1864.

C. Piesse & Co, Merchants and Shipping Agents, corner of Elizabeth and Davey Streets, Hobart. The company was started in the late nineteenth century by Charles Augustus James Piesse (1850-1909), who had formerly worked with A.G. Webster and Alex McGregor & Co. He carried on the business of a shipping, forwarding and general agent including wool, skins, hops, fruit etc. His son, Leslie Fraser Piesse (1882-) succeeded him as Managing Director. The firm exported to British and Continental markets, specializing in ‘colonial’ produce, silver, lead ore, hops, grain, fur, wool, sheep &? rabbit skins (Cyclopedia of Tasmania p. 333). Charles Augustus James Piesse was born in Hobart in 1850, son of Frederick Henry Piesse and Jean Price Johnson. At his death in 1909 his son Leslie Fraser Piesse, (1882-1964) succeeded to the business.

List of Australians who graduated at Cambridge 1811-1948.

The Trades & Labor Council of Hobart was started in 1883. In 1917 it became known as the Hobart Trades Hall Council. In 1968, the separate Trades Halls of Hobart, Launceston and Devonport were amalgamated as the Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council. The Tasmanian Trades & Labor Council, also known as Unions Tasmania, is a representative body of trade union organisations in the State of Tasmania, Australia. It is the peak union body in Tasmania, made up of affiliated unions who represent some 50,000 workers. It is the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (the ACTU).

The Australian Mutual Provident Society was formed in 1849 as a non-profit life insurance company and mutual society. In 1998, it was demutualised into an Australian public company, AMP Limited, and listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.

Established by Anthony Fenn Kemp (1773?-1868), soldier and merchant. Kemp was a foundation director and later president of the Van Diemen's Land Bank. Soon after his arrival in Hobart Town in 1816 he had established the firm of Kemp & Gatehouse, which was changed to Kemp & Co. about 1823 when Richard Barker was taken into partnership.

The Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club Inc. was formed in 1904, and are associated with other Field Naturalist Clubs throughout Tasmania and beyond. For more information see : https://www.tasfieldnats.org.au/about-us/

Liverpool John Moores University (abbreviated LJMU) is a public research university in the city of Liverpool, England. The university can trace its origins to the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, established in 1823.[3] This later merged to become Liverpool Polytechnic. In 1992, following an Act of Parliament, the Liverpool Polytechnic became what is now Liverpool John Moores University.[4] It is named after Sir John Moores, a local businessman and philanthropist, who donated to the university's precursor institutions. For more informatio : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_John_Moores_University and https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/

To consider the required arrangement for the reception of the Salmon ova from England. For more information see: http://www.users.on.net/~ahvem/Fisheries/Tasmania/Tasmania.html

Founded by Mr. Sydney Stott in 1885,
For more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stott%27s_College and 1935 'STOTT'S BUSINESS COLLEGE', The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), 7 January, p. 5. , http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article11005800

Alex Lachlan Williams was admitted a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Tasmania on 20 April 1893. He set up practice in the Stone Buildings, Hobart, but about 1896 he moved to Queenstown. His family apparently had a store in Zeehan, which was leased and mortgaged when they moved to Hobart. Two of his brothers, Tasman Henry and Ernie, did some prospecting and mine share dealing, although letters suggest there was a depression in the Tasmanian West Coast mining business at that time. Alex Williams acted as agent for the Mount Lyell Reserve Mine shares and other mine share business. He also acted as solicitor for the Queenstown Council and for Burgess Brothers of Hobart. Much of the work of his Queenstown practice was in small debt recovery. In 1899 he sold out to Murdoch and Jones and, after working for a month or two in the Zeehan office settling outstanding business, he apparently moved to Melbourne and set up an office there. His mother's father, Owen Davis, lived at Whangaroa, New Zealand and wrote a letter in 1896 about prospects for lawyers there being good owing to the mine boom.

George Murdoch was admitted a barrister and solicitor on 3 November 1894 and set up practice in Hobart in the Stone Buildings. Like his partner, Oscar Jones, he seems to have had connections with the Broadmarsh district.

Lived at Swanston Street New Town. Formerly of St. Heliers, Jersey, Channel Islands (http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64516621)

A. I. Clark (1848 -1907), barrister, politician and judge was the youngest son of Alexander Russell Clark. After qualifying as an engineer he studied law and was called to the Bar in 1877.He practiced law and was for a time in partnership with Matthew Wilkes Simmons. However he was also a member of the House of Assembly 1878-1882 and 1887 - 1897 and was appointed Attorney General in 188~. Humanitarian and progressive, he introduced many reform bills. In 1898 he was appointed Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court and Senior Judge in 1901,and he was also Acting Governor in J. Stokell Dodds absence from the State in 1901, He was a,delegate to the Federal Councils of 1888. 1889. 1890. 1891 and 1894 and drafted a constitution based mainly on the Constitution of the U.S.A. Clark visited America in 1890 and 1897 and corresponded regularly with Oliver Wendell Holmes and other lawyers and Unitarians. Clark was an active member of debating and literary societies and was also interested in the Unitarian Church and he wrote many essays and speeches on political, philosophical and reliious topics. Few were published but many copies handwritten in exercise books were circulated among his friends.
A.I. Clark married in 1878 Grace Paterson Ross, daughter of John Ross, a Hobart shipbuilder. They had five sons: Alexander, a marine engineer; Andrew Inglis. another lawyer and judge: Conway, an architect; Wendell, a medical practitioner, and Carrell, Clerk to the House of Assembly. Another son, Melvin, died in infancy and there were two daughters, Ethel and Esma.

Alfred Archer was the son of William Archer (1789-1879) and his wife Caroline, of Brickendon, Tasmania.

