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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALIAN BIOGRAPHY

PERCIVAL SERLE

Angus and Robertson--1949

St-Sy

Main Page and Index of Individuals 
Biographies:
A  Ba  Be-Bo  Br-By  Ca-Ch  Cl-Cu  D  E  F  G  Ha-He  Hi-Hu  I-K  L  Mc
Ma-Mo  Mu-My  N-O  P-Q  R  Sa-Sp  St-Sy  T-V  Wa  We-Wy  X-Z 

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STANFORD, WILLIAM (c. 1837-1880),

sculptor,

was born in England in 1836 or 1837 and as a youth was apprenticed to a stone mason. He came to Victoria in 1852 and for a time worked on the diggings at Bendigo. In 1854 he was found guilty on a charge of horse-stealing and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. After serving nearly six years he was released on ticket-of-leave. On 1 May 1860 Stanford was found guilty on two charges of highway robbery and one of horse-stealing, and was given sentences amounting to 22 years. Stanford afterwards declared he was quite innocent of two of the charges, and that in the third he was not the principal in the act but was assisting a fellow ex-prisoner. He was placed in Pentridge jail near Melbourne and became one of the most insubordinate of all the prisoners. He had apparently become thoroughly hardened, but one day the prison chaplain noticed some drawings Stanford had made on a slate, which appeared to have merit. The chaplain was afterwards shown a carved figure which the prisoner had fashioned out of a bone with a knife which he had somehow procured. This was shown to Colonel Champ, the governor of the prison, who obtained a promise from Stanford that he would behave himself if he were allowed to cultivate his talent. The chaplain also obtained permission to allow Charles Summers (q.v.) to give Stanford some elementary lessons in modelling. Later Stanford submitted a design for a fountain and obtained permission to execute it, but no better material could be given him than the local bluestone from the prison quarry. He worked for four years on it and became exemplary in his conduct. Summers told his friends about it and many appeals were made for the release of the prisoner. He was "discharged to freedom by remission" on 28 October 1870, the fountain was set up in the triangular piece of ground between parliament house and the treasury building, and there Stanford gave it its finishing touches. It is an excellent piece of design, amazingly successful when the conditions under which it was produced are considered.

Stanford set up as a monumental mason at Windsor, a suburb of Melbourne. There he married and was respected and liked by his neighbours. His business was successful and he made a reputation for his carved headstones. One of these may be seen on the main drive of the St Kilda cemetery not far from the gate. Another example of his work is on his wife's grave at the Melbourne cemetery. He died in 1880 partly from the effects of inhaling the fine dust while working on the fountain.

William Moore, Studio Sketches, p. 41, and The Story of Australian Art, vol. II, p. 78.

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STAWELL, FLORENCE MELIAN (1869-1936),

classical scholar,

youngest daughter of Sir William Foster Stawell (q.v.), was. born at Melbourne on 2 May 1869. She spent two years at the university of Melbourne and then went to England and entered Newnham College, Cambridge, in the May term of 1889. She was placed in class 1 division 1 in the classical tripos of 1892 but did not take part 11 of the tripos. In 1894-5 Miss Stawell was a classical don at Newnham, but had to resign on account of ill-health, and henceforth lived chiefly at London with occasional visits to her relations in Australia. In 1909 she published Homer and the Iliad: an Essay to determine the Scope and Character of the Original Poem, an important and scholarly contribution to the literature of the subject. In 1918 she prepared The Price of Freedom, an Anthology for all Nations, and five years later in collaboration with F. S. Marvin brought out The Making of the Western Mind. She was associated with G. Lowes Dickinson in the production of Goethe and Faust; an Interpretation, which appeared in 1928. Miss Stawell's next book was a translation in English verse of the Iphigenea in Aulis of Euripides, which was published in 1929, and an excellent little book in the home university library on The Growth of International Thought belongs to the same year. She had been doing much work on the Minoan script and in 1931 published A Clue to the Cretan Scripts. The Practical Wisdom of Goethe: an Anthology, which appeared in 1933, was partly translated by her. She died at Oxford on 9 June 1936. Miss Stawell was an excellent classical scholar to whom Greek was one of the most living of languages. Frail of body, she had an ardent and energetic spirit, and with better health she would have taken an even more distinguished place among the classical scholars of her period.

The Times, 11 and 16 June 1936; The Argus, Melbourne, 11 June 1936; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature.

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STAWELL, SIR RICHARD RAWDON (1864-1935),

physician,

son of Sir William Foster Stawell (q.v.), chief justice of Victoria and his wife, Mary Francis Elizabeth Greene, was born at Kew, Melbourne, Victoria, on 14 March 1864. He was sent to England to be educated at Marlborough school, but returned to Australia on account of his health and went to Hawthorn Grammar School under Professor Irving (q.v.). Passing on to Trinity College at the university of Melbourne he graduated M.B., B.S. in 1888, with the scholarship in medicine at the final examination, and M.D. in 1890. He did post-graduate work in the United States, Germany and London during the next three years, and obtained the diploma of public health in England in 1891. He returned to Australia and began to practise at Melbourne in 1893. He was appointed a member of the honorary medical staff of the Children's hospital and became recognized as a specialist in children's diseases. From 1894 to 1900 he was honorary co-editor of the Australian Medical Journal, and from 1895 to 1906 was on the committee of the Medical Society of Victoria. He worked actively for the amalgamation of that society with the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association. From 1902 until 1924 Stawell was a member of the honorary medical staff of the Melbourne hospital. The clinical teaching before his appointment was not satisfactory, and it was largely due to Stawell's influence and example that an immense improvement took place. He was an ideal teacher of medicine, and it has been said of him that "to attend Dr Stawell's clinics was the privilege of a lifetime. The scientific grounding received in the physical signs of the chest and in neurological diseases was one never to be forgotten".

In 1908 Stawell was elected a vice-president of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association and in 1910 he became president. He worked successfully for the amalgamation of the two Australian medical journals, the Australian Medical Gazette (N.S.W.) and the Australian Medical Journal (Victoria), and in 1914 the two were absorbed in the new weekly journal, the Medical Journal of Australia. Stawell served with the Third Australian general hospital at the front in 1915 but was brought back to Australia in 1916 to continue his clinical teaching and other important home service work. He became a physician to in-patients at the Royal Melbourne hospital in 1919 and was also a member of the medical advisory committee to the Repatriation department of the Commonwealth. In the following year he was president of the medical section at the Australian medical congress at Brisbane. He resigned the position of physician to in-patients at the Royal Melbourne hospital in 1921 and became a consulting physician to the hospital. He had joined the committee of the hospital in 1905 and in 1928 was elected president. He also did important work for many years as chairman of the house committee. In 1930 he was first president of the Association of Physicians in Australia and delivered the Halford oration at Canberra in November of that year. He was a vice-president at the centenary meeting of the British Medical Association in 1932. He was to have been president at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association at Melbourne in September 1935 but died at Melbourne on 18 April of that year. He married Miss Connolly, daughter of H. J. Connolly, who survived him with a son and two daughters. He was created K.B.E. in June 1929. In 1933 his work for the profession was recognized by the founding of the Sir Richard Stawell oration.

Tall and slightly built Stawell was an excellent tennis player in his youth and represented Victoria in intercolonial tennis. In later years he was a keen golfer and fly-fisher. His quiet, slightly austere manner did not at first suggest his great personal charm, but among his intimates he could let his inner sense of fun have full play or talk with distinction on music or art. In consultation or hospital work he gave himself completely to the problems involved, seeking all the facts and elucidating them. He was a good public speaker and an excellent committee-man. An authority on children's and nervous diseases, a great clinical instructor and possibly the ablest physician in the history of Australian medicine he was honoured and loved by the whole profession.

The Argus, Melbourne, 20 April 1935; The British Medical Journal, 2 March, 27 April and 4 May 1935; The Medical Journal of Australia, 18 May 19351.

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STAWELL, SIR WILLIAM FOSTER (1815-1889),

chief justice of Victoria,

was the second son of Jonas Stawell of Old Court, Cork, Ireland, and Anna, daughter of the Right Rev. William Foster, bishop of Clogher. He was born on 27 June 1815, entered Trinity College, Dublin, in his eighteenth year, won distinction in classics, and graduated B.A. in 1837. He was called to the Irish bar in 1839 and practised in Ireland until 1842 when he sailed for Australia and arrived in Melbourne early in 1843. He quickly gained a reputation at the Victorian bar and he also acquired squatting interests. When Charles Perry (q.v.) came to Australia as first bishop of Melbourne, Stawell helped him to form a constitution for the newly created diocese. In 1851 when Victoria was separated from New South Wales Stawell became a member of the legislative council and La Trobe (q.v.) made him attorney-general. He soon became the predominant member of the council and was principally responsible for the constitution act made effective in 1856. A political contemporary, H. S. Chapman (q.v.), spoke of him as "almost the only efficient man connected with the government". He, however, incurred some unpopularity, particularly when as representative of the government he prosecuted the Ballarat rioters. In 1856 he was returned for Melbourne at the first election for the legislative assembly and soon after parliament opened, as attorney-general in the first ministry, framed and brought in a bill defining the privileges and powers of the assembly and council. In February 1857 Sir William à Beckett (q.v.) resigned the chief justiceship and Stawell was given the position. He held it for 29 years with distinction. He visited Europe in 1874 and was acting-governor of Victoria in 1876 during the absence of Sir George Bowen (q.v.). He was again acting-governor from March to July 1884. In August 1886 failing health compelled him to retire from the office of chief justice. While in this position he had taken much interest in the cultural activities of Victoria. He was president of the Philosophical Institute (afterwards the Royal Society of Victoria) in 1858-9, a trustee of the public library, museums and national gallery, from their inception, was an original member of the council of the university, and from 1881 to 1884 was its chancellor. He was also president of several charitable institutions. He died at Naples, Italy, on 12 March 1889. He married in 1856 Mary Frances Elizabeth, only daughter of William Pomeroy Greene, who survived him with six sons and four daughters. His fifth son, Sir Richard Rawdon Stawell, and a daughter, Florence Melian Stawell, are noticed separately. He was knighted in 1857 and created K.C.M.G. in 1886. Stawell as an administrator was the dominating influence in the days following the making of Victoria a separate colony. Turner speaks of him as "autocratic and imperious in manner" but Stawell no doubt felt there was much work to be done and that he was the fit man to do it. He was responsible for most of the early legislation of the colony. As chief justice he was capable, impartial and hard-working.

Burke's Colonial Gentry; The Argus, 14 March 1889; H. G. Turner, A History of the Colony of Victoria; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

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STEELE, BERTRAM DILLON (1870-1934),

scientist,

son of Samuel Madden Steele, was born at Plymouth, England, on 30 May 1870. He was educated at the Plymouth Grammar School, and came to Australia in 1889, where he qualified as a pharmaceutical chemist. He entered on the science course at the university of Melbourne in 1896, being then nearly 26 years of age, and did such distinguished work that when still only a second year student he was appointed tutorial lecturer in chemistry at the three affiliated colleges, Trinity, Ormond and Queen's. He graduated B.Sc. in 1899 with first-class honours in chemistry, having during his course won exhibitions in chemistry, natural philosophy and biology, and the Wyselaskie and university scholarships in chemistry. In 1899 Steele was appointed acting-professor of chemistry at Adelaide, and at the end of that year went to Europe with an 1851 scholarship. He worked with Professor Collie at London and did research work under Professor Abegg at Breslau. Returning to London he did research work with Sir William Ramsay, and then went to Canada and became a senior demonstrator in chemistry at McGill university, Montreal. He returned to Europe to become assistant professor of chemistry at the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh. In 1905 he was appointed senior lecturer and demonstrator in chemistry at the university of Melbourne. While in this position Steele, working in conjunction with Kerr Grant, afterwards professor of Physics at the university of Adelaide, constructed a micro-balance that would turn with a load of 1/250,000 M.G.R.M. ["M.G.R.M." here represents "milligram." 1/250,000 milligram = 4 nanograms. Ebook editor] An account of this balance written by Steele and Grant was published in Vol. 82A of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London in 1909. As a result of their work the remarkable researches of Dr Whytlaw Gray and Sir William Ramsay on the direct estimation of the density of the radium emanation was made possible. (W. A. Tilden, Sir William Ramsay, pp. 161 et seq. and Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 84A, pp. 538 et seq.).

In December 1910 Steele was appointed professor of chemistry at the newly established university of Queensland. He was elected president of the board of faculties and his experience was of great use in setting the university on its course. His academic work was interrupted by the 1914-18 war, during the whole of which he was working for the ministry of munitions, London. In June 1915 he went to England with a new type of gas mask which he had invented, and an invention to be used against submarines, both of which were presented to the British government. While working for the government he was able to show that synthetic phenol could be produced for less than half the price then being paid for it. He worked out an entirely new process, and designed and had erected a large government factory for its production. While working for the government he refused an offer to go to America at £5000 a year and when it was suggested that an honour might be conferred courteously intimated that he was glad to work for his country without either additional salary or honours. Later on he did important work for the government in connexion with poison gases. On leaving England at the end of the war he received letters of thanks from Mr Winston Churchill and Lord Moulton for the great services he had rendered. He took up his university work again in 1919 and in that year was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, London. He had overworked during the war and his constitution never fully recovered from the strain. He resigned his chair in 1931 and lived in retirement at Brisbane until his death on 12 April 1934. He married Amy Woodhead of Melbourne who survived him. He had no children.

Steele was a man of medium height with a frank and open countenance, a completely unselfish outlook on life, and a personality that attracted both his students and his associate workers. He was a tireless worker and an ideal researcher--honest, patient, imaginative and cautious. Circumstances prevented him doing a large amount of original work, but much of the work he did during the war years was of a secret nature, the value of which cannot be estimated. One piece of early work may be mentioned, his research in connexion with the determination of transport numbers of electrolytes and the electrochemistry of non-aqueous solutions. The heavy work of organizing and carrying on a new department at the university of Queensland left him little time for research, but as chairman of the royal commission for the control of prickly pear he was associated with the successful solution of a problem which was a great danger to Queensland.

A. Hardman-Knight, A Tribute to a Great Scientist; The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 13 April 1934; The Argus, Melbourne, 13 April 1934; The Journal of the Chemical Society, 1934, p. 1479; Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. 116b. p. 409.

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STEERE, SIR JAMES GEORGE LEE.

See LEE-STEERE, SIR JAMES GEORGE.

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STEPHEN, SIR ALFRED (1802-1894),

chief justice of New South Wales,

was born at St Christopher in the West Indies on 20 August 1802. His father, John Stephen (1771-1833), was related to Henry John Stephen, Sir James Stephen and Sir James FitzJames Stephen, all men of great distinction in England. He became a barrister and was solicitor-general at St Christopher before his appointment as solicitor-general of New South Wales in January 1824. He arrived at Sydney on 7 August 1824 and in September 1825 was made an acting judge of the supreme court. On 13 March 1826 his appointment as judge was confirmed. He resigned his position at the end of 1832 on account of ill-health and died on 21 December 1833. His fifth son, George Milner Stephen, is noticed separately. His third son, Alfred, was educated at the Charterhouse school and Honiton grammar school in Devonshire. He returned to St Christopher for some years and then went to London to study law. In November 1823 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, and in the following year sailed for Tasmania. He arrived at Hobart on 24 January 1825 and on 9 May was made solicitor-general, and 10 days later, crown solicitor. He allied himself with Governor Arthur (q.v.) in the latter's struggle with J. T. Gellibrand (q.v.), the attorney-general, and Stephen's resignation of his position in August 1825, and his charges against his brother officer's professional and public conduct, really brought the matter to a head. Stephen always took an extremely high-minded attitude about his own conduct in this matter. The incident is discussed at length in R. W. Giblin's Early History of Tasmania, vol. II, p. 467, et seq. In 1829 Stephen discovered a fatal error in land titles throughout the Australian colonies. The matter was rectified by royal warrant and the issuing of fresh titles in 1830. In January 1833 Stephen was gazetted attorney-general and showed great industry and ability in the position. He was forced to resign in 1837, his health having suffered much from overwork, but after a holiday he took up private practice with great success. On 30 April 1839 he was appointed as acting-judge of the supreme court of New South Wales and he arrived in Sydney on 7 May. In 1841, when judge Willis (q.v.) went to Port Phillip, Stephen became a puisne judge and from 1839 to 1844 he was also a judge of the administrative court. He published in 1843 his Introduction to the Practice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and on 7 October 1844 he was appointed acting chief justice. His appointment as chief justice was confirmed in a dispatch from Lord Stanley dated 30 April 1845. He was to hold the position until 1873 and during that period not only carried out his judicial duties but advised the government on many complicated questions which arose in the legislature. In August 1852 he recommended that the second chamber under the new constitution should be partly nominated and partly elected. In May 1856 he was appointed president of the legislative council and held the position until January 1857. He was able to give the council the benefit of his experience by framing legislation dealing with land titles, the legal profession, and the administration of justice. He continued to hold his seat until November 1858 when judges were precluded from sitting in parliament. In February 1860 he obtained 12 months leave of absence and visited Europe. On his return he gave much consideration to the question of criminal law, and was principally responsible for a criminal law amendment bill which, first brought before parliament in 1872, did not, however, actually become law until 1883. He resigned his chief justiceship in 1873. He had administered the government between the departure of the Earl of Belmore in February 1872 and the arrival of Sir Hercules Robinson in June. He was appointed lieutenant-governor in 1875 and several times administered the government. He was a member of the legislative council for many years from 1875, taking an active part in the debates, and from 1880 he was president of the trustees of the national gallery. In 1883, with A. Oliver, he published Criminal Law Manual, Comprising the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1883, and towards the end of his life interested himself in the amending of the law of divorce. Among his writings on the subject was an article in the Contemporary Review for June 1891 in reply to one by W. E. Gladstone in the North American Review. Stephen resigned from the legislative council in 1891 and lived in retirement. He was still comparatively vigorous when he passed his ninetieth birthday in August 1892 and never completely took to his bed. He faded quietly out of life on 15 October 1894, his intellect bright and clear to the last. He married (1) Virginia, daughter of Matthew Consett, who died in 1837, and (2) Eleanor daughter of the Rev. William Bedford, who died in 1886. There were nine children of each marriage and at the time of Stephen's death he had 66 grandchildren. He was knighted in 1846 and was a made a C.B. in 1862, K.C.M.G. in 1874, G.C.M.G. in 1884, and privy councillor in 1893.