Archdeacon Henry Brune Atkinson (1874-1960), clergyman and orchidologist, was the son of Rev. Henry D. Atkinson of Stanley and Sarah Ann (Ward). He was educated at Stanley State School, Launceston Church Grammar School and the University of Tasmania (BA 1899). He was ordained an Anglican priest in 1902 and served as Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Hobart and Archdeacon of Launceston and Darwin. From 1919 to 1925 he was Vice-Warden of the University Senate. He collected many specimens of orchid from Tasmania and some from NSW, Victoria and New Zealand. These were given to the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston by his daughter. Rev. Atkinson married Helen Bertha Knight of Christ Church, New Zealand, in 1905 and they had one daughter, Sheila. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/atkinson-henry-brune-5080

Greg Dickens is a retired cartographer, an amateur historian and photographer, who has been active in several national and state-based history organisations. He was born in 1945, at Brixham, Devon, and migrated to Australia with his family, aged five, settling in Tasmania. He was educated at Princes Street Primary School, Sandy Bay and New Town High School, before entering the Tasmanian Public Service in a 46-year career, working as a cartographer for both the Lands Department and Department of Mines, as well as engaging in field surveys and compiling reports on mining heritage for the Department of Mines (later Mineral Resources Tasmania). For one brief period he worked for the drafting and cartography division of Hobart printer and publisher Mercury-Walch. He composed many entries for The Companion to Tasmanian History on mining history subjects. Greg was formerly a member of the National Trust, the Tasmanian Transport Museum and the Tasmanian Historical Research Association. He remains active with the Australian Mining History Association and has written many articles for the association’s publications and annual conferences. During a lengthy sporting career, he played more than 400 games of football for Dunalley Football Club in the Tasman Football Association and a further 100 games for other competitions in southern Tasmania. Upon retirement from playing football, he has held roles with disciplinary tribunals, as a tribunal panel member and also as a coach and volunteer with the Southern Tasmania Junior Football League. He took many photographs of Tasmanian scenes with a 35mm Ricoh fixed lens film camera and a Pentax K1000 SLR camera.

William Grant Broughton (1788-1853), Bishop of Australia, was appointed Archdeacon of Australia 1829 and became Bishop in 1836. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/broughton-william-grant-1832

Alexander Cheyne (1785-1858), son of John Cheyne of Leith, Scotland, was a captain in the Royal Engineers. In 1834, after retiring from the army he emigrated to Australia and settled first in Western Australia put arrived in Hobart in December 1835 and became Director General of Roads and Bridges and in 1838 Director of Public Works. He was dismissed in 1848 partly owing to the personal animosity of the colonial secretary John Montague. He contracted to supply water to Launceston but suffered from' long delays in payment of bills by the Government. He then became supervisor of Launceston's. swamp draining but was injured and permanently lamed in a coach accident. In 1847 he was appointed director of Hobart Water Works but was dismissed in 1848. In 1852 he became assistant superintendent of road works.' . He was a Presbyterian, superintendent of the Sunday School and a friend of Rev. John Lillie and Dr. Adam Turnbull. for more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/cheyne-alexander-1892

Sir Robert Cosgrove K.C.M.G. (1884-1969), a grocer by trade, became a trade union leader and politician. He was State President of the A.L.P. in 1916 and first elected to the
House of Assembly for Denison in that year. He was Premier of Tasmania 1939-47 and Premier and Minister of Education 1948-58. He married Gertrude Geappen in 1911. He received the Knighthood, K.C.M.G. in 1959 and his wife was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1949.

Louis Lempriere Dobson (1871-1934) studied jurisprudence at Oxford University , under H. Duff, and graduated B.A. He was admitted a barrister of the Middle Temple, London, in 1894 and admitted as lawyer in Hobart in 1895. He was in practice with the firm of Dobson, Mitchell and Allport.

Andrew Downie emigrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1822, arriving by the Skelton on 24 December 1822. He came of a Lowland farming family, but had been trained as a 'writer', or lawyer, by James Lucas of Stirling. Immediately on arrival in Van Diemen's Land he engaged himself as head shepherd to Thomas Wells, the owner of Allenvale in the Macquarie District. Thomas Wells was a cousin of Samuel Marsden, and had arrived in 1817 with Lieut.¬ Governor Sorell, to whom he was Private Secretary. Towards the end of 1823 Wells was in the Debtor's Gaol, but later became Accountant at the VDL Bank. Allenvale was sold to Major Thomas Fenton in 1820, and Wells died in 1833. By 1824 Downie had acquired some land of his own, by grant. This farm he called Thornhill, and during 1825 he cleared part of it and sowed crops, as well as running a flock of sheep. Early in 1826, in partner¬ship with Philip Russell, then of Dennistoun, he leased Col. Sorell's grant, Norton Mandeville, meanwhile leasing Thornhill to John Furener. The partnership with Philip Russell lasted until late 1836, and during this time Thornhill had been added to until it became the substantial property Glenelg at Gretna. The barns on Glenelg where built in 1833. In 1837 Andrew Downie returned to Scotland, where he married, and in August 1838 arrived back in Van Diemen's Land with his wife, and youngest brother, William. Another brother, Thomas had emigrated earlier, but he went to Port Phillip. Andrew Downie lived in Hobart Town, while William managed Glenelg. Later Andrew returned to Scotland, and when he died William inherited Glenelg.
The 1000 acres farming property, Glenelg at Gretna, was granted to Downie in 1824 by Governor Sorell and established the first merino flock. The property still in the Downie family today and still farming ultra fine merino fleece.

John Earle was a Tasmanian politician and trades union organizer. He was MHA for Waratah 1906-1909 and for Franklin 1909-1916, Attorney General and Premier 1909 and 1914-1916 and was Senator for Tasmania in the Commonwealth Parliament 1917-1922. John Earle (known as Jack) was born at Bridgewater, the son of C.S. Earle and Ann Theresa (McShane). He was apprenticed to a blacksmith in Hobart in 1882 and enrolled in classes in engineering and science, economics and socialism at the Mechanics Institute and became friendly with the City Librarian, A.J. Taylor. Later he became a trades union organizer and in 1901 chaired a meeting at Zeehan to form the Workers Political League (which became the Labor Party) and was elected its first president, demanding adult suffrage, an 8 hour day and free education. In October 1909 he led the first Tasmanian Labor Party Government but as a minority it lasted only a week. As Premier in 1914, a year of drought, he imported wheat to keep prices down. He married in 1914 Susanna Jane Blackmore, an ardent member of the Labor Party and a vegetarian and theosophist. They had no children. In 1932 John Earle died of cancer at Oyster Cove and was cremated in Melbourne. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/earle-john-6077

The Friends' School, Hobart is an independent co-educational Quaker day and boarding school located in North Hobart, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Founded in 1887 by Quakers, the school currently caters for approximately 1330 students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12, including 47 boarders from Years 7 to 12. It is the largest Quaker school in the world. For more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends%27_School,_Hobart

Dr Bruce Scott, BSc 1945; PhD 1956 (Tasmania); DSc Hon Silpakorn Uni (Thailand) 1986, besides teaching and research in physics and biophysics at UTAS from 1945 to 1988, also served terms as Dean of the Faculty of Science and Chairman of the Schools Board of Tasmania. He was also involved with setting up linkages between universities in South East Asia and those in Australia and continued with this into retirement. Scott was a student of McAulays during the latter part of the war and then went on to become part of the staff in 1945, gaining his PhD, with McAulay as his supervisor, in 1956
For more information see: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/16983/

Walter Robson (1842-1929) was a British Quaker who acted as secretary-companion to his cousin, Joseph James Neave (1835-1913), when the latter made a lengthy journey to Australia in the years 1867 to 1871.

Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie ( 6 June 1879– 23 March 1957) was an English town planner. He is best known for the post-Second World War re-planning of London. He created the County of London Plan (1943) and the Greater London Plan (1944) which are commonly referred to as the Abercrombie Plan. For more information see : Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Abercrombie

Professor of Information Science at UTAS from 1974-1982 he was largely responsible for the university to be the first in Australia, along with the University of Melbourne, to offer a full three-year degree in computer science. For more information see : https://ia.acs.org.au/article/2020/vale-professor-arthur-sale.html and https://www.mytributes.com.au/notice/death-notices/sale-emeritus-professor-arthur-harry-john/5431669/

Workers' Educational Association (WEA) was formed in England in 1903 by Albert Mansbridge to provide higher education for the working class, whose needs had been abandoned by mechanics' institutes and then the University Extension movement. Mansbridge, who believed that the social order could be changed by education and not conflict, spread his message to Australia in 1913. In Tasmania the University was receptive and appointed Herbert Heaton, the secretary to the newly formed Board of University Extension, to teach history and economics to the newly created and voluntary WEA. Interest spread to the north and west and tutors were appointed. Student numbers rose to 540 in 1929.

Classes were held in subjects such as modern history, literature, psychology, industrial management, political science, economics, Australia and the Pacific, geology, the Middle East, Tasmania's economic problems, electricity and its applications, capital and capitalism, and law and democratic institutions. In the 1930s lectures and tutorials were supplemented by debates, play readings and lunchtime meetings at factories. One tutor, the communist Esmonde Higgins, remembered regularly talking to thirty men at the Launceston Railway Workshops about 'everything under the sun' related to current affairs. In the late 1930s Premier Albert Ogilivie felt the WEA was not providing workers with a suitable education, and government support waned. Weak leadership from the centre exacerbated ill-feeling. Government reports in 1945 and 1947 concluded that a new structure for adult education was needed and from the 1950s the Adult Education Board took over from the underfunded WEA as the main supplier of adult education.
From : https://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/W/WEA.htm

Worked in the Government Analyst’s Department in both Hobart and Perth. Southern was killed in action at Gallipoli 10 days after he landed – leading his men (as a Captain) at Pope’s Hill ( May 2nd 1915). He was a nephew of Benjamin Sheppard, who was the sculptor for the Boer War Memorial Soldier in Hobart Domain. Harold Southern, along with Mildred Lovett, Florence Rodway and Olive Pink were some of Benjamin Sheppard’s Art pupils. https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=283552

James Alexander Cardno had MAs from both Aberdeen and Cambridge. He immigrated to Australia in 1946 and in 1950 was appointed first Senior Lecturer in Psychology.
at the University of Tasmania.
For more information see : https://125timeline.utas.edu.au/timeline/1940/psychology-getting-ground/

On 23 April 1918 the inaugural meeting of the Women's University Union Graduate Branch was held. That body affiliated in 1921 with the newly founded Australian Federation of University Women and assumed the title "Tasmanian Women Graduates' Association". The title changed in 1963 to the Tasmanian Association of University Women Graduates and in 1974 to "Australian Federation of University Women - Tasmania".
The Northern Branch was formed at an inaugural meeting on 19 June 1941 as a branch of the Tasmanian Women Graduates Association (as it was then called).
Australian Federation of University Women (Tasmania) Inc. (previous name, - 2009) now Australian Federation of Graduate Women (Tasmania)
As of 2010, Tasmanian membership of the Australian Federation of Graduate Women was being managed through the ACT branch.

Son of Frances and Anna Maria Cotton of Kelvedon. Born 18 July 1834 at Great Swan Point, Tasmania. Died 1 January 1906 in Ohio, USA

Born 11 Dec 1857 in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom. Son of Daniel Sutton and Susannah Butler. Brother of John Henry Sutton, Albert Edward Sutton and Stephen William Sutton. Husband of Rebecca Annie (Gray) Sutton — married 11 Mar 1876 in Palmerston North, Wellington, New Zealand. Father of Thomas Buswell Sutton, Robert Buswell Sutton, Joseph Sydney Sutton, Horace Neve Sutton, David Barclay Sutton and Darien Neave Sutton. Died 9 Jun 1925 at age 67 in Castlecliff, Wanganui, Manawatu-Wanganui, New Zealand

Professor Avon Maxwell Clark (1918-1991), AM. (1984), MSc. (Melb.), PhD.(Cantab.), DSc., Professor of Zoology 1960 - 1963 was Acting Vice-Chancellor during Professor K.S . Isle's absence overseas May - September 1963).

Thomas Lloyd Gellibrand was born on 20th September 1820 at Cripplegate, Middlesex, England. He was the eldest of the nine children of Joseph Tice Gellibrand and his wife Anne Isabella née Kerby. Died 9 November 1874 - Hobart, Tasmania. He arrived in V.D.L. with his family per the Hibernia to in Hobart Town in March 1824. He married Isabella Brown on 1st December 1860 in All Saints Church of England, Hobart, Tasmania. They had seven children. In 1861 he was listed as occupying 5,000 acres in the parish of Clifton, Tasmania. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gellibrand-14
Photograph https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/history/members/gellibrandt15.html

Archibald Sillars Hamilton, known professionally as 'AS', became one of the most famous phrenologists in colonial Australia. Born in or before 1819 in Ayrshire, Scotland, he grew up as phrenology reached a frenzy of popularity in his native country. His father, Edward Hamilton, was a muslin manufacturer, but it was the influence of his mother, the popular phrenologist Agnes Sillars Hamilton, that determined his future livelihood. Hamilton arrived in Launceston in November 1854, and over the next 30 years lectured and gave private readings across Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and both of New Zealand’s islands. In 1854, a private customer of Hamilton’s could opt for either a description of their character with advice (3 shillings, 6 pence), a written sketch of character (5 shillings), or a detailed character reading with a phrenological chart (10 shillings). Hamilton was given the head of Ned Kelly after his death and he published an account of the skull's phrenology. Phrenologists believed that the exterior of the skull directly reflected the surface of the brain, which itself comprised a multitude of organs responsible for functions ranging from love of children to religiosity, concentration, and social sympathy. Hamilton was charged in 1860 in Maitland with inciting to exhume corpses from a burial ground. His target in that case was the skull of the Aboriginal man Jim Crow, executed a few months earlier. Hamilton’s collection of human remains was a powerful drawcard to his lectures. By the time of his death, he had amassed some 55 skulls or parts thereof – about 30 Aboriginal, four Maori, one 'Hindoo', one Chinese, and the rest European. He sourced them not only through grave-robbing, but also through gifts and trades within the networks he forged in each new town. Hamilton died in Redfern, Sydney, in 1884
See : https://www.portrait.gov.au//magazines/51/getting-a-head/