Stephen filled many offices in his life and to all brought a fine intellect and great powers of work. As a judge he was sometimes thought to be severe, but he firmly believed that kindness was wasted on some types of criminals. He was interested chiefly in ascertaining with great care exactly what was the state of the law on any subject and in seeing that the law was carried out. In private life he was charitable and kindly, and he was universally honoured. Froude who met him when Stephen was 83, described him as "a bright-eyed humorous old man whose intellect advanced years had not begun to touch and whose body they had touched but lightly. . . . He had thought much on serious subjects. Most men's minds petrify by middle age, and are incapable of new impressions. Sir Alfred's mind had remained fluid. . . . He was a beautiful old man, whom it was a delight to have seen" (Oceana, p. 186).

Of Stephen's sons, Alfred Hewlett Stephen, born in 1826, entered the Church and in 1869 became a canon of St David's cathedral, Sydney. Another, Sir Matthew Henry Stephen (1828-1920), became a puisne judge of the supreme court of New South Wales in 1887. Other sons held prominent positions in Sydney. Of his grandsons, Edward Milner Stephen was appointed a supreme court judge at Sydney in 1929 and Brigadier-general Robert Campbell Stephen, C.B., served with distinction in the 1914-18 war. A great grandson, Lieutenant Adrian Consett Stephen, killed in the same war, showed much promise as a writer. His Four Plays and An Australian in the R.F.A. were published posthumously in 1918.

Historical Records of Australia, ser. I, vols. XI, XII, XVII, XX, XXI and XXIV, and ser. III, vol. IV; Aubrey Halloran, Journal and Proceedings Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XII, pp. 41-6; C. H. Currey, ibid, vol. XIX, pp. 104-10; R. W. Giblin, Early History of Tasmania, vol. II; Biography of the Hon. Sir Alfred Stephen, Sydney, 1856; The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 October 1894; C. H, Bertie, The Home, 1 December 1930.

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STEPHEN, GEORGE MILNER (1812-1894),

South Australian pioneer and faith healer,

was the fifth son of John Stephen, judge of the supreme court of New South Wales, and younger brother of Sir Alfred Stephen (q.v.). He was born in England on 18 December 1812 (Johns's Aust. Biog. Dict.) and came to Sydney with his father in 1824. In 1831 he was appointed clerk of the supreme court at Hobart, went to South Australia in 1838, and became advocate-general at Adelaide and a member of the legislative council. When Governor Hindmarsh (q.v.) left the colony in 1838 Stephen administered the colony under great difficulties from July to October. There were no funds in the treasury, and Stephen had to advance the pay of the police force from his own pocket. He "carried out a heavy duty with honour, zeal, intelligence and integrity" (A. G. Price, Foundation and Settlement of South Australia, p. 130). He was colonial secretary of South Australia from October 1838 to July 1839. Unfortunately he became involved in a land transaction which led to his being accused of perjury. He was acquitted, but was unsuccessful in an action for libel brought against the South Australian Register in connexion with this matter. He went to England to continue his law studies and was called to the bar early in 1845. He then returned to Adelaide and practised as a barrister, and removed to Melbourne about 1851 where he also practised with success. He was in England from 1853 to 1856 and then returned to Australia. In August 1859 he was elected a member of the Victorian legislative assembly for Collingwood. A few years later he went to Sydney where for two years he was acting parliamentary draughtsman. He became interested in spiritualism and believed that he could heal people by the "laying on of hands". For many years both in Sydney and Melbourne he practised in this way, and received hundreds of letters testifying to the benefits received by his patients. He died at Melbourne after a long illness on 16 January 1894. He married a daughter of Sir John Hindmarsh about the year 1840 and was survived by three sons. He was a man of unusual ability, a good administrator and a capable lawyer, interested in science, art and music, all of which he had studied. His early unfortunate experience in speculating in land was continually brought up against him in later years, and militated against his public career. His work as a healer created a great deal of interest at the time.

H. W. H. Stephen, George Milner Stephen and his Marvellous Cures (contains a short account of his life by a son); The Age, 17 January 1894; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.

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STEPHENS, ALFRED GEORGE (1865-1933),

critic and miscellaneous writer,

was born at Toowoomba, Queensland, on 28 August 1865. His father, Samuel George Stephens, came from Swansea, Wales, his mother, originally Euphemia Russell, was born in Greenock, Scotland. He was educated at the Toowoomba Grammar School until he was 15, and had a good grounding in English, French, and the classics, but his education was later much extended by wide reading. His father was part-owner of the Darling Downs Gazette, and in its composing room the boy developed his first interest in printing. On leaving school he was employed in the printing department of W. H. Groom (q.v.), proprietor of the Toowoomba Chronicle, and later in the business of A. W. Beard, printer and bookbinder of George-street, Sydney. He was learning much that was to be invaluable to him in his later career as journalist and editor. He returned to Queensland and in 1889 was editor of the Gympie Miner. A year or two later he became sub-editor of The Boomerang at Brisbane, which had been founded by William Lane (q.v.) in 1887, but though this journal had able contributors it fell into financial trouble, and in 1891 Stephens went to Cairns to become editor and part proprietor of the local Argus. On the Boomerang he had had valuable experience as a reviewer of literature, on the Argus he enlarged his knowledge of Queensland politics. In 1892 he won a prize of £25 for an essay Why North Queensland Wants Separation, published in 1893. and in this year was also published The Griffilwraith, an able piece of pamphleteering attacking the coalition of the old rivals, Sir Samuel Griffith (q.v.) and Sir Thomas McIlwraith (q.v.). In April 1893 having sold his share in the Cairns paper he left Australia for San Francisco, travelled across the continent, and thence to Great Britain and France. He had begun to do some journalistic work in London when he received the offer from J. F. Archibald (q.v.) of a position on the Bulletin. He returned to Australia and arrived at Sydney in January 1894. His account of his travels, A Queenslander's Travel Notes, published in that year, though bright enough in its way suggests a curiously insensitive Stephens. To him the "ordinary London sights are disappointing", there is nothing to suggest that he had entered the doors of the national gallery or the British Museum, or that he found any interest in London's churches and architecture. But he was taking in more than he knew, and after a second visit to Europe in 1902 he wrote with wisdom and knowledge on other arts beside literature.

Stephens began work on the Bulletin as a sub-editor, and it was not until after the middle of 1896 that he developed the famous "Red Page" reviews of literature printed on the inside of the cover. They were at first little concerned with work done in Australia, but as the years went by Australians were given their due share of the space. But Stephens was also acting as a literary agent, and in this way came in touch with and influenced much the rising school of Australian poets. He prepared for publication in 1897 a collected edition of the verses of Barcroft Boake, with a sympathetic and able account of his life, and during the next 20 years he saw through the press, volumes of verse by A. H. Adams (q.v.), W. H. Ogilvie, Roderick Quinn, James Hebblethwaite (q.v.), Hubert Church (q.v.), Bernard O'Dowd, C. H. Souter, Robert Crawford (q.v.), Shaw Neilson (q.v.) and others. In prose he recognized the value of Joseph Furphy's (q.v.) Such is Life, and succeeded in getting it published in spite of the realization of the Bulletin's proprietary that money would be lost in doing so.

In October 1906 Stephens left the Bulletin, the exact occasion for the break has never been known. Possibly Stephens had begun to think himself of more importance to the journal than the proprietors were willing to allow. For the remaining 27 years of his life Stephens was a free-lancer except for a brief period as a leader writer on the Wellington Post in 1907. While he was with the Bulletin he had published a small volume of his own verses, Oblation, in 1902; The Red Pagan, a collection of his criticisms from the "Red Page" appeared in 1904, and a short but interesting biography of Victor Daley (q.v.) in the same year. He had also brought out five numbers of a little literary magazine called The Bookfellow in 1899. This was revived as a weekly for some months in 1907, and with variations in the title, numbers appeared at intervals until 1925. It was always an interesting production, but its proprietor could have gained little from it. He supported himself by free-lance journalism, by lecturing, he visited Melbourne and gave a course of four lectures on Australian poets in 1914, and by acting as a literary agent. His quest of a living was a constant struggle, but he never complained. He was joint author with Albert Dorrington of a novel, The Lady Calphurnia Royal, published in 1909, in 1911 a collection of prose and verse, The Pearl and the Octopus, appeared, and in 1913 "Bill's Idees", sketches about a reformed Sydney larrikin. A collection of his Interviews was published in 1921, School Plays in 1924, a short account of Henry Kendall (q.v.) in 1928, and just before his own death a biography of C. J. Brennan (q.v.). He died suddenly at Sydney, on 15 April 1933. He married in 1894, Constance Ivingsbelle Smith, who survived him with two sons and four daughters. A collection of his prose writings with an introductory memoir by Vance Palmer, A. G. Stephens, His Life and Work, was published in 1941. An interesting collection of his manuscripts is at the Mitchell library, Sydney.

A. G. Stephens wrote a fair amount of verse, for which he claimed no more than that it was "quite good rhetorical verse". He was an excellent interviewer because he was really interested in his subjects, and he was a remarkably good critic, largely because he had an original analytic mind, and also because he fully realized how difficult the art of criticism is. He was not infallible and occasionally made a bad mistake, but he helped numberless writers, he set a standard, and he strongly influenced the course of Australian literature. In this respect there is no other writer who may be set beside him.

Vance Palmer, A. G. Stephens, His Life and Work; P. R. Stephensen, The Life and Works of A. G. Stephens; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature; The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 1933; personal knowledge. Bibliographies will be found in Manuscripts No. 10 and Vance Palmer's A. G. Stephens.

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STEPHENS, JAMES BRUNTON (1835-1902),

poet,

was born at Borrowstounness, on the Firth of Forth, on 17 June 1835. His father, John Stephens, was the parish schoolmaster, and the boy was educated at his father's school and at Edinburgh university. Three years were then passed as a travelling tutor on the continent, which was followed by a period of school teaching in Scotland. In 1866 he migrated to Queensland for reasons of health. He was a tutor with the family of a squatter for some time and in 1873 entered the Queensland education department. He had experience as a teacher at Stanthorpe and was afterwards in charge of the school at Ashgrove, near Brisbane. Representations were then made to the premier, Sir Thomas McIlwraith, that a man of Stephens's ability was being wasted in a small school, and in 1883 a position was found for him as a correspondence clerk in the colonial secretary's department. He afterwards rose to be undersecretary to the chief secretary's department. Before coming to Australia Stephens had done a little writing for popular magazines, and in 1871 his first volume of poems, Convict Once, was published by Macmillan and Company, which immediately proclaimed him to be an Australian poet of importance. Two years later a long poem, The Godolphin Arabian, was published. These were followed by The Black Gin and other Poems, 1873, and Miscellaneous Poems, 1880. The first collected edition of his poems was published in 1885, others followed in 1888, 1902 and 1912. Of these the 1902 edition is the most complete. After Stephens entered the colonial secretary's department in 1883 he was unable to do much literary work though he wrote occasionally for the press. He was suffering for some time from angina pectoris before his sudden death on 29 June 1902. He married in 1876, Rosalie Donaldson, who survived him with four daughters and one son.

Stephens was a somewhat spare man of medium height "with the face of a poet". Simple and natural in manner, modest about his own work, he hated anything in the nature of lionizing. His over-sensitiveness to the sufferings of others made it difficult for him to resist appeals for charity to the extent of injuring his own fortunes. He was a charming companion in congenial company, sometimes exuberant and full of humour, though occasionally the pendulum swung the other way. His sense of duty kept him working during his last illness to the end. No doubt his official papers exercised his literary talent, but it was not the best preparation for poetry of which he wrote little in later years. However, though new men were arising, he remained the representative man of letters in Australia until his death. His witty and humorous light verse is very good. Despite all changes of fashion, such poems as "The Power of Science" and "My other Chinese Cook", can still evoke laughter. The Godolphin Arabian in the metre and style of Byron's Beppo goes on its pleasant rhyming way for about three thousand lines and can still be read, but as it is not included in any collected edition, will be forgotten. Convict Once, remains one of the few long Australian poems of merit, technically it is a lesson to those writers who think it is easy to write in a long metre. Much of his other verse is admirable in its simplicity and dignity. He remained a Briton and there is little trace of his adopted country in his poetry, but his poems on federation "The Dominion of Australia" and "The Dominion" have the restrained enthusiasm that belongs to true patriotism. Possibly if there had been less restraint and more of the surge of emotion, Stephens might have been a better poet, but his place among nineteenth century Australian men of letters will always be an honoured one. Apart from his poetry, he published a readable short novel, A Hundred Pounds, the libretto of an opera, and a few poetry pamphlets not already mentioned are listed in Serle's Bibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse.

The Brisbane Courier, 30 June 1902; F. K. The Bulletin, 3 September, 1903; J. Howlett-Ross, Miles, Poets and Poetry of the Century, vol. 9; H. A. Kellow, Queensland Poets.

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STEVENS, BERTRAM (1872-1922),

literary and art critic,

son of William Mathison Stevens, was born at Inverell, New South Wales, on 9 October 1872. Educated at state primary schools he was a great reader and became a man of wide knowledge and culture. His first position was in a solicitor's office and it was intended that he should study law, but he began writing for the press. He was well-known in literary circles and in 1904 edited My Sundowner and other Poems by John Farrell (q.v.) with a memoir. In 1906 he prepared An Anthology of Australian Verse, in which he was much hampered by copyright restrictions, but he had a much freer hand in The Golden Treasury of Australian Verse, which appeared in 1909. the first anthology of Australasian verse of any importance. In the same year he had the difficult task of succeeding A. G. Stephens (q.v.) as editor of the Red Page of the Bulletin. At the end of 1911 he became editor of the Lone Hand and conducted this journal for seven years. He was one of the founders and was joint-editor of Art in Australia from its beginning in 1916 until his death. He also did literary criticism for the Sydney Mail and other journals, published editions of Australian poets, prepared other anthologies, and edited books on leading Australian artists. Much of his literary work is listed in Serle's Bibliography of Australasian Poetry and Verse and Miller's Australian Literature. He died suddenly at Sydney, on 14 February 1922. He left a widow, two sons and a daughter. At the time of his death he was vice-president of the New South Wales Institute of Journalists. He had been preparing A History of Australian Literature for some years before his death, but this was never published. Many of his papers are at the Mitchell library, Sydney.

Stevens was a modest man of quiet charm. He was completely unselfish, always anxious to help the literary beginner or struggling poet. He was a sound, though not great critic of both literature and art, for both of which he did an immense amount of work, which had much influence on the cultural life of Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 15 February 1922; The Bulletin, 23 February 1922; Henry, Lawson, The Bulletin, 2 March 1922; Art in Australia, February 1922.

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STEVENSON, GEORGE (1799-1856),

pioneer and first South Australian newspaper editor,

was born at Berwick-on-Tweed, on 13 April 1799. His father, a gentleman farmer', died when he was 12 years old, and shortly afterwards he went to sea with an uncle. Not liking the life, he returned to Great Britain and began the study of medicine, but did not go far. He next went with a brother to Canada and worked on the land, and subsequently travelled in Central America and the West Indies. About this time he began writing for the press and contributed to the London Globe and Examiner. He returned to England in 1830 and it has been stated that he collaborated with Henry Lytton Bulwer in his books on France. These appeared in 1834 and 1836, but Stevenson's name is not mentioned in connexion with either of these works. It is possible that he may have been employed to collect materials for them. In 1835 he became editor of the London Globe, but becoming interested in colonization he resigned this position and went to South Australia. He travelled on the Buffalo as private secretary to Captain Hindmarsh (q.v.), arrived at Adelaide on 28 December 1836, and read the governor's proclamation. Before leaving London he had entered into partnership with Robert Thomas with the intention of starting a newspaper in South Australia. A preliminary number of the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register was published in London on 18 June 1836, and about a year later, on 3 June 1837, this paper made its appearance at Adelaide. It was edited with ability but not without partisanship, and an attack on G. M. Stephen (q.v.), who became acting governor in July 1838, led to an unsuccessful libel action against the paper.