Edward Hyslop Milligan (27 March 1922 – 26 July 2020) also known as Ted Milligan, was a Quaker historian and the former librarian at Friends House, London. Educated at Ackworth School and the University of Reading, he was the Librarian and Archivist of Meeting for Sufferings of Britain Yearly Meeting, responsible for the Library at Friends House, London for 25 years from 1957 to 1985. See : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_H._Milligan

William May (1816 – 1903) a Quaker and London chemist with artistic talent, emigrated to South Australia with his family in 1839. On his journey back to England to find a wife, a storm destroyed the ship’s mast forcing the crew to dock at Launceston for lengthy repairs. May used the time to visit Kelvedon where he met Mary Cotton, whom he later married. He always believed he was ‘placed’ where he was meant to be. Initially the couple returned to South Australia but in 1874 moved to Tasmania where May’s orchard at Sandford had a reputation for high quality fruit. He served on the Friends School committee and edited Australian Friend. The eldest son, William Lewis, studied shells, acquiring a large collection from England and Tasmania. According to his obituary: ‘It was a wonderful sight to see him in his shell-room at his microscope, his work-worn hands executing the most exquisite drawings of minute shells’. Another brother, Alfred, made beautiful paintings of birds.
Dictionary of Australian Quaker Biography; Nancie Hewitt, A Brief History of Friends in Tasmania: Some Notes and Anecdotes.

W. E. Fuller was born in Hobart on 26 December 1885. His father was manager of Walch's book department, which W. E. Fuller joined in 1904. He later worked for a short time for Angus & Robertson in Sydney, where he met Frances Ruby Evans, whom he married in 1910. From 1915 to 1918 he served with the A.I.F. and was wounded.
In 1920 he opened his own bookshop (merging briefly with Oldham, Beddome &Meredith between 1930 and 1932). In 1961 after his death Fullers Bookshop moved from 103 Collins Street to Cat & Fiddle Arcade and in 1962 the business was purchased by three employees, Cedric and Ian Pearce and Lindsay Hay, and moved to Murray Street, 1975.
W. E. Fuller was a keen repertory actor, and helped to found and maintain a repertory theatre in Hobart. He was also one of the pioneer broadcasters with the A.B.C. in the 1930s, giving regular talks on books, and also other broadcasts. He wrote plays, short stories and children's stories and published a novel in 1919, "Love, London and Lynette".

Marie Caroline Bjelke-Petersen (1874-1969), novelist, was born on 23 December 1874 at Jagtvejen near Copenhagen, only daughter of Georg Peter Bjelke-Petersen, gardener and later master builder, and his wife Caroline Vilhelmine, née Hansen. Marie attended schools in Denmark, Germany and London. When very young she was taken on long walks by her father, who had spartan ideals and instructed his children in subjects ranging from the Bible to Greek mythology and gymnastics. The family migrated to Tasmania in the Doric, arriving in Hobart on 13 October 1891, and settled at New Town. Next year Marie's brother Hans established the Bjelke-Petersen Physical Culture School in Hobart; Marie joined as instructor in charge of the women's section and also taught the subject in schools. In 1906 she registered with the Australasian Massage Association and next year with the Teachers and Schools Registration Board, Tasmania. Illness forced her to abandon this career and she then began to write seriously. She was naturalized in 1915. More information : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bjelke-petersen-marie-caroline-5248

Eldest daughter of John and Maria Meredith. Married George Albert Mace in 1878 and went to live at Rostrevor, Spring Bay. They had four children, Mary Rose (Molly) (1879-1918) whose twin brother Harold died in infancy, Fanny Rosina (1880-1950), Trevor Ellis (1881- ) the children were brought up by their grandparents and aunts at Cambria after their parents' death in 1884 and the baby Violet Ethel (1883- ) was adopted by Henry and Minna Meredith. On December 4, 1884, at Cambria, Mary Rose, wife of G. A. Mace, of Rostrevor, aged 32 years, and on December 9, 1884 George Albert Mace, Rostrevor, aged 42 years, Warden of Spring Bay

Daughter of George Meredith and Sarah Westall Hicks ( 1788-1820) married James Peck Poynter

Married Jane Caroline Chalmers and went to New Zealand in 1851 They had 13 children.
I. Edwin (1853-1885) married Ada Stewart Johnston

2. Mary (1855- )
3. Richard Reiby (1857 -1896) married Alice Theodora Lane
4. Clarence Kay (1858-1916) married Rosina Maria Kay
5. Rosina (1860- )
6. John Montague (1862- ) married Henrietta Letitia Hardy Johnstone
7. Clara (1865-1890 ) married Robert Heaton Rhodes
8. Elsie Emmeline (1867-1918) married George Harold Smith
9. Edith Dry (1870- ) married James John Mackersey
10. Jane Chalmers (1872- ) married James Brown Moodie
11. Gwendoline Meredyth (1876- ) married Thomas Henry Dawson
    I2 .Kathleen Meredyth (1879- ) married Alan Archbald Cameron
12. Melita Meredyth (1879~ ) marriedHerbert Sladden

Married Frederick William Despard in 1858. Died in Rome from tuberculosis in 1858. Had one child Frederica Mary (1856 - ) who married Herbert Hamilton Kinloch

See: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gregson-thomas-george-2124

Daughter of James and Caroline Grant of Tullochgorum and foster sister to Maria Hammond who later married John Meredith.
Rose married her cousin Thomas Montague (called Montague) Hammond (1826-1860). Montague was consumptive and travelled to Tasmania for his health with his cousin James Grant jun., who had been in England to attend a London college. He settled at Emley Park, Balian, Victoria and married his cousin Rose Grant in 1853. They had 4 children: Lina, Rose Katherine (Katie), Jessie and a boy who died. After Montague's death, Rose returned to Tullochgorum and after a few years there moved to Launceston and later to Melbourne.