Governor Gawler (q.v.) arrived in October 1838 and soon afterwards the Government Gazette was separated from the newspaper which then became the South Australian Register. In the beginning of the eighteen-forties bad times came to Adelaide, and in 1842 Stevenson was obliged to give up his interest in the paper. It continued in other hands for about 90 years; Stevenson afterwards established the South Australian Gazette and Mining Journal, but it did not survive the exodus front South Australia which occurred after the discovery of gold in Victoria. Stevenson was appointed coroner at Adelaide and carried out his duties with ability. He died at North Adelaide on 18 October 1856. He married Margaret Gorton, and was survived by a daughter. Though an able man Stevenson was not fortunate as an editor, but he did extremely useful work in another direction. His house at Adelaide stood in about four acres of land and he planted there every variety of fruit-tree and vine he could procure. When settlers complained about the hardness of the soil, he demonstrated its suitability for vegetable and fruit growing, and confidently prophesied that in time South Australia would boast "orange groves as luxuriant and productive as those of Spain or Italy". At the time of his death he was widely recognized as "the father of horticulture in South Australia".

The South Australian Register, 20 October 1856; G. E. Loyau, The Representative Men of South Australia; A. Grenfell Price, The Foundation and Settlement of South Australia; J. Blacket, History of South Australia; B. T. Finniss, The Constitutional History of South Australia.

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STEWART, NELLIE (1858-1931),

actress,

was born at Sydney on 20 November 1858. Her father, Richard Stewart (c. 1826-1902), was an excellent actor and singer who in 1857 married Mrs Guerin, née Theodosia Yates, a great-grand-daughter of the famous actor and actress Richard Yates (1706-96) and Mary Ann Yates (1728-87). Mrs Guerin came to Australia in 1840 and took leading parts in opera, she was the original Maritana when it was produced at Sydney. Her two daughters by Guerin were well known on the Australian stage as Dollie and Maggie Stewart. The theatre was thus in Nellie Stewart's blood but she was most carefully and strictly brought up. The family had moved to Melbourne where Miss Stewart went first to the old model school, and afterwards for a time to a boarding-school. She was taught fencing by her father, dancing by Henry Leopold and, later on, singing by David Miranda, father of Lalla Miranda. At about five years of age she played a child's part with Charles Kean in The Stranger, and as the years went on took children's parts in pantomime. In 1877 she sang and danced through seven parts in a family production called Rainbow Revels, and in 1878 was the Ralph Rackstraw in an early production in Melbourne of H.M.S. Pinafore. In the following year she was a member of her father's company which toured India, and then went on to the United States to play a small town tour. Towards the end of 1880 Coppin (q.v.) cabled an offer of principal boy in Sinbad the Sailor at Melbourne which was accepted, and the pantomime had great success, running for 14 weeks. Nellie Stewart realized for the first time that she was a star. In 1881 she was Griolet in La Fille du Tambour Major and the Countess in Olivette, and during the next 13 years was to take leading parts in 35 comic operas. In December 1883 she played Patience and as principal boy in the following Christmas pantomime was careless when climbing the beanstalk, fell and broke her arm, had it set in the theatre, and completed the part. Forty years later she recorded that her under-studies seldom had an opportunity of appearing.

On 26 January 1884 Miss Stewart married Richard Goldsbrough Row--"a girl's mad act" she called it in later years, for she discovered at once that she did not really care for her husband. They parted within a few weeks and Miss Stewart resumed her theatrical work. Among her principal parts in the next three years were Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Phyllis in Iolanthe, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Princess Ida and Clairette in La Fille de Madame Angot. She was a great favourite with the public, but her immense vitality led to restlessness and mannerisms which were commented on by the more intelligent of her critics, whom she afterwards thanked in her autobiography. About this time she formed an association with the well-known theatrical manager, George Musgrove (q.v.), which lasted until his death. She had an unbounded affection and admiration for him, he was the "great and good man" to whose memory was dedicated her My Life Story. In 1887 she retired from the stage for 12 months and went to London with Musgrove, returning in January 1888 to play in Dorothy, with the composer, Alfred Cellier, conducting. In March 1888 she sang Marguerite in Gounod's Faust at Melbourne for 24 consecutive nights, an extraordinary feat, but it was probably the beginning of the overstraining of her voice which some years later she was to lose altogether. In April 1888 she had the principal part in the Yeoman of the Guard, at a salary of £15 a week, her highest salary up to that time. In 1889 a successful season was played in Paul Jones and she then went to London and played Susan in Blue-eyed Susan, a burlesque written by Geo. R. Sims. The play was not a good one and Miss Stewart was not good herself. She had difficulty in getting over her nervousness in London, and seldom sang her best there. She always felt depressed and unable to give her natural vivacity full play. She retired for two years and then returned to Australia and in September 1893 began playing a repertoire of nine operas including Gianetta in The Gondoliers and the title role in La Cigale. During the next two years the principal parts in Ma Mié Rosette and Mam'zelle Nitouche were among Miss Stewart's successes. In 1895 she went to London and, except for one small part in an unsuccessful play, did not appear on the stage for four years. During that period Musgrove had a great success in producing The Belle of New York with Edna May in the principal part. Nellie Stewart returned to the stage at Christmas 1899 as principal boy in the Drury Lane pantomime, The Forty Thieves. Her salary was £50 a week and she felt a special pleasure in working in a theatre with the associations of Drury Lane. She was cast for principal boy in the following year, but became ill on the opening day and returned to Melbourne soon afterwards. When the Duke and Duchess of York came to Australia to open the first federal parliament Miss Stewart sang the ode "Australia" at the beginning of the musical programme. In February 1902 she had one of the greatest parts in her career, Nell Gwynne in Sweet Nell of Old Drury. Other comedy parts followed in Mice and Men and Zaza. It was in the last play that Miss Stewart reached her largest salary, £80 a week.

In 1904 and 1905 Pretty Peggy and Camille were added to the repertoire. A visit to America followed and Sweet Nell proved a great success in San Francisco. It was intended to work over to New York but the earthquake compelled the abandoning of the tour, all the scenery for the repertoire season having been destroyed. Miss Stewart returned to Australia, but it was not until 1909 that she had another success in Sweet Kitty Bellairs, which was alternated with Zaza, Rosalind in As You Like It, and Sweet Nell, over a long season. In March 1910 she essayed a part in pure comedy, Maggie Wylie in What Every Woman Knows, in which the actress's own charm successfully grappled with the problem of playing he part of a woman supposed to have none. This was succeeded by characters the antitheses of Maggie Wylie, Princess Mary in the costume play, When Knighthood was in Flower, and an unforgettable performance of Trilby.

A lean period followed and the effect of the war on the theatres led to Miss Stewart losing practically all her savings. In January 1916 she was prostrated by the death of George Musgrove, until she was persuaded by Hugh D. McIntosh to take up work again in a condensed version of Sweet Nell at the Tivoli Theatre. He also employed her to help in the production of Chu Chin Chow and The Lilac Domino. Later on she did similar work for J. C. Williamson Limited. In 1923 she published her My Life's Story, a most interesting record of her life. In later years she made occasional appearances for charities, on one occasion at over 60 years of age playing Romeo in the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet to the Juliet of her daughter, Nancye. When nearly 70 years of age she played an astonishing revival of Sweet Nell of Old Drury, and took the emotional part of Cavallini in Romance in July 1930. She died after a short illness on 20 June 1931. She was survived by her daughter Nancye, a capable actress. Her portrait is at the national gallery, Melbourne.

Miss Stewart held a place by herself on the Australian stage. Beautiful in face and figure, full of vivacity, a natural actress, she had also an excellent soprano voice which she lost in middle life probably from over-working it. She took her art seriously, lived carefully, and never lost her figure. Probably no other woman has ever so successfully played young parts late in life. She had great versatility, and after being for many years at the head of her profession in Australia in light opera, was able after the loss of her voice to take a leading part in drama. Though scarcely a great actress she was an extremely interesting one in both emotional parts and those calling for a sense of humour. Her autobiography discloses a woman of charming character, well-educated, kindly, appreciative of the good work of others, and completely free from the petty jealousies sometimes associated with stage life. She had the admiration, affection and respect of Australian playgoers both men and women for 50 years.

Nellie Stewart, My Life Story; The Age and The Argus, 22 June 1931; personal knowledge.

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STICHT, ROBERT CARL (1856-1922),

metallurgist,

son of John C. Sticht, was born at Hoboken, New jersey, U.S.A., on 8 October 1856. He studied at the Brooklyn polytechnic institute for some years and then went to the royal school of mines, Clausthal, Germany, where he graduated with honours in 1880. Returning to America he occupied various positions and erected smelters in Colorado and Montana. In 1894, on the recommendation of the well-known American mining expert, E. D. Peters, he was appointed chief metallurgist to the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Co. Ltd. in Tasmania. He designed and supervised the erection of the reduction works plant and in 1897 was appointed general manager of the company. His successful dealing with pyritic ores marked him out as a great metallurgist. Other difficult problems arose but each was successfully dealt with as it came, and his ability in selecting suitable assistants and heads of departments was a great factor in the continued success of the company. He had a holiday tour in the United States in 1914-15, and in 1917 was there again investigating problems in connexion with the Mount Read and Rosebery ores. He died at Launceston, Tasmania, on 30 April 1922. He married in January 1895 Marion O. Staige who survived him with three sons.

Sticht was a highly cultivated man, interested in music, art and literature. The trustees of the Felton bequest presented his large collection of drawings by old masters, engravings, etchings, and a collection of examples of early typography of extraordinary value, to the public library, museums and national gallery of Victoria, and many of his scarce and valuable books were bought by the library. Sticht showed his interest in the welfare of the employees of the Mount Lyell mine by the establishment of "betterment" facilities near the mine, and took a leading part in the opening of a technical school at Queenstown. His natural kindliness was extended to his employees, to prospectors, and all interested in the mining industry; he was untiringly devoted to his work, and the mine owed its success to his administrative powers, his resourcefulness and his great knowledge. His reputation became world-wide and the long chapter of 125 pages in the 1907 edition of The Principles of Copper Smelting, by E. D. Peters, owed so much to him, that the author stated that "to save constant quotation marks and references, I believe that it will be more just to ascribe this chapter, in the main, to Mr Sticht".

The Mercury, Hobart, 1 May 1922; The Examiner, Launceston, 1 May 1922; The Industrial Australian and Mining Standard, 4 May 1922; Thirty-second Report of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company; The Book of the Public Library, Museums, and National Gallery of Victoria, 1906-1931.

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STIRLING, SIR EDWARD CHARLES (1848-1919),

anthropologist and first professor of physiology at Adelaide university,

was born at Strathalbyn, South Australia, on 8 September 1848. He was the eldest son of Edward Stirling who was a partner in Elder Stirling and Company before that firm became Elder Smith and Company. He was a nominated member of the 1855 legislative council, and was an elected member of the 1857 legislative council. E. C. Stirling was educated at St. Peter's College, Adelaide, and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. with honours in natural science in 1869, M.A. and M.B. in 1872, and M.D. in 1880. He became F.R.C.S. in 1874. He was appointed house surgeon at St George's hospital, London, and eventually became assistant surgeon and lecturer on physiology and operative surgery. He visited South Australia in 1877 and returned to London with the intention of practising there. He returned to Adelaide in 1881, and in the following year was appointed lecturer in physiology at Adelaide university where a medical school was being founded. In 1884 he was elected to the house of assembly for North Adelaide but sat for only three years. He introduced the first bill to extend the franchise to women in Australia. It was not passed, but a few years later South Australia was the first of the Australian colonies to give women the vote. Stirling had other interests and duties. He was chairman of the South Australian museum committee in 1884-5 and in 1889 became honorary director of the museum. In 1890 he went overland with Earl Kintore from Port Darwin to Adelaide and collected much flora and fauna including several specimens of the marsupial mole Notoryetes tyhlops, described and illustrated in his paper in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 1891, p. 154. In 1893 he investigated at Lake Callabonna a remarkable deposit of fossil bones, and with A. E. H. Zietz reconstructed the complete skeleton of the enormous marsupial Diprotodon Australis and partially reconstructed an immense wombat and a bird allied to the New Zealand moa. In 1894 he was a member of the Horn scientific expedition to Central Australia, and wrote the long and able anthropology report which appears in volume four of the report of the expedition. He was appointed director of the Adelaide museum in 1895 and built up there a remarkable collection including invaluable specimens relating to aboriginal life in Australia. In 1900 he became professor of physiology at Adelaide university, and for many years continued to take a prominent part in university affairs. He retired from the directorship of the museum at the end of 1912, but in 1914 was made honorary curator in ethnology. He had announced his intention of retiring from the university at the end of the year but died after a short illness on 20 March 1919. He married in 1877 Jane, eldest daughter of Joseph Gilbert, who survived him with five daughters. Stirling was honorary fellow of the Anthropological Society of Great Britain, fellow of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, London, in 1893. He was created C.M.G. in 1893 and was knighted in 1917.

Stirling was a man of great energy whose life was full of duties and interests. He was much interested in gardening, in the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and in the welfare of children--he was president of the state children's council. He was surgeon, physiologist, anthropologist, palaeontologist and legislator, but was not sufficiently a specialist to reach the highest rank in any one of these departments. With Dr J. C. Verco he wrote a valuable article on hydatid disease for Allbutt's System of Medicine, he fostered and brought to maturity the young medical school at the university, and he did great work in developing the Adelaide museum. He ranks among the best all-round scientists of his day in Australia.

The Advertiser, Adelaide, 21 March 1919; The Register, Adelaide, 21 March 1919; The British Medical Journal, 21 June 1919; Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, 1919, p. 1, with portrait.

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STIRLING, SIR JAMES (1791-1865),

first governor of Western Australia,

the fifth son of Andrew Stirling of Drumpellier, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was born there in January 1791, entered the navy in August 1803, and became a lieutenant in August 1809. In January 1826 he was given the command of the Success and in the following December, when reporting on the removal of a settlement on Melville Island in the north of Australia, he suggested taking possession of the land on the west of Australia near the Swan River. He pointed out that a colony in that position would have great opportunities for trade, and also the advisability of forestalling the French and Americans. On 17 January 1827 Stirling was sent from Sydney in the Success and arrived off the Swan River on 6 March. Stirling went up the river in boats and explored its course for some miles. He then sailed for King George's Sound, which was reached on 2 April, and he arrived in Sydney again on 15 April. His report so impressed Governor Darling (q.v.) that he strongly advised the English government that a settlement should be made as soon as possible. Stirling apparently took this dispatch to England himself, but the colonial office at first was averse to the proposal. However, a change of government took place, and on 5 November the admiralty was given instructions to send a ship to take possession of the country at or near the Swan River. Stirling was selected to take charge of the settlement, and for some time there was a doubt as to what was to be his exact position. He sailed on 6 February 1829 on the Parmelia, with a band of officials, and arrived on 1 June. It was not, however, until 18 June that he landed on the mainland and began the actual settlement of Western Australia. Stirling and his officers fixed the sites of Fremantle and Perth, and the surveyor-general was soon busy surveying the land so that grants could be made to the settlers who began to arrive almost at once.

The usual difficulties of a settlement of this kind were faced with courage, but unfortunately the Immigration scheme arranged by Thomas Peel (q.v.) was badly mismanaged and became a failure. On 20 January 1830 Stirling in a dispatch pointed out that the success of the colony practically depended on the right kind of immigrant being sent out; men who had been failures in England would be quite unlikely to prosper. He went on to say "I would earnestly request that for a few years the helpless and inefficient may be kept from the settlement, while to the active, industrious, and intelligent there may be assured with confidence a fair reward for their labours. This country may at no distant period absorb, with advantage to Great Britain and herself, an immense migration of persons, any great portion of which if sent forward too soon will ruin her prospects and their own". The winter of 1830 was extremely rainy, which increased the difficulties of the settlers who were increasing very much. It was found. necessary to throw open land where Bunbury now stands and also near King George's Sound. The government was vested solely in the hands of Stirling, who had little to guide him beyond a letter of instructions. On 5 March 1831 a commission was issued appointing him governor and commander-in-chief of Western Australia, and when this arrived Stirling called together a legislative council of which the first meeting was held in February 1832. The colony was faced with shortages of provisions and money, and in August 1832 the governor, at the request of the settlers, sailed for England to put its difficulties before the government. He did not return to Perth until August 1834 and in the meantime much progress had been made. It was known that he had been to some extent successful in his mission and his return was welcomed with rejoicing. Alterations in the system of government provided for an increase in the number of members of the legislative council, and also in the civil and military establishments. Revenue was to come from sale of crown lands and duties on spirits, supplemented by a grant from the Imperial treasury. The land laws were liberalized and precautions were taken by storing foodstuffs against future famine. The settlers, however, began to object to paying for their land, and it was even suggested that new settlers should each receive 2560 acres free. The land question was one of the causes of friction which arose between the council and the governor. The colony was, however, making some progress, evidence of which may be found in the establishment in 1837 of the Bank of Western Australia, which gave a distinct impetus to development. A fair amount of exploring was done in which Stirling himself took part, and when he resigned in December 1838 his leaving caused much regret.

Stirling again took up his naval duties and was in command of the Indies in the Mediterranean from October 1840 to June 1844, and the Howe from April 1847 to April 1850. He was commander-in-chief in the East Indies front January 1854 to February 1856, became vice-admiral on 22 August 1857 and admiral on 22 November 1862. He died at Guildford, England, on 22 April 1865. He married in 1823 Ellen Mangles, who predeceased him, and was survived by children. He was knighted on 3 April 1833.

Stirling was an excellent naval officer and an admirable governor. He has been accused of having been over sanguine, but his optimism was a source of strength in the conditions in which he found himself. He realized, however, that the colony could be successful only if the settlers were able and willing to work hard, and that there was no room for men who had failed in England. Like all the early Australian governors he was hampered to some extent by instructions from the colonial office, and he had the inevitable disagreements with the colonists and the legislative council, but he laid the foundations of Western Australia surely and well, and it was no fault of his that progress lagged for so long a period after.

W. R. O'Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary; The Gentleman's Magazine, vol. I, 1865, p. 801; J. S. Battye, Western Australia, A History; G. F. Moore, Diary of Ten Years Eventful Life of an early Settler in Western Australia; Historical Records of Australia, ser. I, vols. XII to XVI.

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STIRLING, SIR JOHN LANCELOT (1849-1932),

politician,

son of Edward Stirling, and brother of Sir Edward Charles Stirling (q.v.), was born at Strathalbyn, South Australia, on 5 November 1849. He was educated at St Peter's College, Adelaide and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. and LL.B. He was a good athlete and, representing Cambridge against Oxford, won the 120 yards hurdles. He also won the amateur championship of England in this event in 1870 and 1872, his time in the latter year being 16 4/5ths seconds, considered a good performance at that time. Stirling read for the bar and was admitted at the Inner Temple in 1872, but never practised. He returned to South Australia soon afterwards, became a pastoralist, and bred prize horses and merino sheep. He entered the South Australian house of assembly in 1881 for Mount Barker, and afterwards represented Gumeracha until 1890, when he became a member of the legislative council. He was chief secretary in the Solomon cabinet in December 1899 but this ministry was defeated directly the house met. Stirling was elected president of the legislative council, and continued hold that position until his death on 24 May 1932. He married in 1883 Florence Marion, daughter of Sir William Milne (q.v.) and was survived by three sons and two daughters. He was knighted in 1902, created K.C.M.G. in 1909 and O.B.E. in 1918. He continued his interest in sport all his life, pioneering polo in South Australia and captaining the team which twice beat Victoria. For a time he was master of the Adelaide Hounds and was a well-known figure at racing meetings. He was president of the Royal Agricultural Society for seven years, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Pastoralists' Association, the St Peter's Old Collegians Association, the Caledonian Society, the South Australian Zoological and Acclimitization Society, and was a member of the Adelaide university council.

Stirling was a sound man of business and was a director of well-known companies. In politics he was respected as a man of individuality but was not a first-rate speaker. He found his ideal position as president of the council, carrying out his duties admirably, and as the years passed becoming a kind of elder brother to the newer members. His record of 51 years in parliament has not been exceeded in Australia.

The Advertiser, Adelaide, 25 May 1932; Who's Who, 1932; Debrett's Peerage, etc., 1931.

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STOKES, JOHN LORT (1812-1885),

explorer and admiral,

[ also refer to John Lort STOKES page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

son of Henry Stokes and his wife Ann, daughter of George Phillips, was born in 1812. Entering the navy as a first-class volunteer in 1824 he acted as midshipman on the Beagle from 1825 to 1830. In 1831 he became mate and assistant-surveyor while portions of the coast of South America were being surveyed. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1837 and sailed to Australia on the Beagle under Commander J. C. Wickham, the intention being to explore such portions of the Australian coast as were wholly or in part unknown to Flinders (q.v.) and P. P. King (q.v.). Leaving Plymouth early in July Fremantle was reached on 15 November 1837. After doing some surveying of the coast sail was set for the north on 5 January 1838. The Adelaide River was discovered in March 1839 and the Victoria later in the same year. While exploring this river Stokes was speared by an aboriginal on 7 December, and it was a long time before he fully recovered from the wound. About the end of March 1841 Captain Wickham was invalided home and Stokes was given command of the Beagle. In this year much surveying was done in Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Later further work was done on the coast of northern and north-western Australia, and in 1842 on the southern coast of Australia, Bass Strait and Tasmania. In May 1843 Stokes left Western Australia for England and arrived on 30 September. An account of his voyages was published in two large volumes in 1846, Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle.

Stokes was promoted captain in 1846, in 1847 was in command of the Acheron in the East Indies, in 1860-3 was surveying off the coast of Devonshire, and in 1864 was made a rear-admiral. In 1871 he became a vice-admiral on the retired list, and was promoted admiral in 1876. He died in Wales on 11 June 1885. He was married twice, (1) to Fanny Jane, daughter of Major Marlay, and (2) to Louisa French, daughter of R. Partridge.

The Times, 13 June 1885; J. Lort Stokes, Discoveries in Australia; Crawford Pasco, A Roving Commission, chapters IX and X.

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STONE, SIR EDWARD ALBERT (1844-1920),

chief justice of Western Australia,

was born at Perth, Western Australia, on 9 March 1844. He was the second son of George Frederick Stone, formerly attorney-general of Western Australia, and was educated at Chigwell, Essex, England. He returned to Australia in 1860 and entering his father's office, was called to the bar in 1865, and was then taken into partnership. From 1870 to 1874 he was clerk of the legislative council, in 1879 he was appointed acting attorney-general, and he was nominated a member of the legislative council in 1880. He was an acting judge of the supreme court in 1880 and 1881, and was appointed crown solicitor in 1882. In 1884 he was made a puisne judge, and in 1901 succeeded Sir A. C. Onslow as chief justice. He carried out the duties with ability and success but resigned in 1906 on account of his health. He was appointed lieutenant-governor of the state and administered the government on several occasions. He died at Perth on 2 April 1920. He married in 1867 Susan Shenton, who survived him. There was a family of three sons and seven daughters. Stone was knighted in 1902 and created a K.C.M.G. in 1912. A man of high character he interested himself in the Church of England and in the various philanthropic, educational and cultural movements of his state.

The West Australian, 2 April 1920; Sir Edward A. Stone, Some Old-Time Memories; Burke's Peerage, etc., 1917.

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STONE, LOUIS (1871-1935),

novelist,

[ also refer to Louis STONE page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born at Leicester, England, in 1871. He came with his parents to Brisbane in 1884, and the family moved to Sydney a year later. He began the arts course at the university of Sydney, but did not graduate, and entering the New South Wales education department, became first assistant at the Coogee school, and subsequently a teacher at the Sydney Boys High School. His first book, Jonah, a novel of larrikin life in Sydney, was published in London in 1911. Its merits were recognized by a few discerning readers, but it was not reprinted until 1933. Another novel, Betty Wayside, after being printed as a serial in the Lone Hand, was published in 1915. Stone then gave much time to writing plays and in 1920 visited London hoping to have a dramatized version of Jonah produced. After his return he did a little writing for local magazines, but his health began to deteriorate, and he was obliged to retire from the education department some time before his death at Sydney on 23 September 1935.

Stone, who was a fine musician, married Abbie Allen, also a musician of ability, who survived him. It is difficult to say why Stone's work was not better appreciated. Jonah has excellent character drawing, and a crisp style; and though Betty Wayside is more conventional, its merit is above that of the average novel of its time.

The Bookfellow, 1 December 1911 and 1 January 1912; The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 September 1935; H. M. Green, An Outline of Australian Literature; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature.

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STONEHAVEN, LORD.

See BAIRD, SIR JOHN LAWRENCE.

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STOREY, JOHN (1869-1921),

premier of New South Wales,

son of a ship-builder, was born at Jervis Bay, New South Wales, in May 1869. At the age of six he was taken to Sydney where his father died soon afterwards. Storey was educated at the Adolphus-street public school, Balmain, and on leaving school was apprenticed to boiler-making with Messrs Perdriau and West. He worked afterwards at Mort's Dock until 1901, when he was elected a member of the legislative assembly for Balmain. He lost his seat in 1904, but was elected again in 1907. Between 1910 and 1912 he was chairman of the public works committee, but though he was establishing a good reputation as a parliamentarian, Storey was not included in the government formed by Holman (q.v.) in June 1913. He was, however, made deputy-chairman of committees. In April 1916 Holman was much criticized at a Labour conference and resigned. Storey was elected Labour leader, but the circumstances were difficult, and he was much relieved when a compromise over the question of the upper house was agreed to, and Holman resumed his leadership. When, however, Holman had to leave the Labour party over the conscription issue, Storey was elected in his place. Storey had two sons in the A.I.F. and a third was engaged on war work in the United States, but he was strongly against conscription and worked effectively opposing it. At the election held in March 1920 Labour secured exactly half the seats in the house, but a Nationalist supporter was elected speaker, and Storey formed a government, with a precarious majority of one. As premier Storey worked extremely hard trying personally to keep in touch with everything. There was no limit to his hours of work and the strain no doubt affected his constitution. He was so ill at the beginning of 1921 that he took a voyage to England in the hope that it might improve his health. When he returned in July 1921 it was obvious that he was a very sick man, and he died of Bright's disease on 5 October 1921. He left a widow, three sons and two daughters.

Storey was a good cricketer in his youth, and played in first-grade competitions. In his later years he was interested in horse-racing. He was a simple homely man, completely honest, a model citizen, witty and humorous, genial and lovable. He was not a great speaker though his speeches had individuality, but he was a good debater. Coming into power with only a nominal majority and disabled for part of the time by illness, it was difficult for him to bring in legislation of importance. His comparatively early death was lamented by friends and opponents alike--he had no foes. It was realized that here was a man who had done the state some service and might have done it much more had he had the opportunity. No man of his period was more widely and sincerely mourned.

The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 6 and 8 October. 1921; H. V. Evatt, Australian Labour Leader.

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STOW, RANDOLPH ISHAM (1828-1878),

judge,

was born in England on 17 December 1828, the eldest son of the Rev. T. Q. Stow (q.v.). He came to Adelaide with his father in 1837, and was educated at home and by D. Wylie. M.A. He showed much ability as a boy and was articled to a firm of lawyers, Messrs Bartley and Bakewell. Shortly after the completion of his articles Stow became a junior partner, but about 1859 started for himself. Subsequently Messrs T. B. Bruce and F. Ayers became partners with him. He entered the house of assembly as member for West Torrens in 1861, and in October became attorney-general in the G. M. Waterhouse (q.v.) ministry which held office until July 1863. He was attorney-general again in the Ayers (q.v.) and Blyth (q.v.) ministries from July 1864 to March 1865 and then lost his seat. He was now one of the leaders of the South Australian bar, and became a Q.C. in this year. He was elected to the house of assembly for Light in 1870, but did not hold office again. By 1875 he was the unchallenged leader of the bar at Adelaide, and on 15 March 1875 was appointed judge of the supreme court, an appointment which gave much satisfaction. His health, however, had not been good for some time, much heavy work fell on his shoulders, and he died in his fiftieth year on 17 September 1878. He left a widow, four sons and two daughters.

As a member of parliament Stow showed himself to be a first-rate debater and took a leading part as attorney-general in putting through legislation of much value. As an advocate he was eloquent and ready, with an accurate knowledge of law, but he made his greatest impression as a judge though he was on the bench for less than four years. At the time of his death there was a general feeling that South Australia had lost a great judge, and many years later Sir John Downer (q.v.), who became a Q.C. in the year Stow died, said of him that he was "one of the greatest judges Australia ever had. A commanding presence, a striking face, an exquisite voice, unusual swiftness in comprehension, with an immense combination of eloquence and power". (Quoted at the time of Downer's death in the South Australian Advertiser, 3 August 1915).

The South Australian Register and The South Australian Advertiser, 18 September 1878.

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STOW, THOMAS QUINTON (1801-1862),

pioneer clergyman,

was born at Hadleigh, Suffolk, England, on 7 July, 180l. He studied for the Congregational ministry at the missionary college, Gosport, and was given a charge at Buntingford, Hertfordshire. He was transferred to Halstead in Essex, and in 1833 published a volume the Memoirs of R. Taylor, LL.D. Another work, The Scope of Piety, appeared in 1836. In 1837 the Colonial Missionary Society in connexion with the Congregational body in England sent him to South Australia. He arrived at Adelaide on the Hartley in October. He began holding services in a tent but shortly afterwards, partly with his own hands, built the first church in South Australia. It was constructed of pine logs thatched with reeds and stood in North Terrace. In 1840 a more substantial church was built in Freeman-street, and there Stow worked for many years. He also for a time taught a school at the corner of Freeman- and Pirie-streets. In 1848-9 he fought strongly in opposition to state aid for religion. His health, however, declined and in 1855 he found it necessary to have an assistant. About two years later he had to give up his charge, but continued to preach and work for his church as much as his health would allow. In February 1862, hoping that a change of climate might be good for him, he went to Sydney to supply the pulpit in the Pitt-street Congregational church, and in March became so ill that it was impossible for him to be taken back to Adelaide. He died at the house of John Fairfax (q.v.) on 19 July 1862.

Stow was a man of much ability and great honesty of purpose. He was a ready and efficient speaker, with a sense of humour and a turn for satire that was never ill-natured. He did much to form the character of the growing settlement, and this was fully appreciated at the time; twice he was given substantial pecuniary testimonials to which men of all sects contributed. The Stow Church at Adelaide stands as a memorial of him. He was married in England and brought his wife, who survived him, and four sons with him. Of his sons, Randolph Isham Stow is noticed separately. Other sons were Augustine Stow, who was a member of parliament for several years between 1863 and 1871, and entering the public service became chief clerk in the South Australian supreme court; and Jefferson Pickman Stow who went to the Northern Territory in 1864 and sailed in a ship's boat from Adam Bay in the Northern Territory to Champion Bay in Western Australia. He published an account of this voyage as a pamphlet in 1865, Voyage of the Forlorn Hope, and Notes on Western Australia. He was afterwards for a time editor of the South Australian Advertiser and was the author of South Australia, its History Productions and Natural Resources, published by the South Australian government in 1883, second edition, 1884.

The South Australian Register, 23 July 1862; The South Australian Advertiser, 21 July 1862; J. Blacket, The Early History of South Australia; British Museum Catalogue.

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STRANGWAYS, HENRY BULL TEMPLER (1832-1920),

premier of South Australia,

was the eldest son of Henry Bull Strangways of Shapwick, Somerset, England. He was born in 1832 and visited South Australia as a boy. Returning to England he entered at the Middle Temple in November 1851 and was called to the bar in June 1856. He went to Adelaide early in the following year, was elected to the house of assembly in 1858, and became attorney-general in the Reynolds (q.v.) ministry from May 1860 to May 1861. The ministry was then reconstructed and Strangways became commissioner of crown lands and immigration until October 1861. He held the same position in the Waterhouse (q.v.) ministry from October 1861 to July 1863, in the Dutton (q.v.) ministry from March to September 1865, and in the third Ayers (q.v.) ministry from September to October 1865. On 3 November 1868 he became premier and attorney-general in a ministry which was reconstructed after an election on 12 May 1870, but was defeated 18 days later. In February 1871 he was called to England on private business, eventually settled on the family estate in Somerset, and lived the life of a country gentleman until his death on 10 February 1920. He retained his interest in South Australia all his life, but does not appear to have revisited it. He married in 1860 Maria Cordelia, daughter of H. R. Wigley, and was survived by a daughter.

Strangways was an able man who left politics and Australia at the early age of 38. He, however, succeeded in getting some valuable work done during his 12 years in the South Australian parliament. Many attempts had been made to pass a satisfactory land act before the passing in January 1869 of a measure Strangways had brought in, which for the first time allowed government land to be bought on credit. He gave much encouragement to exploration and initiated the trans-continental telegraph line, though the actual carrying out of the scheme was the work of his successors.

The Times, 14 February 1920; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; E. Hodder, The History of South Australia.

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STREET, SIR PHILIP WHISTLER (1863-1938),

chief justice of New South Wales,

was the son of John Rendell Street, managing director of the Perpetual Trustee Company, and for a time member of the legislative assembly of New South Wales, and grandson of John Street, an early pastoralist. He was born at Sydney on 9 August 1863, and was educated at the Sydney Grammar School and the university of Sydney. He graduated B.A. in 1883, was admitted to the bar in 1886, and developed a good practice especially on the equity side. In 1906 he was appointed an acting judge of the supreme court, and in February 1907 was made a judge. He at first presided principally over bankruptcy and probate cases, but afterwards had wide experience as deputy president of the old court of arbitration, judge in vice-admiralty, judge in divorce, and from 1918 chief judge in equity. He was acting chief justice in 1924, and on 25 January 1925 succeeded Sir William Cullen (q.v.) as chief justice. He became lieutenant-governor in 1930, and administered the government from May to October 1934, January to February 1935, and January to August 1936. He resigned as chief justice in 1933. Outside his profession Street had many interests and undertook many duties. He was chairman of the trustees of the Sydney Grammar School from 1912 to 1929, a member of the senate of the university of Sydney from 1915 to 1934, and deputy chancellor in 1926. He was greatly interested in art, was a trustee of the national art gallery of New South Wales from 1923, and he was also a trustee of the Australian Museum. In connexion with social movements he was president of the New South Wales division of the Boy Scouts Association, of the Boys' Brigade, of the New South Wales Home for Incurables, and of the Institute of Public Administration. He was in 1934 appointed American non-national member of the international commission provided for by the treaty between the United States of America and Greece. He died on 11 September 1938. He married in 1888 Belinda Maud, daughter of F. Poolman, who survived him with two sons. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1928.