Roderic O'Connor (1784-1860), public servant and landowner, was the son of Roger O'Connor and his first wife Louisa Anna, née Strachan. O'Connor's motives for emigrating to Van Diemen's Land can only be guessed, but the fact that he brought with him in his own ship Ardent his natural sons William and Arthur (Rattigan) may give the clue. They arrived in May 1824 and O'Connor, who had considerable capital, received a free 1000-acre (405 ha) grant on the Lake River. Here his experiences on his father's land and as a practical engineer were not wasted; bridges, weirs and farm buildings were among his early improvements. He lost no opportunity to increase his estate either by free grant or by shrewd purchase and in four years had trebled it. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oconnor-roderic-2518

Stuart Eardley Wilmot was the second son of Augustus Hillier Eardley Wilmot and his wife Matilda Jessie Dunn. His paternal grandfather, Sir John Eardley Wilmot, was governor of Tasmania from 1843 to 1846. His maternal grandfather was John Dunn, founder of the Commercial Bank of Van Diemen's Land. Stuart was born in Hobart on 16 Sep 1847 and accompanied his parents to England from 1854 to 1863, where he was educated. He remembered seeing the troops marching through the streets to embark for the Crimean War. He spent several years working on various stations and travelling on the roads with cattle in Queensland and NSW. In April 1869 he came to Launceston, joining the staff of the Commercial Bank in Cameron Street. A couple of years later he entered into partnership with John S Taylor in the wool and grain business. He married Rosa Johnstone on 29 Jan 1874. His father-in-law, William Johnstone, died the same year and Stuart joined his brother-in-law, W J Johnstone, in his business which had been established in 1842. It became known as Johnstone and Wilmot.

Stuart was one of the municipal auditors for many years. He served as a board member for the Launceston Gas Company, Mount Bischoff Company, the Cornwall Insurance Company, the steamer Great Eastern before she was launched, and the Marine Board. He was one of the executive committee of the Launceston Bank for Savings and one of the commissioners for the sinking fund of the Launceston Municipal Corporation. He founded a branch of the Navy League in Launceston in 1900 and was chief representative of the Northern Assurance Co. Ltd.

Stuart Eardley Wilmot died aged 86 on 29 Jun 1932. His wife Rosa had died aged 78 on 1 Aug 1924. He was survived by two sons, Commander Trevor Eardley Wilmot of Launceston, and Parry Eardley Wilmot of Western Australia. His sons Gerald, who died in 1909, and Trevor are both in the Family Album. There are two plaques at St John's Church in memory of Stuart and Rosa, who were married for fifty years. From http://www.launcestonfamilyalbum.org.au/detail/1030034/stuart-eardley-wilmot

Thomas Coke Brownell (1800-1871) came to Tasmania in 1829 as surgeon on the "Tranby" and became medical officer at Port Arthur and other convict settlements. He had a wife Elizabeth and eleven children. For more information see Courtney, Katherine Coffield 1995 , 'Thomas Coke Brownell : a humanitarian colonial', Research Master thesis, University of Tasmania. https://eprints.utas.edu.au/19634/

Robert Knopwood (1763–1838), clergyman, was the son of a gentleman farmer in Norfolk. The family struggled against debts and Robert's only inheritance was the family silver. After gaining his MA at Oxford, he entered the Anglican ministry in 1788. One of his first sermons, the theme of which was repeated often during his life, demonstrated his belief that his duty was to make known the Christian Gospel which should be put into practice by his hearers. He joined the Navy as a chaplain in 1801, was appointed to Collins' expedition, and arrived at Port Phillip in 1803. From that time he acted not only as cleric but also as magistrate.

Knopwood kept a diary which gives a valuable record of colonial life in a new colony. He was a genial character who mixed with all classes of people; and despite later criticism by higher authority managed to give a relatively unbiased account of the early turbulent years of settlement. Governor Macquarie was not an admirer – criticising Knopwood's support of Collins against Bligh – and Knopwood has been criticised for his harshness as a magistrate, but his treatment of guilty persons was typical for the times. His adoption of a 'poor orphan child', Elizabeth Mack (later Morrisby) showed the sympathetic side of his nature, and he became a friend and supporter of Catholic chaplain Conolly. Despite recurrent attacks of illness, he continued to carry out his clerical duties, and died in 1838, his last sermon stating his view of humanity: 'it consists of supporting the Man, and maintaining the Christian'. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/knopwood-robert-bobby-2314

George Washington Walker (1800-1859), Quaker, shopkeeper and humanitarian, was born on 19 March 1800 in London, the twenty-first child of John Walker (1726-1821) by his second wife, Elizabeth, née Ridley. Because of the death of his mother and the absence of his aged father engaged in the saddle trade in Paris, he was brought up by his grandmother in Newcastle. He was educated by a Wesleyan schoolmaster near Barnard Castle, and apprenticed in 1814 to a linen draper. Impressed by the probity and wisdom of his Quaker employers and James Backhouse of York, a leading Quaker minister, he left the Unitarian persuasion of his family in 1827 and became a member of the Society of Friends. The next year he formed the first Temperance Society in Newcastle.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/walker-george-washington-2764

Frederick William Mackie (1812-1893), Quaker, son of William Aram and Sarah Mackie, accompanied Robert Lindsey (1801-1863) on a "mission of concern" for the Society of Friends (Quakers) to the Australasian colonies. They left England in July 1852 in the barque "Wellington", arrived in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land in November 1852 and later travelled to New Zealand in 1853, New South Wales (1853), V.D.L. again (1853-4), Victoria (1854), South Australia (1854), N.S.W. and Victoria again (1854), a brief third visit to V.D.L., the Victorian goldfields (1854-5) and West Australia (1855), finishing their journey in South Africa. Mackie kept a diary of his travels, illustrated by little pen or pencil sketches, in small notebooks still held by the May family, descendants of the family of Mackie's wife. The diaries (except for the South African portion),with most of the sketches, were published in 1973 as Traveller under concern, transcribed and edited by Mary Nicholls for the History Department of the University of Tasmania. After the mission journey was completed in 1855 Mackie did not return to England but went to South Australia to marry, in May 1856, Rachel Ann May, daughter of Joseph and Hannah May of Mount Barker, South Australia. For a few years they ran a Quaker school in Hobart, but returned to South Australia in 1861.

George Marshall (1791-1881), originally of Ruthven, near Dundee, Scotland, arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1821, and with his family settled near Sorell. One of his grandsons, George Douglas Marshall, married Beatrice Terry, grandaughter of Ralph Terry (1815-1892) of Lachlan Mills, New Norfolk

In October 1818, John and Martha, their eight daughters, three sons and two millstones sailed from Sheerness, England on the Surrey, the only “free” settlers on a convict ship to Sydney, Australia. Possibly unhappy with the terms of the lease and the size of the allotment at Liverpool, south west of Sydney, Terry moved his family and business to Van Diemen’s Land. Arriving in Hobart Town on the Prince Leopold on 6 December 1819, the family proceeded to build the mill on 100 acres (40 ha) at Elizabeth Town (soon to be renamed New Norfolk), where the Derwent and Lachlan Rivers met. For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/terry-john-2720

Robert Mather (1782-1855) was a draper of London, son of Mather of Lauder near Berwick-on-Tweed, UK . In 1821 Robert Mather joined a group of members of the Wesleyan Methodist Society who proposed to charter a ship to proceed to VDL., and many of the papers are business papers relating to this proposal and the subsequent delays when the ship 'Hope' was seized by H M Customs as being unseaworthy and held in Ramsgate until the party was eventually transferred to the 'Heroine' in 1822 (Ml0/1-15, R&/21-32). Robert and Ann Mather and four children arrived in Tasmania in September 1822. Robert Mather rented a house for one hundred pounds a year and set up in business, for the first few months in partnership with a fellow passenger, Henry Hopkins. Later, in 1823, he moved to 'London House' which he had built at the corner of Elizabeth and Liverpool Streets where he established a general store and drapery business: In 1824 he acquired land at Muddy Plains, called Lauderdale, where he farmed. After his wife's death in 1831 he closed the Hobart business and moved to the farm, until in 1836 financial problems made it necessary to establish a business again in partnership with his sons.
Their children were: Sarah Benson (born 1812, married 1840 George Washington Walker, Quaker missionary); Joseph Benson (born 1814, married 1842 Anna Maria Cotton, children: Joseph Francis (1844-1925), Anna Maria (1846 -), Esther Ann (1849 - r married CH Robey); Maria Louisa (1851~1857); Emma Elizabeth (1853 - married William Benson); Frances Josephine (1855­ -1856); Robert Andrew (1815-1884, married Ann Pollard, children: Samuel Robert (1843-); Ann Benson (1845-); Sarah Benson (1846-75); Robert (1847-1912); Theophilus Henry; Thomas Bourne (1851-1926); Joseph Benson (1852); Jane Dixon (1854-); George Lidbetter (1859-64), and two others who died in infancy.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mather-robert-2438

Robert Andrew Mather (1815-1884) was the son of Robert and Ann Mather, he married Ann Pollard (1820 - 1892) daughter of Theophilus Pollard and Ann (Lidbetter) in Sydney in 1839. Their children were: Samuel Robert (born 1843, died as an infant.), Ann Benson (born 1845, married' William E Shoobridge) Sarah Benson (1846 - 1875), Robert (1847 - 1913), Theophilus Henry ( born 1849), Thomas Bourne (1851 - 1925), Joseph Benson and Anna Maria ( twins born 1852 - died as infants), Jane Dixon (born 1854), George Lidbetter (1859-1864).
Photograph at https://eprints.utas.edu.au/3044/

Robert Andrew Mather was the founded the firm of R.A. Mather, importers and family drapers in Liverpool. Street, Hobart, in 1849. In 1876 he took into partnership his sons, Robert and Thomas, and changed the name to Andrew Mather & Co. In 1894 Thomas retired leaving the business to Robert.

Daughter of Joseph Benson Mather. Married Charles H. Robey

Sharp, Isaac (1806–1897), missionary, elder son of Isaac Sharp of Brighton, Sussex, and his first wife, Mary Likeman, was born in Brighton on 4 July 1806. His father had joined the Society of Friends upon his marriage, and at eleven the son was sent to a Quaker school at Earl's Colne, Essex. At twenty-four he went to Darlington as private secretary to Joseph Pease, succeeding afterwards to the management of the Pease estate near Middlesbrough. In February 1839, he married Hannah Procter; they had two daughters before her death, four years after the marriage.
For more information see : https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/25209

John Gibson McGregor (1830-1902) arrived in Tasmania from Scotland with his brother Alexander and their parents, James and Janet McGregor. The brothers served apprenticeships under a shipwright, John Watson, and then started building boats. Alexander acquired the Domain Shipyard in 1855 with John as foreman, but sold out to John in 1869. John continued to run the shipyard until he retired in 1890 and built many ships well known in inter-colonial trade, including "Petrel", "Helen", "Hally Bayley", "Loongana", Derwent Hunter and the "Harriet McGregor". John married Christina Stewart (1841-1903) and they had six children including Albert J., who worked as book keeper for his uncle Alexander for a time, Alexander (1870-1946), two girls (Amy Florence Isabel (1867-1944) and Ethel May) and two children who died in infancy (James and Neva Evelkine).
He was also a director of the Tasmanian Fire and Life Insurance Co. for many years and a justice of the peace from 1886. He died on 5 October 1902 at his home in Cross Street, Battery Point, where he had lived for half a century. He was survived by his wife Christina, née Stewart, who died on 21 November 1903, and by two sons and two daughters.
For more information see http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcgregor-alexander-4095

Philologist and journalist.

Sidney Baker was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to English-born parents Sidney George Baker and Lilian Selby (née Whitehead). He was educated at Wellington College and Victoria University College, Wellington, though he did not graduate from the latter. He was influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was an admirer of D.H. Lawrence.

Baker arrived in Australia in 1935. After a period spent in London, he returned to New Zealand, but soon found himself back in Australia, where he worked as a journalist on numerous papers: A.B.C. Weekly (1941-42), the Daily Telegraph (1943-46), the Melbourne Herald and Sun News-Pictorial (1946-47), and the Sydney Morning Herald (from 1947).
However, his primary work (on which his posthumous reputation rests) was his exhaustive collection and interpretation of Australian idioms. He researched language in Australia and New Zealand and published several books on the subject, including Dictionary of Australian Slang (1941) and The Australian Language (1945). For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/baker-sidney-john-sid-9411

Christesen was founding editor of Meanjin Papers which was first published in 1940, following his return from overseas travel. With an offer of full-time salary and commercial support for the publication, the magazine and its editor moved to the University of Melbourne in 1945. He retired as editor in 1974. For more information see https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/612355?c=people