Street had the culture, dignity and temperament suitable for his position. He had a wide knowledge of law and the ability to quickly reach the heart of the matter; however complicated a case might seem on the surface, the real issue involved soon became apparent to him. Though he had a keen sense of humour his court never lost its dignity and decorum, and though he would not allow himself to be fettered by mere technicalities, he insisted on the maintenance of the basic principles of law. His courtesy was universal and he never lost the affection and respect of the members of his profession.

Street's elder son, Kenneth Whistler Street, born in 1890, educated at Sydney Grammar School and Sydney university, also followed the law with success, and became a judge of the supreme court of New South Wales, possibly a unique case of a father and son sitting on a supreme court bench together. A nephew, Geoffrey Austin Street (1894-1940), a great athlete at Sydney Grammar School and the university of Sydney, fought with distinction in the 1914-18 war, was in the landing on Gallipoli, was awarded the military cross, returned with the rank of major, and keeping his connexion with the forces became colonel and temporary brigadier. He was elected to the Commonwealth house of representatives for Corangamite, Victoria, in 1934, became parliamentary secretary to the department of defence in July, and minister for defence in November 1938. His death in an aviation accident at Canberra on 13 August 1940 cut short a promising career.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 September 1938; The Times, 12 September 1938; The Australian Law journal, 16 September 1938; Debrett's Peerage, etc., 1938; The Herald, Melbourne, 13 August 1940; The Argus, Melbourne, 14 August 1940; Who's Who in Australia, 1938; Commonwealth Parliamentary Handbook, 1938.

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STRONG, SIR ARCHIBALD THOMAS (1876-1930),

scholar and poet,

son of Professor H. A. Strong (q.v.), was born at Melbourne on 30 December 1876. He was taken to England in 1883 and was educated at Sedbergh school and Liverpool university where he graduated B.A. with first-class honours in classics. Going on to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1896, a long illness prevented any possibility of a first in "Greats". After leaving Oxford he was for some months at the university of Marburg, Germany, before returning to read law with F. E. Smith, then a rising barrister, but afterwards to become lord chancellor of England. He became a member of the Middle Temple, but ill-health caused him in 1901 to go to Australia seeking a warmer climate. He settled in Melbourne, did some tutoring and lecturing, and in 1905 published a volume of verse, Sonnets and Songs. In 1910 he was president of the Literature Society of Melbourne and his presidential address, Nature in Meredith and Wordsworth, was printed as a pamphlet in that year. He was for many years literary critic for the Herald newspaper and in 1911 republished some of his earlier writings for this journal under the title of Peradventure, A Book of Essays in Literary Criticism. He was appointed lecturer in English at the university of Melbourne in 1912, and in 1913 brought out a volume of translations, The Ballads of Theodore de Banville, followed in 1915 by Sonnets of the Empire before and during the Great War. When Professor Wallace enlisted in 1916 Strong became acting-professor of English for three years. He was passionately patriotic and, having been rejected for active service, did much war work in addition to carrying on the English school. Some of his work was in the nature of propaganda; a collection of his articles, Australia and the War, was published in 1916 and The Story of the Anzacs, published anonymously at his own expense in aid of patriotic funds, appeared in 1917. From 1919 to 1922 he acted as chief film censor for the Commonwealth government. A small volume of verse, Poems, appeared in 1918. In 1920 he became associate professor in English language and literature, and in the following year the Clarendon Press published his A Short History of English Literature, and Three Studies in Shelley and an Essay on Nature in Wordsworth and Meredith. In 1922 he was appointed Jury professor of English language and literature at Adelaide.

Strong had been about 20 years in Melbourne and his leaving meant the tearing up of many roots. He was eminently fitted for his new task, as in addition to his knowledge of the work of his own school he was an excellent classical scholar, familiar with French and German literature, and with some knowledge of Italian and Spanish in the originals. At Adelaide he became a valuable member of the staff, fully convinced of the importance of the humanities in university life. He visited Europe in 1925 and represented South Australia at a world conference on adult education held at Vancouver in 1929. He had published in 1925 his translation of Beowulf into English rhyming verse. He was engaged on a work on Swinburne when he died after a short illness on 2 September 1930. In 1932 Four Studies by him, edited with a memoir by R. C. Bald and with a portrait frontispiece, was published in a limited edition at Adelaide. Strong never married. He was knighted in 1925.

Strong played both cricket and foot ball at Liverpool university and was much interested in boxing. He was one of the promoters of the original Melbourne repertory theatre and became president of the similar organization at Adelaide. He was a good lecturer in English, never losing his enthusiasm for his subject and communicating it to his students. His Short History of English Literature is a first-rate piece of work within the limits of its 200,000 words, sound and interesting. His verse is technically excellent, often no more than strongly felt rhetorical verse, but at times rising into poetry. Allowing for the difficulties of the problems involved his translations from de Banville and Beowulf are both successful. Personally he was courteous and amiable, with a sense of humour and a gift for friendship.

R. C. Bald, Memoir prefixed to Four Studies; The Advertiser, Adelaide, 3 September 1930; private information and personal knowledge.

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STRONG, CHARLES (1844-1942),

preacher and founder of the Australian church,

son of the Rev. David Strong, was born at Dailly, Ayrshire, Scotland, on 26 September 1844. He was educated at the Ayr Academy, Glasgow academy, and Glasgow university. After some experience as a tutor he became successively minister of the Old West parish church, Greenock, and the Anderson-street church, Glasgow. In 1875 he was called to the Scots' church, Collins-street, Melbourne. His ministry was successful and he became known as one of the leading preachers in Melbourne. His broad-mindedness and honesty of statement, however, led to his orthodoxy being suspected; in November 1881 attention was called in the presbytery to a paper on "The Atonement" which Strong had contributed to the Victorian Review, and a committee appointed to investigate the article reported that some passages required explanation. The charges appear to have been somewhat nebulous, one of his principal accusers said of one passage that "the words were perfectly harmless in themselves but conveyed an impression of unsoundness to his mind". Unfortunately much feeling was aroused. When later Strong associated himself with those who desired to have the public library and national gallery opened on a Sunday, and in the same year presided at a meeting of the Scots' Church Literary Association when Judge Higinbotham (q.v.) gave a lecture on science and religion, this feeling blazed up again. Strong at the meeting dissociated himself from some of Higinbotham's statements, and later on replied to them in a sermon. He was, however, charged with promulgating unsound and heretical doctrine and, weary of the strife, he resigned from the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, and as minister of the Scots' church. On the 14 November 1883 a large number of his friends met at the town hall to express their sympathy with Strong and to present him with the sum of £3000. On that evening he received a letter from the Presbyterian assembly inviting him to attend and disavow all complicity with the doctrines of the lecture and declare his faith. Strong who was on the eve of his departure to Europe declined to attend, and the assembly passed a motion declaring him no longer a minister of the church.

Strong returned to Melbourne in 1885 and in November of that year founded the Australian church. A large church was built in Flinders-street, Melbourne, and for many years Strong had a large congregation. But for various reasons, one of which was Strong's sympathy for the manual workers, the richer members of his congregation dropped away and a smaller church was built in Russell-street. There he ministered to the end of his long life, in his last years accepting no salary. He founded the first crèche in Australia at Collingwood, one of the poorer suburbs of Melbourne, was an earnest supporter of the Anti-sweating League, the Criminology Society, the Peace Society, and indeed of every movement for social reform. He was quite unselfish; it was characteristic that when an admirer left him £250 he immediately sent it to Dr Maloney for his milk for children fund. Still amazingly active in mind and body, he died suddenly at Lorne, Victoria, on 12 February 1942 in his ninety-eighth year. He married before coming to Australia, and was survived by five sons and two daughters.

His published works included Unsectarian Services for Use in Schools and Families (1888), Church Worship (1892), Christianity Re-interpreted and other Sermons (1894), and various separate addresses and sermons. From 1887 until his death he edited a monthly periodical known under the successive titles of Our Good Words, The Australian Herald, and The Commonweal. He received the degree of doctor of divinity from the university of Glasgow for his thesis upon the "Doctrine of the Atonement". He always claimed "that he was neither an iconoclast nor an innovator. Changes were taking place in modern thought and if he prepared his people for them it was that they might be strengthened in the faith".

The Age, 12 February 1942; The Argus, 12, 14 February 1942; The Commonweal, March 1942; History of the Scots' Church Case; Note to preface to Church Worship.

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STRONG, HERBERT AUGUSTUS (1841-1918),

classical scholar,

third son of Rev. E. Strong, Exeter, England, was born at Exeter on 24 November 1841. He was educated at Winchester school and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and graduated B.A. in 1863 having taken a first-class in classical moderations the year before. He was for six years assistant professor of humanity at the university of Glasgow, and was the first warden of university hall. In 1872 he was appointed professor of classics at the university of Melbourne. His opportunities were not great for the university was still in its infancy, there being then fewer than 150 full-time students, and 10 years later the number was still under 300. Strong, however, identified himself with the life of the university, encouraged athletics and the formation of a university spirit, and advocated the cultivation of French and German in addition to the classics. In 1884 he became professor of Latin at the university of Liverpool and held the chair until his retirement in 1909. While at Liverpool he was president of the Liverpool Royal Institution and Liverpool guild of education, president of the French Society of Liverpool, and for 20 years was president of the university athletic club. He was also for 20 years examiner of secondary schools for the Scottish education department. In addition to minor educational works and editions of Catullus and Juvenal, Strong wrote with Kuno Meyer an Outline of a History of the German Language (1886), and with W. S. Logeman and B. I. Wheeler an Introduction to the Study of the History of Language (1891). He died in England on 13 January 1918. He was given the honorary degree of LL.D. at Glasgow in 1890. He was married twice, and was survived by two sons, of whom Sir Archibald T. Strong is noticed separately.

The Times, 14 January 1918; Who's Who, 1917; H. A. Strong, Address to the Students attending the Classical Lectures at the Melbourne University, 1879.

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STRUTT, WILLIAM (1825-1915),

artist,

came of a family of artists, his grandfather, Joseph Strutt, was a well-known author and artist, his father, William Thomas Strutt, was a good miniature painter. William Strutt was born in 1825 and studied art at Paris. He came to Australia in 1850 and was in Victoria on 6 February 1851, the date of "Black Thursday" when bushfires swept over the colony. He made a number of sketches which were used for a large picture representing animals and men fleeing from the fire, which he completed some 10 years later. He was an early member of the Victorian academy of fine arts, and showed a portrait of Major-general Macarthur (q.v.) at its exhibition held in 1857. He remained in Australia until 1862 when he returned to London and became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1865 onwards. His large picture of "Black Thursday" was bought by an Adelaide dealer and exhibited throughout Australia. Strutt died at Wadhurst, Sussex, England, on 3 January 1915, in his ninetieth year, and was survived by a son, Alfred William Strutt, a painter of ability, and three daughters.

Strutt was a good draughtsman and an excellent painter, some of his early pictures have been compared with the best work of the Dutch school of genre painting, and his "Black Thursday" is a vigorous piece of work. He is represented in the Ballarat gallery, and interesting sketches by him will be found in the historical collection at the public library, Melbourne; the library, State parliament house, Melbourne; the Mitchell library, Sydney; and the Commonwealth national library at Canberra.

W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; The Connoisseur, vol. 41, p. 170; A. Graves, The Royal Academy Exhibiters; Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler, vol. XXXII.

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STRZELECKI, SIR PAUL EDMUND DE (1797-1873),

explorer and scientist,

[ also refer to Paul STRZELECKI page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born at Gluszyna near Poznau in Prussian Poland, on 20 June 1797. He was the son of Francis Strzelecki, a small landed proprietor and his wife, Anna Raczynski. Both parents were of good descent though comparatively poor. In Australia Strzelecki took the title of count, but his parents were not titled and it is not known on what his claim was based. He was educated at a school at Warsaw and his knowledge of science suggests that he must have attended a university, but attempts to trace where he completed his education have failed. When about 21 he entered the Prussian army, but did not like the strict discipline and resigned his ensign's commission. Not long after he attempted an elopement with a girl of 15, Adyna Turno, but she was overtaken on the way to their meeting-place, and Strzelecki, provided with funds by his family, found it wise to leave the district. He eventually came under the notice of Prince Sapieha who placed him in charge of a large estate in Russian Poland. He was then about 26 years of age and appears to have been successful in the carrying out of his duties. Some years later the prince died and trouble arose between his heir and Strzelecki, who about the year 1830 left Poland and went to England. Beyond his own statement in his volume published in 1845 that 15 years before he was exploring the north of Scotland, nothing is known about his stay in Great Britain. Early in 1834 he paid a visit to the continent and on 8 June 1834 he sailed from Liverpool to New York. He travelled much in North and South America and the South Sea Islands, and came to New Zealand probably about the beginning of 1839. He arrived at Sydney towards the end of April of that year.

Strzelecki was chiefly interested in the mineralogy and geology of Australia and at once began to explore near Sydney. During the next four years he traversed a great part of the country to a depth of 150 miles, from the north of New South Wales to the south of Tasmania. In 1839 he was the first person to discover gold in Australia, but Governor Gipps (q.v.) feared the effects of gold discovery on the colony and persuaded Strzelecki to keep it secret. He did so to the extent that in his journal published in the Sydney Herald of 19 August 1841 he spoke of gold having been found "sufficient to attest its presence; insufficient to repay its extraction". He had, however, reason to think that gold in larger quantities could be found in the Bathurst district, but respected Gipps's wishes in saying nothing further. The credit of being the first discoverer of gold in Australia is sometimes given to assistant surveyor, James McBrien, whose field-book, now in the Mitchel library, has an entry on 15 February 1823, stating he had found "numerous particles of gold". No evidence could be traced to show that this discovery had been made public, and in the discussions that took place 30 years afterwards neither Strzelecki nor the Rev. W. B. Clarke (q.v.) even mentions McBrien's name. A discovery that was still unknown so many years later is not worthy of the name. About the middle of January 1840, with James Macarthur, a cousin of James Macarthur of Camden (q.v. [under entry for John Macarthur]), Strzelecki set out on a journey to the south intending to make for Port Phillip and Tasmania. On 15 February he ascended the peak he named Mount Kosciusco. From there he made his remarkable journey through Gippsland. After passing the La Trobe River it was found necessary to abandon the horses and all the specimens that had been collected, and try to reach Western Port. For 22 days they were on the edge of starvation, indeed they were only saved by the knowledge and hunting ability of Charley, an aborigine member of the party who caught native bears which were thankfully eaten. Sometimes the scrub was so dense that only two miles would be covered in a day. The party arrived at Western Port on 12 May practically exhausted. Melbourne was reached on 28 May 1840. This journey caused Strzelecki to be called the discoverer of Gippsland, but that honour must be given to Angus McMillan (q.v.). Strzelecki spent some weeks in Melbourne and then went to Tasmania on 7 July. There he was kindly received by Sir John Franklin (q.v.) and his wife who encouraged and helped him in every way. He showed interest in the question of irrigation which, however, was much less needed in Tasmania than in the other colonies. He travelled over most of Tasmania on foot, with three men and two packhorses, and in the beginning of 1842 examined the islands in Bass Strait and then resumed his journeys in Tasmania. He left Tasmania on 29 September by steamer and arrived at Sydney on 2 October 1842. He was collecting specimens in northern New South Wales towards the end of that year, and on 22 April 1843 he left Sydney and went to England after visiting China, the East Indies and Egypt. Everywhere he went he collected specimens, the sale of which in Europe provided for his expenses. He was much gratified in 1844 on receiving an address from the Tasmanian public accompanied with the sum of £400. In 1845 he published his Physical Description of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, a purely scientific work in which the account of his journeys fills a very small place. In the same year he was naturalized as an Englishman, and in 1846 was awarded the founder's medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

The Irish famine which began towards the end of 1846 was a disaster which stirred England deeply. The British Relief Association was formed and the sum of £500,000 was subscribed for the relief of the sufferers. Strzelecki was appointed an agent to superintend the distribution of supplies in the counties of Sligo and Mayo. He devoted himself to his task with success, though for a time incapacitated by famine fever. In 1847-8 he continued his work in Dublin as sole agent for the association. In recognition of his services he was made a Companion of the Bath in November 1848. On his return to London he gave much attention to philanthropic interests, and especially in assisting the emigration of impoverished families to Australia, in which he was associated with Mrs Chisholm (q.v.). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1853, in June 1860 he was given the honorary degree of D.C.L. of Oxford, and in 1869 he was created a K.C.M.G. He died at London on 6 October 1873. He never married. He corresponded with Adyna Turno on affectionate terms and 20 years after their attempt at elopement they still considered themselves betrothed. They do not appear to have met again until Strzelecki was about 70 years of age.