Clifford was a founding member (1960) of the Tasmanian branch of the National Trust, and chairman in 1963. He helped to raise community awareness of the beauty and value of the State’s colonial buildings, and to prevent the destruction of many. When the Hobart City Council proposed to allow demolition of early houses in Davey Street to permit construction of a petrol station, he remarked: `no one will ever visit Hobart to see a petrol station’. He edited the trust’s newsletter from 1965 to 1986, apart from a break in the early 1970s. With his wife he had accumulated a collection of colonial furniture that came to be considered one of the best of its kind in Australia. Having amassed an extensive assortment of early Tasmaniana, comprising documents, books, maps and prints, he sold 2350 items at a three-day auction at Launceston in 1975. In 1979 he donated over 450 books on the history of medicine to the Launceston hospital. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/craig-clifford-12362

Earnshaw was a co-founder of the Book Collectors Society of Australia, and a lifelong supporter of the society. He was also very active in the Society of Australian Genealogists. for more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Earnshaw

Janet Hine was born in Sydney and educated at North Sydney Girls High School and the University of Sydney, graduating with a BA (Hons) in 1947. She joined the Public Library of
New South Wales in 1941 and worked for about ten years in the Mitchell Library, before moving to the cataloguing department. In 1954 she was appointed the Library’s first liaison officer in London, based at the office of the New South Wales Agent-General. She travelled widely in Britain, acquiring many valuable records for the Mitchell Library. In addition, she worked closely with the National Library’s liaison officer in London identifying records that might be filmed by the Australian Joint Copying Project. For more information see: https://www.alia.org.au/janet-hine

Howarth established an international reputation as a specialist in Elizabethan tragedy and Restoration comedy; his contribution to Australian literature was as substantial and enduring as it is underrated. In 1939 he persuaded the Australian English Association to publish under his editorship the journal, Southerly. He judged work solely on the basis of literary quality, and announced that the journal would eschew political and ideological considerations. Not only did Howarth influence Australian writing through deciding who would or would not be published in the 1940s and 1950s, but, as a literary critic for both the Sydney Morning Herald and Southerly, he made decisive assessments of writers as diverse as Christopher Brennan, Hugh McCrae, Furphy, Neilson, Stead and Patrick White. For more information see : http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/howarth-robert-guy-10555

Historian and teacher, born in Peoria, Illinois, USA. He was a historian of India and the British Empire who pursued interests in the history of India's military. He grew up in various small towns in Illinois where his father was a Methodist minister. He received his bachelor's degree from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa in 1945. He subsequently earned a
master's degree at Cornell University in 1952 and completed his PhD degree at Washington University in St. Louis in 1962. His dissertation was "Lord Milner's 'kindergarten', the British Round Table Group, and the Movement for Imperial Reform, 1910-1918." DeWitt taught briefly at Ohio University, Washington University in St. Louis and National College in Kansas City, but in 1962 he joined thefaculty of the State University of New York at Albany, where he would spend the rest of his career until retirement in 1992. He taught courses on British and Indian history. His research interests centered on aspects of the life and roles of Indian soldiers under the British and related subjects. He was a frequent participant in academic conferences; I beieve I first me him at an AAS conference in the late 1960s, and enjoyed his conversations at many meetings later. He had an interest and participation in a number of organizations focused upon social concerns including the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the Peace and Justice Committee of the Capital Area Council of Churches. He was a life-long member of the Methodist Episcopal/United Methodist Church and took great joy in singing in the choir at the McKownville Methodist Church. For more informations see:
Published in Albany Times Union from Apr. 1 to Apr. 2, 2012 https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/timesunion-albany/obituary.aspx?n=dewitt-ellinwood&pid=156790109

Thomas Risby arrived in Van Diemen’s Land from Norfolk Island in 1808. He was a master boat builder, specialising in whale boats and his sons joined him in the business. In 1844 one of the sons, Joseph Edward Risby, went into the timber business and established an office and sawmill at the corner of Elizabeth and Davey Streets close to Franklin Wharf. The mill was known as ‘The Franklin Wharf Steam Saw and Bark Mills’. In 1878 this mill was burnt down, but was rebuilt and enlarged.
Some of the timber was brought from the Tasman Peninsula, also from Maydena and, later Ellendale. A fleet of timber carrying ketches was built up. There were also three steam ships, ‘Yolla’, ‘Koonyan’ and ‘Moonah’, which were sometimes used for passenger pleasure trips. The Risby vessels flew a house flag of a blue square on a white background. Occasionally timber was purchased from overseas.
In 1920 Franklin Wharf mill was again burnt down and this time not rebuilt. A second mill in Collins Street had been leased from Henry Clark & Co. and was later purchased, although the office remained in Elizabeth Street. The Elizabeth Street and Franklin Wharf site was not finally sold until 1936. Another fire occurred in 1954 which destroyed the boiler room and fuel store at Collins Street.
When J.E. Risby retired in 1885 his three sons, Arthur, Sydney and Walter continued the business as Risby Brothers. They were later succeeded by Harry E. Risby and his two sons, Charles Arthur and Jack. Charles Arthur Risby entered the business in 1932 (with a break for military service in the 1939-45 war) and became managing director in 1955.
A history of the company was prepared by David Brownlow, as part of his studies for the degree of B.A. Honours, ‘Risby Bros. Pty Ltd., The rise to prominence in the Tasmanian Timber industry, unpublished BA. Thesis, University of Tasmania, 1969.

Hobart timber merchant, Joseph Risby (1826–1889) founded Risby Brothers Timber Merchants in 1844 and the company passed through the family until it closed in the early 1990s. It was one of Tasmania’s longest running family-owned businesses.
Born 21 Aug 1826 in 'York Plains' Clarence Tasmania. Son of Thomas Risby and Diana (Morrisby) Risby. Brother of Thomas Risby, William Henry Risby, Mary Ann Risby, Eliza Risby, Henry Edmund Risby and Lavinia Rosa Risby. Husband of Isabella Wilson — married 8 Sep 1853 in Hobart. Father of Henry Edward Risby, Thomas William Young Risby, Arthur Edmund Risby, Walter Sydney Risby, Florence Augusta Wilson Risby, Oscar Percival Risby, Charles Wallace Risby, Amy Josephine Risby and Louis John Wilson Risby. Died 30 Oct 1889 at Napoleon St Hobart. He was a Hobart Town alderman 1862-1867, & 1869-1874

Thomas Claude Wade Midwood was born in Hobart in 1854. Just as convict transportation ended, that is to say. The fact is the more germane in that father Midwood’s employment was in the Police Department, serving there altogether some thirty years. The family on that side came from Britain’s upper middle class, while Tom’s mother was the daughter of James Ross, man of some culture who as a newspaper editor had been the great support of Governor Arthur’s regime. The Midwoods kept servants (a key social indicator) , as becomes evident in the representation of that ‘lady help and companion, Effie Milne’. So, something of an establishment background, no evidence of convict staining; this was one of those bourgeois families who were confident that THEY were best and true Tasmanians. Our hero’s life overall conformed to pattern: school at Hutchins, long-time if somewhat amorphous association with the Public Works Department, marriage to the daughter of another bureaucrat, two daughters, two sons.