Strzelecki, after a somewhat turbulent youth, developed into a man of fine character and personal charm. He was a great worker, a good explorer and scientist, and his one book so far at least as the Tasmanian portion is concerned was not superseded for 45 years. His only other publication was a supplement to this work, Gold and Silver, which told the story of his discovery of gold in Australia to protect himself "against the imputation of negligence or incapacity as a geological and mineralogical surveyor".

W, L. Havard, Journal and Proceedings, Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XXVI, pp. 20-97; Sydney Herald, 19 August 1841; Ernest Scott, The Herald, Melbourne, 24 June 1939; The Times, 7 and 17 October 1873; The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July and 1 August 1936.

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STUART, SIR ALEXANDER (1825-1886),

premier of New South Wales,

was born at Edinburgh in 1825, the son of Alexander Stuart. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and on leaving school entered a merchant's office at Glasgow. His next appointment was at a linen mill in the north of Ireland and in 1845 he went to India. Finding that the climate did not suit him he went to New Zealand for a period, and in 1851 removed to Sydney. The Victorian gold discoveries tempted him to try his fortune on the diggings at Ballarat and Bendigo, but he was not successful. He returned to Sydney in 1852 and was given a position in the Bank of New South Wales. In less than two years he had become secretary and an inspector of branches. In 1855 he accepted a partnership in R. Towns (q.v.) and Company, merchants, and became well-known as a business man in Sydney. During a controversy on the education question he spoke in favour of denominational schools and in 1874 was elected a member of the legislative assembly for East Sydney. In February 1876 he succeeded William Forster (q.v.) as treasurer in the third Robertson (q.v.) ministry, and held the position until Robertson was defeated in March 1877. Stuart resigned his seat in March 1879 to become agent-general at London but gave up this appointment in April. He was returned for Illawarra at the general election in 1880 and became leader of the opposition. In 1882 the Parkes-Robertson ministry was defeated and Stuart became premier from 5 January 1883 to 6 October 1885. He succeeded in passing a land act in 1884 after much opposition, and other acts dealt with the civil service, fire brigades, the university, and licensing. In October 1884 he had a paralytic stroke and went to New Zealand to recuperate. It was during his illness that W. B. Dalley (q.v.) as acting-premier offered to send a contingent to the Sudan. Stuart resigned in October 1885 and was nominated to a seat in the legislative council. In 1886 he was appointed executive commissioner to the Colonial and Indian exhibition at London, but died there after a short illness on 16 June 1886. He married in 1853 Miss C. E. Wood who survived him. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1885. He was a man of probity, with a high reputation in financial circles.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 June 1886; The Times, 17 June 1886; Official History of New South Wales.

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STUART, JOHN McDOUALL (1815-1866),

explorer,

[ also refer to John McDouall STUART page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, on 7 September 1815, the son of William Stuart, a captain in the army. He arrived in South Australia in 1838 where he entered the government survey department. In 1844 he joined the expedition to the centre of Australia led by Captain Charles Sturt (q.v.) as. draftsman and gained invaluable experience. Little is known of his life during the next 14 years, but on 14 May 1858 Stuart with one companion and six horses made an expedition to west of the Torrens Basin, a northerly course being taken until 24 June. He then proceeded north-westerly until 11 July when a turn was made to the south-west, and on 16 July Stuart turned back parallel with his original course. A fair amount of good land was discovered, but on taking a westerly course again Stuart found himself at Mount Finke on 8 August in "fearful country". Going almost due south, he passed through a "dreary dreadful dismal desert of heavy sand hills and spinifex". When Streaky Bay was reached on 21 August the explorers had been without food for three days. On the following day they arrived at a station, and both Stuart and his companion Forster became very ill from the effects of their previous starvation. An enforced stay of nine days was made and then an easterly course was taken until a station near Mount Arden was reached north-east of Port Augusta. Stuart had travelled considerably over a thousand miles. This expedition had been financed by William Finke, who with James Chambers jointly provided the means for Stuart to go north again. His diary does not give the strength of his party but three men are mentioned, Miller, Hergott and Campbell, as being with him. Near Mount Hamilton Stuart turned more to the north than in 1858. He reached near latitude 27° and then finding that his horses' shoes were all fast wearing out, decided to return and arrived at Glen's station near Termination Hill on 3 July 1859. Stuart's third expedition set out on 4 November 1859 and reached Lake Eyre two days later. Quite early in this journey Stuart had great trouble with his eyes, on 12 November he mentions in his diary that he is "almost blind". About the end of December a week was spent at Freeling Springs, and some prospecting for gold was done without result although some of the quartz looked promising. On 6 January 1860 as provisions were running short he decided to return to Chambers Creek. Of Kekwick one of the men with him Stuart said that he was "everything I could wish a man to be". But he had great trouble with two other men who wished to return to Adelaide.

On 2 March 1860 Stuart left Chamber's Creek on his fourth journey. He had Kekwick and one other man with him and 13 horses. By 13 April he had reached the McDonell [sic] Range and on 22 April found that he was camped in the centre of Australia. A peak about two and a half miles to the north-east was given the name of Central Mount Sturt, afterwards called Central Mount Stuart, and on the following day he ascended it and planted the British flag there. From there Stuart travelled about 150 miles to the north-west, but had to retrace his steps as he was suffering much from scurvy. The journey north was then continued through the Murchison and McDonell ranges. On 26 June the party was attacked by aborigines; Stuart reluctantly had to fire on them, and next day finding his rations getting very low decided to return. Many privations were endured and Kekwick became very ill, but they succeeded in reaching Hamilton Springs on 26 August. After a few days' rest Stuart arrived at Adelaide in October 1860. He had reached almost to the 18th degree of south latitude and the South Australian parliament now voted £2500 for the equipment of a larger and better organized expedition. It left on 29 November, Stuart having William Kekwick as his second in command and 10 other men. When they left Chambers Creek on 1 January 1861 the party consisted of 12 men and 49 horses. Marchant Springs on the Finke was reached on 22 February, Hamilton Springs on 24 March, and Attack Creek near the farthest point of the previous journey, on 25 April. On 4 May they came to Sturt's Plain and during the next few weeks tried vainly to find a good track to the north. In places the scrub was so dense it was almost impenetrable. On 4 July Stuart was still hoping to reach the Victoria, but on 12 July found himself forced to return as the men were showing the effects of short rations. They crossed the Centre on 30 July, Chambers Creek on 7 September, and Adelaide was reached on 23 September 1861.

In spite of the ill-success of his efforts Stuart was still confident that he could cross the continent. A fresh expedition was arranged which left Adelaide on 21 October 1861. Stuart, however, was knocked down by a rearing horse and was unable to proceed for some weeks. He again had William Kekwick as second officer and 10 others, but one man had to be discarded early in the journey and another deserted. Marchant Springs was reached on 15 February, the Centre was passed on 12 March and Attack Creek on 28 March. They came to Sturt Plains on 15 April and Daly Waters on 28 May, which was made the base for about a fortnight. Stuart had thought of making for the Gulf of Carpentaria but found the country against him. Proceeding north he came to the Roper River on 26 June. A course north-west was then set. Latitude 14 degrees was crossed on 8 July and they reached the Adelaide River two days later. From here onwards the country was good and there was no lack of water. On 24 July the Indian Ocean in Van Diemen Gulf was sighted to the great joy of the party.

On 26 July Stuart began the return journey. His horses were in poor condition and by 10 August he had been obliged to abandon some of them. On 22 August Stuart was so weak that he began to doubt whether he could reach Adelaide, and his eyesight was so bad that he was unable to take observations. Attack Creek was crossed on 14 September. On 28 October Stuart tells us in his journal he was reduced to a "perfect skeleton" and was sometimes so ill that he had to be carried on a stretcher. They arrived at Mr Jarvis's station at Mount Margaret on 26 November, and after a few days' rest Stuart pushed on with three of his party leaving the remainder under the charge of Kekwick to continue the journey when the horses had sufficiently recovered. On 9 December 1862 Stuart arrived at Mount Stuart station and Adelaide on 18 December. In his report Stuart especially commended Messrs Kekwick and Thring for the good work they had done throughout the long and trying journey. The success of the expedition was rewarded by a grant of £3500 of which Stuart received £2000. He was granted the lease, rent free, of a large area in the north, and was also awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. J. W. Waterhouse, who had accompanied the expedition as naturalist, succeeded in bringing back a collection of birds, shells and plants, though at one stage it was feared that everything would have to be abandoned except food. Stuart never recovered from the effects of the privations endured on his journeys. Writing to Sturt in June 1863 he mentions that his constitution is broken, and asks Sturt for his interest for a further reward, but Sturt was unable to do anything. In April 1864 he proceeded to England and died in London on 5 June 1866. There is a statue to his memory in Victoria-square, Adelaide. Explorations in Australia. The Journals of John McDouall Stuart, edited by W. Hardman, was published in 1864.

Stuart was a great explorer of indomitable courage who never lost a man in any of his expeditions. He had not Sturt's way with the aborigines, more than once he came in conflict with them, and on some of his expeditions he was ill-equipped and without scientific instruments. But his journey across Australia and back in 1861 and 1862 was of great value in opening up the country, and remains one of the epics of Australian exploration.

William Hardman, The Journals of John McDouall Stuart; Mrs N. G. Sturt, Life of Charles Sturt; William Howitt, History of Discovery in Australia; F. Johns, A Journalist's Jottings; E. Hodder, The History of South Australia; J. Blacket, History of South Australia; The Gentleman's Magazine, July 1866, p. 121.

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STUART, SIR THOMAS PETER ANDERSON (1856-1920),

physiologist, founder of medical school, university of Sydney,

was born at Dumfries, Scotland, on 20 June 1856. His father, Alexander Stuart, was a well-known business man in his town, a magistrate and a member of the town council. His mother, formerly a Miss Anderson, was a woman of ability and character. Stuart was educated at the Dumfries academy and at 14 was apprenticed to a chemist. He soon passed the preliminary examination of the Pharmaceutical Society, and at 16 the minor examination which entitled him to registration as a chemist when he came of age. He decided to take up medicine, and working early in the morning and at night passed the preliminary examination. He then proceeded to Wolfenbüttel in Germany, studying languages in particular, and in November 1875 returned to Scotland. He entered at Edinburgh university and had one of the most brilliant careers in medicine ever known at Edinburgh. He was awarded 10 medals and won other prizes and scholarships. During Stuart's course Lister was bringing in his revolutionary changes in the treatment of surgery cases, and the young student had the opportunity of working under both the old and new methods. He completed his course in 1880, with first-class honours and the Ettles scholarship. He was asked by Professor Rutherford to become his chief demonstrator, and in preparation for this made further studies in physiology and chemistry at Strasburg. A year later he returned to Edinburgh, took up his duties as demonstrator, and shortly afterwards qualified for the degree of M.D.

In 1882 it was decided to institute a medical school at the university of Sydney and applications were invited for the chair of anatomy and physiology. Nominations were also requested from competent bodies, and the Royal College of Surgeons, London, the university of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and the College of Physicians, Glasgow, all nominated Stuart. He was duly appointed and arrived in Sydney early in 1883. The only medical school building was one of four rooms, damp and unplastered, and a curriculum had to be prepared and arrangements made for lecturers, demonstrators and attendants. There were only four students in the first year, but Stuart had the imagination to realize the immense possible development of the school, and was soon working out ideas for a new building. In 1885 he had got so far that plans for a medical school, prepared by the government architect, were approved, and in 1889 the building was completed and equipped with the necessary apparatus. It is a fine building in Tudor gothic and, planned internally for use, it has excellently served its purpose. The number of students in the medical school had increased to about 70; 30 years later the number was approaching 900. Having now got a worthy building Stuart was able to turn to other things, and interested himself in bringing about great improvements in the university grounds then in a very neglected state. Another useful piece of work was the preparation of a bibliography of scientific literature in the libraries of New South Wales. He was a fine judge of men, and among the afterwards distinguished men who acted as demonstrators and lecturers in his department were (Sir) Alexander McCormick, Professor J. T. Wilson, (Sir) James Graham (q.v.), (Sir) C. J. Martin, (Sir) Almroth Wright and Professor Chapman. When Stuart's chair was divided in 1890 he retained physiology, and Wilson was appointed to the new professorship of anatomy.

In 1890 while Stuart was on a visit to Europe he was asked by the government to go to Berlin and report on Dr Koch's method of treating tuberculosis. The resulting report was an extremely able piece of work. While he could not regard the lymph as a successful curative agent he recognized that a great field of research had been opened up, which would probably lead to very valuable work being done not only in connexion with tuberculosis but with other diseases. During another visit to Europe in 1891 he made further inquiries but could only conclude that up to that date the Koch treatment was a failure. On his return he was asked to become a member of the board of health, and at the beginning of 1893 became medical adviser to the government and president of the board of health, the dual offices carrying a salary of £1030 a year. Some objection was made to his taking these positions while still a full-time officer of the university. He held them until 1896 and did valuable work, but a public service board having been constituted it ruled that though Stuart was a highly efficient officer he should give his whole time to the government positions. He decided to resign as president, but continued to be a member of the board for the remainder of his life. He found time to do some public lecturing and took an active interest in the Prince Alfred hospital. In 1901 he became chairman, and it was largely through his initiative and organizing ability that this hospital became the largest general hospital in Australia. In 1901 he was responsible for the opening of a department of dentistry at the university. The number of medical students rose steadily through the years and additions were made to the buildings and the staff was increased. In 1908 he was largely concerned in the founding of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Townsville and in 1914 he was created a knight bachelor. Early in 1919 he became ill and an exploratory operation disclosed that his condition was hopeless. With great courage he continued to carry out his work to as late as January 1920 and he died on 29 February. He married (1) Miss Ainslie in 1882 and (2) Miss Dorothy Primrose in 1894. Lady Stuart and her four sons survived him. His portrait by Sir John Longstaff is at the national gallery, Sydney.

Anderson Stuart was a tall man of handsome presence, though his prominent nose made him an easy subject for the caricaturist. He was an excellent lecturer and a first-rate teacher, but it was his remarkable business sense and personality that made him so distinguished. At times he made enemies and he was not always willing to give full consideration to the opinions of others, but his energy, organization and foresight, made possible the remarkable development of the Sydney medical school and the Prince Alfred hospital.

William Epps, Anderson Stuart, M.D.,. The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 March 1920; The British Medical Journal, 12 June 1920; H. Moran, Viewless Winds, p. 92.

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STURGESS, REGINALD WARD (1890-1932),

painter in water-colours,

son of Edward Richard Sturgess, cabinet maker, was born at Williamstown, Victoria on 18 June 1890. He attended the local state school and in 1905 joined the drawing school at the national gallery, Melbourne, then in the charge of F. McCubbin (q.v.). In 1909 he won first prize for a drawing of a head from life, and going on to the painting school under Bernard Hall (q.v.), was awarded second prize in 1910 for a painting of still life. In 1911 he won the prize for a landscape painting, and at the end of 1912 left the school. He was working for his father making decorative lampshades until 1916, when he took over the business. In 1917 he married Meta Townsend, who had been a fellow student at the national gallery, but though not well off, he did not attempt to sell his paintings as he was not satisfied with the standard he had reached. He had nine pictures hung at the May 1921 exhibition of the Victorian Artists' Society, and. six were accepted in the following September, but though some were priced as low as £3 3s., buyers were slow in appreciating the quality of his work.. However, in the same month he held a joint exhibition with D. Dunstan at the Athenaeum gallery which was successful, and he felt sufficiently encouraged to have a one man show at the same gallery in July 1922. Of the 84 pictures shown 54 were sold and for the remainder of his short life Sturgess never had difficulty in selling his work. Shows were held at Adelaide in 1926 and 1927, and at Sydney in 1928 and 1929. Other successful exhibitions were held at Melbourne. He had a serious motor accident in 1926 and apparently recovered, but in 1930 he had trouble with his eyesight and had to give up painting. After two years of inactivity he died at Melbourne on 2 July 1932. His wife survived him with a daughter.

Sturgess was tall and slight, shy, highly sensitive, and passionately fond of music. He was an excellent craftsman, and a beautiful colourist. Some of his work appears to have been influenced by Hilder (q.v.), but he was working in a similar style before he had actually seen the elder painter's work. He was attracted by similar subjects, but his drawing is firmer than Hilder's and he more often has the feel of the open air. He is represented by four examples at the national gallery, Melbourne, by three in the Adelaide gallery, and also at Ballarat.

R. H. Croll, foreword to The Life and Work of R. W. Sturgess; Records National Gallery of Victoria; personal knowledge.

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STURT, CHARLES (1795-1869),

explorer,

[ also refer to Charles STURT page at Project Gutenberg Australia]

was born in India on 28 April 1795, the second son of Thomas Lenox Napier Sturt, who became a judge in Bengal under the East India Company. The judge always known as Napier Sturt married Jeanette, daughter of Dr Andrew Wilson, who became the most perfect of mothers and the good angel of her husband through good and evil fortune. Charles was sent to England in his fifth year, and after going to a preparatory school was sent to Harrow in 1810 and in 1812 went to read with a Mr Preston near Cambridge. But it was difficult for his father to find the money to give him a profession. An aunt made an appeal to one of the royal princes, probably the prince regent, and on 9 September 1813 Sturt was gazetted an ensign in the 39th regiment of foot. He fought in the Spanish campaign in 1814 and in Canada later on in the same year. The regiment returned to Europe too late for Waterloo, but for three years afterwards was part of the army of occupation in northern France. Five years in Ireland followed and Sturt was still an ensign, but in April 1823 he was made a lieutenant and he became a captain in December 1825. He was now stationed at Chatham, and in December 1826 embarked for New South Wales with a detachment of his regiment in charge of convicts.

He sailed with some prejudice against the colony but found the conditions and climate so much better than he expected that his feelings completely changed, and he developed a great interest in the country. Governor Sir Ralph Darling (q.v.) formed a high opinion of him and appointed him major of brigade and military secretary. Sturt became friendly with Oxley (q.v.), Cunningham (q.v.), Hume (q.v.) and other explorers, and in February 1828 he was appointed leader of an expedition to ascertain the course and fate of the river Macquarie. It was not, however, until 10 November that the party started. It consisted of Sturt, his servant, John Harris, two soldiers and eight convicts and on 27 November he was joined by Hamilton Hume as his first assistant. Hume's experience and resourcefulness proved very useful to his leader. A week was spent at Wellington Valley breaking in the oxen and horses, and on 7 December the real start into comparatively little known country was made. It was a drought year and the greatest difficulty was found in getting sufficient water. The party returned to Wellington Valley on 21 April 1829. The courses of the Macquarie, Bogan and Castlereagh rivers had been followed, and though its importance was scarcely sufficiently realized, the Darling had been discovered.

Drought conditions had made it impossible to follow the course of the Darling, but in September 1829 Sturt made arrangements for a second expedition. He left on 3 November and in place of Hume, who was unable to join the party, Mr (afterwards Sir) George MacLeay went "as a companion rather than as an assistant". A whaleboat built in sections was carried with them which was put together, and on 7 January 1830 the eventful voyage down the Murrumbidgee, and afterwards the Murray, was begun. Several times the party was in danger from the aborigines but Sturt always succeeded in propitiating them, and on 9 February the lake at the mouth of the Murray was entered. Three days later the outlet to the sea was discovered and Sturt, now running short of stores, began the return journey. In the face of great difficulties the exhausted explorers reached the depot they had left 77 days before on 23 March. Two men went forward to obtain stores and, after resting for a fortnight to regain their strength, Sturt and his companions reached Sydney on 25 May 1830. Two great waterways had been traced and large tracts of good land discovered, one of the most notable pieces of exploration ever made. But Sturt was not unscathed for both his health and eyesight had suffered. He was able to do valuable work at Norfolk Island in 1831 where mutiny was brewing among the convicts, but in 1832 he was obliged to go to England on sick leave and arrived there almost completely blind. Gradually some improvement took place, and in 1833 he published his Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia during the years 1828, 1829, 1830 and 1831, of which a second edition appeared in 1834. For the first time the public in England realized how great was Sturt's work, for Governor Darling's somewhat tardy but appreciative dispatch of 14 April 1831, and his request for Sturt's promotion, had had no result, and nothing came of the request by Sir Richard Bourke (q.v.) who had succeeded Darling that Viscount Goderich should give "this deserving officer your Lordship's protection and support". Though it seems to have been impossible to persuade the colonial office of the value of Sturt's work his book had one important effect. It was read by Edward Gibbon Wakefield (q.v.), and led to the choice of South Australia for the new settlement then in contemplation. In May 1834, in view of his services, Sturt applied for a grant of land intending to settle on it in Australia, and in July instructions were given that he was to receive a grant of 5000 acres, Sturt on his part agreeing to give up his pension rights. In September he was married to Charlotte Green and almost immediately sailed for Australia. He settled near Sydney and occupied himself with general farming. He endeavoured to store water, but in the disastrous drought between 1836 and 1839 lost heavily. In 1838 he led a party overland from New South Wales to South Australia, following the line of the Murray. He left Sydney in April 1838 and reached the Murray near the road to Port Phillip on 18 May. He had a party of about a dozen men and 300 cattle and on 27 August established his cattle on good pasturage about 25 miles from Adelaide, after a journey which he had found more fatiguing than either of his previous expeditions. On 28 August he arrived at Adelaide where he was received with enthusiasm, and a public dinner was given in his honour. Sturt almost immediately went to the mouth of the Murray and reported on its possibilities as a port. He returned to Adelaide, sold his cattle, and taking the first available ship to Sydney, arrived there on 30 October 1838. He found that land and stock was still very low in price and the question of income was serious. About this time Colonel Light (q.v.) had resigned his position as surveyor-general of South Australia and Governor Gawler (q.v.) offered the post to Sturt who at first refused it, but Gawler pressed it on him and on 1 February 1839 Sturt's appointment was announced. He sold his land at a very bad time, including the grant of 5000 acres, which unfortunately was in a position liable to flooding, and got very little for it. He arrived at Adelaide with his family on 2 April 1839. His appointment was short-lived for, before it could be known at the colonial office, Lieutenant Frome had been given the position in England. Frome arrived in September and took over his duties. Gawler, however, made Sturt assistant commissioner of lands at the same salary, £500 a year. It was fortunate that Frome and Sturt were able to work together, and they did very valuable work in completing neglected surveys and enabling the land to be settled. In the troubled times following the dismissal of Colonel Gawler and the coming of the new Governor Captain, afterwards Sir, George Grey, Sturt while loyal to Gawler, supported Grey, and his tact in dealing with rioters who actually threatened government house, led to their being pacified. As part of the general retrenchment, Sturt's salary was reduced to £400 a year, and a memorial he forwarded to England showing the heavy losses he had been put to in taking up his position had no result. He proposed that he should make an expedition into the interior and, after some delay, started on 15 August 1844, the drays and animals having preceded him by a few days. Included in his party were James Poole as assistant, John Harris Browne (q.v.) as surgeon, McDouall Stuart (q.v.), and 14 others, 11 horses, 30 bullocks, and 200 sheep. E. J. Eyre (q.v.), who had already done remarkable exploring work, accompanied them for some distance up the Murray, but returned some time before the Darling was reached. After following this stream to Willorara or Laidley's Ponds a course to the north-west was taken. On 22 October a beautiful pond about 80 yards long was found which was made a new base for the party, and on 27 January 1845 a new depot was formed at Rocky Glen. Unfortunately Poole, Browne and Sturt became attacked with scurvy, and Poole was so bad that in July Sturt resolved to send him back to Adelaide. He died three days after starting and the party reassembled. However, Sturt decided to send some of his assistants to Adelaide with his diaries under the storekeeper, L. Piesse. Sturt rode westward with Browne to Lake Blanche, part of the Torrens Basin, and found the country to the north-west quite impracticable. On returning to the depot at Fort Grey Sturt decided to go north north-west, and starting on 14 August with Browne and three others, he reached his farthest point towards the centre of Australia, beyond Eyre Creek but short of the Tropic of Capricorn, on 3 September 1845. Retracing their steps to Strzelecki Creek another track north by a little west was taken past Lake Lipson, across Hope Plains and the Stony Desert. Their farthest point was reached towards the end of October, and coming back, Cooper's Creek was followed in an easterly direction. During a large part of this period the thermometer ranged between 95 and 125 in the shade. At one part of his journey Sturt says the surface of the ground "was so rent and torn by heat, that the horses' hind feet were constantly slipping into chasms eight to ten feet deep". On 11 November the mercury in their only remaining thermometer graduated to 127 degrees had risen to the top and burst the bulb. On 17 November 1845 Sturt collapsed with a bad attack of scurvy. The position of the party was now desperate and Browne agreed to ride to Flood's Creek, 118 miles away, to see if water were still available there. He returned in eight days and it was decided that the party should endeavour to reach the Darling. Sturt was carried in a cart and Browne took command. They left on 6 December and with the help of some friendly natives reached the Darling 15 days later. There they were met by Piesse with letters and supplies. After a few days rest the journey down the Darling began. On 10 January 1846 the Murray was reached and on 19 January Sturt arrived at Adelaide. He had not quite reached the point he had aimed at, and at a dinner of welcome that was given to him, spoke with some suggestion of a sense of failure. He had done, however, a remarkable piece of work having travelled considerably over 3000 miles, the most of it in new country. Two of the party had died, if it had not been for Sturt's great qualities as a leader, and the complete loyalty of his assistants several more would have perished. Before the end of the journey Sturt partly recovered from the scurvy with the help of berries gathered by friendly aborigines, but both his general health and his eyesight continued to cause anxiety. He resumed his duties as registrar general and was also appointed colonial treasurer with an increase in salary of £100 a year. Early in 1847 he went to England on leave. He arrived in October and received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He prepared for publication, his Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia, which, however, was not published until early in 1849. He was suffering again with his eyesight, but some relief was found. He returned to Adelaide with his family, arrived in August, and was immediately appointed colonial secretary with a seat in the council. There was no lack of work in the ensuing years. Roads were constructed, and navigation on the Murray was encouraged. But Sturt had renewed trouble with his eyes, and on 30 December 1851 resigned his position. He was given a pension of £600 a year and settled down on 500 acres of land close to Adelaide and the sea. But the gold discoveries had increased the cost of living, and in March 1853 Sturt and his family sailed for England. He lived at Cheltenham and devoted himself to the education of his children. In 1856 he applied for the position of governor of Victoria. He would have made a good governor but his age, uncertain health, and comparatively small income were against him. In 1859 the settlers at Moreton Bay requested that Sturt might be appointed the first governor of Queensland and again a younger man was chosen. By 1860 Sturt's three sons were all in the army, and the remainder of his family went to live at Dinan to economize after the expenses of education and fitting out. Unfortunately the town was unhealthy and in 1863 a return was made to Cheltenham. In 1864 Sturt suffered a great grief in the death of one of his sons in India. In March 1869 he attended the inaugural dinner of the Colonial Society, at which Lord Granville mentioned that it was the intention of the government to extend the order of St Michael and St George to the colonies. Sturt allowed himself to be persuaded by his friends to apply for this distinction, but afterwards regretted he had done so when he heard there were innumerable applications. His health had been very variable and on 16 June 1869 he died suddenly. He was survived by his widow, two sons, Colonel Napier George Sturt, R.E. and Major-general Charles Sheppey Sturt, and a daughter. Mrs Sturt was granted a civil list pension of £80 a year, and the same title as if her husband's nomination to the order of St Michael and St George had been gazetted. Reproductions of portraits by Crossland and Koberwein will be found in Mrs N. G. Sturt's Life, which suggest the charm and refinement of Sturt's character.

Writing in 1865 Baron von Mueller (q.v.) called Sturt "the greatest Australian Explorer" and for this one of his qualifications was that he was a great gentleman. Always kindly and considerate for everyone working with him, he had the perfect confidence of his followers. He inspired men like Eyre and McDouall Stuart and others by his great example, and when he died there was not a man who had been associated with him unwilling to speak his praise. Yet he was personally always modest and retiring. A thoroughly brave man who dared do all that might become a man, he could realize when further progress was hopeless, and would not uselessly risk loss of life. His chivalry and high-mindedness were so apparent that even the aborigines could realize them. Though often threatened he always succeeded in pacifying them. Apart from his explorations he was a nature-lover, interested in the sciences, and an artist of no mean ability, both of his books include reproductions of his sketches.

Mrs Napier George Sturt, Life of Charles Sturt; C. Sturt, Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia, Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia; Historical Records of Australia, ser. I, vols. XIV to XVIII; K. R. Cramp, Journal and Proceedings Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XV, pp. 49-92; Edward Salmon, ibid, vol. XXIII, pp. 307-10.

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SUGDEN, EDWARD HOLDSWORTH (1854-1935),

master of Queen's College, university of Melbourne,

was born at Ecclesfield, near Sheffield, Yorkshire, on 19 June 1854, the eldest son of the Rev. James Sugden, minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church, and his wife Sarah. He was educated at Woodhouse Grove school, and in 1870 passed the London matriculation examination, gaining first place on the list, which entitled him to the Gilchrist scholarship of fifty pounds a year for three years at Owens College, Manchester. There he studied, among other things, Greek testament textual criticism, Hebrew, and English poetry. He was always grateful to his school for having taught him to sing by note, and at Manchester he studied harmony and counterpoint under (Sir) John Frederick Bridge, afterwards known as "Westminster Bridge", then organist at Manchester cathedral. But most important of all Sugden at Owens College was liberated from sectarian prejudice, and realized that there were good men in other churches than the Methodist. He took his degree with honours in classics at London university in 1873, and a year later was accepted for the Methodist ministry and appointed assistant tutor at Headingly theological college, Leeds. While in this position he took the degree of B.Sc. He was seven years at Headingly college, was then appointed a junior circuit minister, and spent six successful years at this work. He continued his interest in music and became a member of the Leeds festival chorus, and he also did some experimental work in psychical research and particularly in thought reading. In 1887 he was appointed the first master of Queen's College, Melbourne, and began his duties early in 1888.

The decision of the Methodist Church to found Queen's College had been made in 1878, but nearly 10 years passed before sufficient funds were collected to allow of the building being begun. The foundation-stone was laid on 19 June 1887, and on 14 March 1888 the college was formally opened. There were only 12 students in the first year; for many years there was a heavy debt on the building and an annual loss on the working of the college. Valuable gifts and bequests, however, came in, and though four additions were made to the building during Sugden's term as master, he left it free of debt. His methods were based on his appreciation of the value of sympathy and understanding, and the keeping of formal regulations in the background. The all-round development of the students was encouraged by reading circles and the performance of plays in the college, and musicians were welcomed in his home circle where Sugden himself would play the cello in a quartette. In 1890 the dining-hall and several students' rooms were added to the college building, and 20 years later the eastern façade was completed. In 1919 the main tower, which houses the library, and a new front wing including the chapel, were built. In 1927 Sugden was invited to deliver the annual Fernley lecture in England, and early in 1928 he was given leave of absence with the understanding that he would retire at the end of the year. His stay in England was made pleasant by the gift of a motor-car from a Melbourne friend which met him when he landed. He returned in November, left Queen's just before Christmas, and spent his retirement at Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne. At Queen's College it had been the custom of the students to meet outside the master's residence on the evening of his birthday, and serenade him. Though new generations of students came who had not known Sugden, this custom was continued at his new home.

Sugden did not confine his work to the college. He took much interest in Methodist affairs, frequently preached, in 1906 was elected president of the Victoria and Tasmania conference, and in 1923 was president-general of the Methodist Church of Australia. He was elected to the council of the university in 1899, and was a valuable member of it until its re-constitution in 1925. He was a member of the committee of the university conservatorium of music and later its chairman, played the cello in amateur orchestras, and as choir master of the Palmerston-street church discovered the well-known singer, Florence Austral, then Florence Fawaz. From 1904 to 1912 he was musical critic for the Argus and Australasian. He was appointed a trustee of the public library, museums, and national gallery of Victoria in 1902, was elected vice-president in 1928, and president in 1933. He made no claim to a knowledge of art, but took much interest in the books committee work. He did a considerable amount of writing during his life. Before leaving England he had done voluntary work for volume I of the Oxford dictionary. In 1893 appeared Comedies of T. Maccius Plautus, translated in the original metres. This was followed by Miles Gloriosus, by T. Maccius Plautus, translated in the original metres (1912), The Psalms of David, translated into English verse (1924), A Topographical Dictionary to the Works of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists (1925), Israel's Debt to Egypt, Fernley lecture (1928), John Wesley's London (1932). He wrote "Part I. The Private Life" in George Swinburne, A Biography (1931), contributed a chapter on the "Settlement of Tasmania and Victoria" in A Century in the Pacific, 1914, and one "In Australasia" for A New History of Methodism, 1909. He also prepared Festal Songs for Sunday School Anniversaries in five series, and in 1921 edited with notes Wesley's Standard Sermons in two volumes. This list does not include a number of studies and addresses published as pamphlets. In his later years Sugden became very lame. He preached his last sermon in 1933, but until a few weeks before the end, was able to attend most meetings of the trustees of the public library. When in 1934 the trustees were entertaining Masefield, the poet assisted his host to his feet, and Sugden with characteristic wit remarked, "Well, that is not the first uplift I have received from John Masefield." He was confined to his room when the Queen's College students serenaded him for the last time on his eighty-first birthday, and he died about a month later on 22 July 1935. He received the degree of Litt. D. from the university of Melbourne by thesis in 1918. He married (1) Miss Brooke who died in 1883 leaving him with three young children, and (2) in 1886 Ruth Harmah, daughter of John Thompson, whom he afterwards described as "my incomparable helpmate in every part of my work". She died in 1932. There is a memorial window to Dr and Mrs Sugden in Queen's College chapel, and a portrait of Sugden by Charles Wheeler is in the national gallery at Melbourne. He was survived by six daughters.