Bureaucrats don’t gain easy sympathy, but they are essential to any community’s function. That applied with perhaps more than routine truth in post-convict Tasmania. Their numbers fell, but the diversity of duties continued, or even ramified. Money and men therefore spread desperately thin, but never broke down. So a major interest of the exhibition is its presentation, even mild celebration of the public service of that day. The depictions include some big-shots – a prod of humour appearing in the emphasis on one being an avid cribbage player, while a couple of others are shown from a posterior view, to considerable effect. (We hear much of ‘history from below’, but this is history from behind.) Down the ranks was ‘Jerry . . one of the boys’ at PWD, and he sure looks that part.

A more formal product of Midwood’s bureaucratic life were drawings of railway projects, part of the exhibition. Another job he did, but evidently now without trace, was a poster ‘giving in simple pictorial form the principal details relating to the prevention and cure of Consumption’, thereby -- further to quote the Public Health head of the day -- pursuing ‘new and excellent development in popular educational method’. Education appears further through the not too kindly but highly expressive depiction of the only other female to have substantial part in the exhibition, Miss Sarah Bignall of the Hobart Ladies College. For the most part, Tom depicted a chaps’ world.

The public service mattered much in keeping Tasmania afloat, but so did business -- as it also did to Midwood’s finances. We have some splendid examples of his work as a commercial artist, pursued on behalf of major Hobart players – Henry Jones I -- XLing, Gibsons’s flour mills, Fitzgeralds department store, Higgins the butcher – that last not so big a businessman, but interesting in this context because his three sons – Arthur, Ernest, Tasman – were to become cinematographers of high order, crucial in the early Australian film industry, carrying pictorial representation to that different order. (Higgins’s shop, one source tells, was first in Hobart to use electric power, so here modernism throbbed.) Tom’s personal depictions add their complement to the business story. That of ‘W. Watchorn, Merchant’ seems to me of especially high order.
Tom played some part in major public events. The exhibition includes photographs of the ‘Apple Arch’ that he designed for the Royal Tour of 1901, the future King George V and Queen Mary then coming to Australia to inaugurate the Commonwealth of Australia. The Tasmanian tour appears to have been altogether successful: King George invoked happy memories when Premier Albert Ogilvie had an audience in London in 1935; much other evidence points in the same direction. Midwood might have helped design another arch of 1901 – that mounted by the Marine Board, and he certainly prepared the Board’s gift to the Royals, a collage of local scenes and insignia. That is not on display, albeit maybe still extant in the vast collections at Windsor Castle. What a case there is for repatriation of such trove. Two years after the Royal tour came the Centenary of British Tasmania. Pertinent celebrations ran at much lower key, but they did include a notable art exhibition, Midwood a contributor.

So our man essentially belonged to upper middle Tasmania. Already however we have had noticed that he could have his jibe, and this earthier, popular story extends further. Biographical facts help make the point. As several of the exhibition items indicate, Tom had affinity for Hobart’s maritime side. Yachting was one of his hobbies from early days. Then at some stage – details are lacking, but I guess in the later 1870s – he set off on adventure abroad, first as a working seaman. But, so it appears, he varied this by a spell as member of a musical troupe in United States. The best record is a sketch – splendid even in photocopy – of ‘Life in America’. It shows a group around a billy-pot boiling on the fire; one of the party strums a banjo, another is in garb of ‘nigger minstrel’ style – that mode of entertainment then having enormous popularity, with other echoes in the exhibition.

Some of Tom’s jibes had a sharpish social edge. In the exhibition we have depiction of ‘the Englishman’ –living on remittance from home that he quickly spent on ‘Alcohol, etcetera’. Another of his pieces, not exhibited, showed a predator on the prowl for young girls. His association with the periodical, the Critic belonged in this context. The Critic was not overly political, but it did have a strong populist strain, telling much of the history of Hobart’s half-world.

Midwood’s art made its appropriate contribution. The biggest single item – hope I’m right – in the exhibition is of ‘Our Boys’ those four enormous fellows from Cascade brewery – and the impact of the piece is appropriately massive. Others in similar mode are that of Morling, the boatman of Bellerive, and James the retired wharfie – a man of colour it appears, perhaps an Afro-American. Chinamen also appear, albeit in more modest way.

My own first consciousness of Midwood pertains to this ‘popular’ theme. When researching the history of the Theatre Royal decades ago I came upon the reproduction in the Tasmanian Mail of a depiction of ‘Patsey Maher’, an ex-convict coster who operated at the Theatre – ‘shouting monotonously. “Grapes, oranges, walnuts! Who says jaw tackle!” ’. So a journalist wrote in 1924, and further: ‘All who love to recall memories of past dramatic joys will remember with them the sturdy figure and fat grinning face of Patsy Maher.’ That style is marvellously captured by Midwood’s pen. The cartoon much delighted Patsey himself.

Other fine items in the exhibition relate to entertainment, all the more pertinent to Tom’s musical skills. Perhaps his two most detailed depictions are of Mr Steinback, described as ‘a popular vocalist of early Hobart’, although I am afraid a stranger to me, and of T.J. Heyward, ‘pianist and choirmaster’, whose name appears in countless reports of concerts and like occasions. To notice such activity as Heyward’s takes us back to the polite stratum of Hobart in the generation straddling 1900. Midwood belonged to that stratum, but surpassed it. His abilities and sensitivities enabled him to evoke the broader society around him with mighty skill — and also humour, compassion, insight. I congratulate Gill and all associated in mounting the exhibition for this recognition of an exceptional man. From http://www.utas.edu.au/library/exhibitions/midwood/biography.html

James Gordon (1779-1842), magistrate, was born at Forcett, Yorkshire, England, the son of John Gordon, steward of the Stanwick estates of the Duke of Northumberland, a noted exporter of stud Teeswater sheep to New South Wales. In 1806 he emigrated to Sydney and soon entered mercantile life there, trading with China, New Zealand and Macquarie Island. In the rebellion against William Bligh he remained loyal and signed an address of sympathy to the deposed governor. In January 1814 he married Elizabeth Emily, daughter of Dr Thomas Arndell. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gordon-james-2106