Sugden was tall and burly, with a countenance that inspired affection and respect. He was always kind and cheerful and ready to give play to a keen sense of humour. For a time he had to tread warily and use all his tact, as there was a narrow section of his church always ready to condemn and forbid recreations which he himself considered harmless. He showed great courage in writing to the press taking the side of Marshall Hall (q.v.) who had offended the churches with one of his publications. But he wore down all opposition by sheer fineness, sincerity of character and cheerful piety. He was an excellent preacher and teacher and his influence among his students was great; all who had met him, in connexion with his own church, when he was a padre among the soldiers, on the golf links, or as a member of a committee had an abiding memory of his kindliness and wisdom.

Mary F. Sugden, Edward H. Sugden; The Argus, 23 July 1935; C. Irving Benson, A Century of Victorian Methodism; private information; personal knowledge.

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SULLIVAN, BARRY (1821-1891),

actor,

christened Thomas Sullivan, son of Peter Sullivan and his wife, Mary Barry, was born on 5 July 1821, at Howard's Place, Birmingham. Both his parents were Irish. When he was about eight years old his father and mother died, and he was then put in the care of his paternal grandfather at Bristol. He was educated first at the school attached to the Catholic church in Trenchard-street and then at the Stokes Croft Endowed school. At 14 he entered a lawyer's office, but, seeing Macready in Macbeth and other parts, was so impressed that he decided to become an actor. In 1837 he joined a strolling company and at Cork was given an engagement at 15s. a week as a regular member of a stock company. By 1840 he was playing important parts, and having a good light tenor voice, occasionally sang in opera. But his ambition was to become a tragedian. In November of that year he obtained an engagement with Murray's stock company at Edinburgh, at a salary of 30s. a week with the understanding that he was to play "second heavy" parts. In a little while he was playing leading parts and in 1844 supporting Helen Faucit in The Merchant of Venice he took the part of Antonio, and was Petruchio to her Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew. He then went to Glasgow where he met and played with G. V. Brooke (q.v.), and during the next seven years had engagements throughout the provinces in Scotland and England. His reputation was growing, and on 7 February 1852 he made a most successful first appearance at the Haymarket Theatre, London, as Hamlet. He was now established as a leading actor and during the next eight years played principal parts in most of the plays of the period including Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons with Helen Faucit as Pauline, and Valence in Browning's Colombe's Birthday with Miss Faucit in the part of Colombe. Towards the end of 1858 he went to America, and opened in New York on 22 November in Hamlet, followed by several others of Shakespeare's plays. Successful seasons were played at the leading cities in the United States and Sullivan returned to England 18 months later. In August 1860 at the St James' Theatre, London, he played on alternate nights, Hamlet, Richelieu, Macbeth, and Richard III, three performances being given of each play. In 1862 he sailed for Australia and made his first appearance at Melbourne on 9 August 1862.

There has probably never been at any other period so high a standard of acting as was to be seen in Australia between 1860 and 1870. G.V. Brooke was usually at his best in Australia, Joseph Jefferson (q.v.) was at the height of his powers and had not begun to restrict the range of his characters, and Sullivan had the advantage he sometimes lacked in later years in England, of always having excellent support from his companies. He was four years in Australia, most of the time at Melbourne, and his parts included Hamlet, Othello, Iago, Richard III, Macbeth, Shylock, Lear, Falstaff, Falconbridge, Charles Surface, Claude Melnotte, and Richelieu. He became established as a public favourite, and with the other great actors mentioned set a standard that was long an inspiration to later actors and managers. He left Australia in 1866 and after a holiday trip arrived in London early in September. In the following 20 years he was constantly playing in London, the provinces and in the United States. When the memorial theatre at Stratford-on-Avon was opened, Sullivan was selected to play Benedick and Helen Faucit emerged from her retirement to play Beatrice. On the following evening Sullivan appeared as Hamlet. On 4 June 1887 while at Liverpool he made his last appearance on the stage, his part being Richard III. His health had been uncertain for some time and in the following year he had a stroke of paralysis. He was so ill in August 1888 that the last rites of his church were administered, but he lingered until 3 May 1891. He married on 4 July 1842 Mary Amory, daughter of a lieutenant in the army, who survived him with two sons and three daughters.

Sullivan was five feet nine inches high and well formed. He developed early, worked hard, and never lost his high ideals. For a long period he was one of the finest and most finished actors of his period, though at times inclined to err on the robust side. He had had immense experience, and was steeped in the traditions of the stage, but never hesitated to make an innovation if he thought it was warranted. His education was excellent. In latter years he developed some mannerisms, but he never lost his popularity. In private life he lived somewhat austerely, and amassed a competence. But he could be generous in money matters and was a good companion, who, though at times impatient and passionate, was loved by his family and friends.

R. M. Stillard, Barry Sullivan and his Contemporaries, somewhat uncritical; W. J. Lawrence, Barry Sullivan, a biographical sketch; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; private information.

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SULMAN, SIR JOHN (1849-1934),

architect,

son of John Sulman of Addiscombe, Croydon, England, was born at Greenwich, on 29 August 1849. He was educated at the Greenwich proprietary school and the royal institute of British architects, of which he was Pugin travelling scholar in 1871. After travelling through England and western Europe Sulman began practising as an architect in London and designed among other buildings a large number of churches. In 1885 he went to Sydney, and as a partner in the firm of Sulman and Power was associated in the designing of many of the finest buildings in Sydney and other capital cities. These included the Thomas Walker convalescent hospital, Sydney, the A.M.P. buildings in Melbourne and Brisbane, the Mutual Life Association building, Sydney, afterwards known as New Zealand Chambers, the Sydney Stock Exchange and several suburban churches. Between 1887 and 1912 Sulman was P. N. Russell lecturer in architecture at the university of Sydney. After 1908 he retired from active practice to some extent to develop his interest in town-planning. In 1908 a series of his newspaper articles led to the creation of the city improvement commission, and in 1909 another series of articles, afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet, dealt with the problem of the designing of the federal capital. He was for some years chairman of the town planning advisory board, and from 1916-27 Vernon lecturer in town planning at the university of Sydney. In 1921 he published his An Introduction to the Study of Town Planning in Australia. From 1921 to 1924 he was chairman of the federal capital advisory board, and during these three years gave practically all his time, without pay, working out a progressive scheme for the construction of the city. In 1927 he gave a commission to Sir William Reid Dick, R.A., for one of the exterior bas-relief panels for the national gallery building at Sydney. He retired as an architect in 1928 and after a vigorous old age died at Sydney on 18 August 1934. He was knighted in 1924. He was married twice (1) to Sarah Clark, daughter of T. J. Redgate, and (2) to Annie Elizabeth, daughter of G. R. Masefield, who survived him with sons and daughters of both marriages. One of the daughters, Florence Sulman, was author of A Popular Guide to Wild Flowers of New South Wales, published in two volumes in 1914.

Sulman in his youth was a friend of William Morris and many of the artists of his time. He was appointed a trustee of the national art gallery of New South Wales in 1899 and, was its president from 1919, doing excellent work in that position. He was a good architect and his work in town-planning and in particular in connexion with the federal capital had great value. He created a fund from which is provided the John Sulman medal, awarded by the Institute of Architects for the designing of a building of exceptional merit. He also endowed a lectureship in aeronautics at the university of Sydney in memory of a son killed during the 1914-18 war while serving with the Flying Corps. After his death his family founded a prize of about £100 annually known as "the Sir John Sulman prize" for the best subject painting or mural decoration by artists resident in Australia.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 20 August 1934; The Times, 20 August 1934; Burke's Peerage etc., 1934; Information from Director, National Art Gallery of New South Wales; Calendar of the University of Sydney, 1940.

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SUMMERS, CHARLES (1827-1878),

sculptor,

was born at Charlton near Ilchester in Somerset, on 27 July 1827. His father was a mason whose shiftless habits caused his family to be frequently in difficulties, his mother was a woman of excellent character. Summers went to work at an early age and while working as a mason began to show ability in carving fancy stone work. This led to his being employed as an assistant in setting up a monumental figure at Weston-super-Mare which had been modelled by Henry Weekes, R.A. He saved money from his wages and at the age of 19 went to London and obtained work at Weekes's studio. He subsequently worked under L. Watson, another sculptor of the period, and studied at the Royal Academy schools. In 1851 he won the silver medal for the best model from life and the gold medal for the set subject, "Mercy interceding for the Vanquished". Summers, always a hard worker, fell into ill health, and in 1852 sailed for Australia where one of his brothers had previously settled. He tried his fortunes at gold-digging but seeing an advertisement for modellers for the newly built parliament house at Melbourne, obtained a position and modelled the figures on the ceiling of the council chamber. The exhibiting of some busts at the intercolonial exhibition held in 1854 led to his getting commissions, and he opened a studio in Collins-street, Melbourne.

In 1864 it was decided to erect a memorial to the explorers Burke (q.v.) and Wills (q.v.). Summers obtained the commission, and not only modelled the figures but built a furnace and himself cast them in bronze. The colossal figure of Burke was cast in one operation, an amazing feat when it is considered that there were no skilled workmen for this type of work in Australia. On the completion of this group he sailed for England in May 1867, and after obtaining various commissions went to Rome and opened a studio. There he did a large amount of work and was able to employ many assistants. In 1876 (Sir) W. J. Clarke (q.v.) employed him to do four large statues in marble of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and the Prince and Princess of Wales for presentation to the Melbourne art gallery. These were completed in 1878. Soon afterwards Summers while on his way to England was taken seriously ill, and died at Paris on 30 November 1878.

Summers was a constant exhibitor at Royal Academy exhibitions; over 40 of his works were shown between 1849 and 1876. He was a competent sculptor in a dull and uninspiring period of English art, and comparatively little of his work has lasting qualities. His Burke and Wills group at Melbourne is a sound and dignified piece of work, his frieze of putti on the old Bank of New South Wales building, now in the grounds of the university of Melbourne, is charming, and the recumbent figure of Lady Macleay at Godstone, Surrey, is also meritorious. Personally Summers was modest, and his willingness to see ability in the work of other artists was a good influence in the dawning time of art in Victoria. Several examples of his work together with his portrait of Margaret Thomas (q.v.) are in the historical collection at the national gallery, Melbourne. He is also represented in the Adelaide gallery and at the Mitchell library, Sydney. Summers married when a young man, his son, Charles Francis Summers, who survived him also worked in sculpture.

Margaret Thomas, A Hero of the Workshop; W. Moore, The Story of Australian Art; Cyclopaedia of Victoria, 1903.

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SUTHERLAND, ALEXANDER (1852-1902),

miscellaneous writer and philosopher,

was born at Glasgow on 26 March 1852. Both parents were Scotch, his father, George Sutherland, a carver of ship's figure-heads, married Jane Smith, a woman of character and education. The family came to Australia in 1864 on account of the father's health, and Alexander at 14 years of age became a pupil-teacher with the education department at Sydney. Coming to Melbourne in 1870 he first taught at Hawthorn Grammar School and then entered on the arts course at the university. He maintained himself largely by scholarships and graduated with honours in 1874. For two years he was a mathematical master at Scotch College, Melbourne, and in 1877 founded Carlton College. He was an excellent schoolmaster, and the school was so successful that 15 years later he felt himself able to retire and devote himself to literature. The banking crisis of 1893, however, affected his position so much, that he was obliged to do a great deal of journalism for the Argus and Australasian. In 1897 he was a candidate for parliament, but his methods were too guileless and straightforward to ensure success. In 1898 he went to London as representative of the South Australian Register, but found the climate oppressed him and returned to Australia towards the end of 1899. He continued his journalistic work in Melbourne, and in March 1901 was an unsuccessful candidate for the southern Melbourne seat in the first federal parliament. Soon afterwards he was appointed by the council of the university of Melbourne to the position of registrar. The university was passing through a difficult time after a period of slack administration, and Sutherland had to work very hard. On the death of Professor Morris while away on leave in Europe, Sutherland took over his lectures on English literature. The burden of the extra work was too great for Sutherland who did not have a strong constitution, and he died suddenly on 9 August 1902. His widow, a son and three daughters survived him.

Sutherland did a large amount of literary work. He was responsible for the first volume only of Victoria and its Metropolis, published in 1888, an interesting history of the first 50 years of the state of Victoria. In 1890 he published Thirty Short Poems, the cultured verse of an experienced literary man, but his most important book was The Origin and Growth of the Moral Instinct, which appeared in 1898 in two volumes. Sutherland had long brooded over this book and was greatly pleased at receiving the commendation of some of the leaders of philosophic thought in England. Generally the book was well received both in Europe and the United States. With his brother, George Sutherland, he wrote a short History of Australia, which attained a sale of 120,000 copies, and he collaborated with Henry Gyles Turner (q.v.) in a useful volume, The Development of Australian Literature (1898); Sutherland's biography of Kendall in this volume, however, is misleading as it contains several errors. His undoubted powers as a teacher gave value to his text book, A New Geography, and other works of that kind. He contributed on scientific subjects to the Nineteenth Century, and did a large amount of lecturing on literature and science in Melbourne. As a man he was modest and sincere, interested in all the arts and the discussions that arise out of them. Of his brothers, William [Sutherland] is noticed separately, George (1855-1905), was a well-known journalist and author of miscellaneous works mostly historical or technical. He died at Adelaide in December 1905. His daughter, Margaret Sutherland, became well known as a musician and composer. Another brother, John Sutherland, wrote a thoughtful book, The Bonds of Society, published in 1914.

H. Gyles Turner, Alexander Sutherland, M.A. His Life and Work; P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; private information.

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SUTHERLAND, WILLIAM (1859-1911),

scientist,

was born at Dumbarton, Scotland, on 4 August 1859, son of George Sutherland, a carver of figure-heads for ships, and brother of Alexander Sutherland (q.v.). The family arrived at Sydney in 1864 and removed to Melbourne six years later. Sutherland, after a few years at the model school, won a government scholarship and went to Wesley College. The headmaster was M. H. Irving (q.v.) who had been the second professor of classics at the university of Melbourne, but the influence of the second master, H. M. Andrew, afterwards professor of natural philosophy at the same university, was of more importance to Sutherland. From Wesley he passed on to the university in February 1876, and three years later graduated with first-class final honours and the scholarship in natural science, and third-class honours in engineering. He was then nominated by the Melbourne university council for the Gilchrist scholarship in England, which was awarded to him and he left for England in July 1879. Entering as a science student at University College, London, he came under the influence of Professor Carey Foster, and in the final examination for the B.Sc. degree took first place and first-class honours in experimental physics and the clothworkers scholarship of £50 for two years. Almost at once Sutherland started for Australia and arrived in Melbourne in February 1882.

Sutherland's home life meant much to him for it was a home of affection and culture, every member of it excelled in either literature, music or art. In July 1882 he was offered the position of superintendent of the school of mines, Ballarat, but it was too far from his home and the public library, and the offer was declined. For many years he earned just enough to pay his way by acting as an examiner and contributing articles to the press; the rest of his time was given to scientific research. In 1884 he applied without success for the chair of chemistry at Adelaide, and in 1888 when Professor Andrew died he was appointed lecturer in physics at the university of Melbourne until the chair should be filled. He applied for this position through the Victorian agent-general in London, but there appears to be some doubt whether his application ever reached the right quarters. Professor Lyle was appointed and in 1897, when he was away on leave, Sutherland was again made lecturer in physics. He had begun contributing to the Philosophical Magazine in 1885, and on an average about two articles a year front his pen appeared in it for the next 25 years. For the last 10 years of his life he was a regular contributor and leader writer on the Melbourne Age, though he declined all offer of an appointment on the staff of the paper. His life work was scientific research and nothing could be allowed to interfere with it. He died quietly in his sleep on 5 October 1911.

Sutherland was a well-built man of slightly under medium height, very quiet in manner. The present writer who met him only once has an abiding memory of his modesty and charm. He would have been a good musician had he been able to give time to it, and again he might have been a painter. He had a wide mind which could take an interest in all the arts, but his real happiness was in his work. Money and fame meant nothing to him, but the solving of some intricate problem in science, some increase in the knowledge of the world was everything. His scientific work was never collected in book form and is known to few besides his fellow workers. A list of 69 of his contributions to scientific magazines is given at the end of his biography. One of the earlier papers to bring Sutherland into notice was on the viscosity of gases which appeared in the Philosophical Magazine in December 1893. Other important papers dealt with the constitution of water, the viscosity of water, molecular attractions and ionization, ionic velocities and atomic sizes. The ordinary reader may refer to a discussion of his scientific work in chapter VI of his biography, but the full value of it could only be computed by a physicist willing to collate his papers with the state of knowledge at the time each was written. It was well known and valued in England, Germany and America, and at the time of Sutherland's death he was spoken of as having been "the greatest authority living in molecular physics" (Professor T. R. Lyle, F.R.S.). He had none of the vanity that demands results. Quite selfless, he was content to add something to the sum of human knowledge and to hope that another man would carry the work further. He never married.

W. A. Osborne, William Sutherland a Biography; The Age, Melbourne, 6 October 1911; The Bulletin, 25 November 1920; personal knowledge.

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SUTTOR, SIR FRANCIS BATHURST (1839-1915),

politician,

son of William Henry Suttor and his wife, Charlotte Augusta Anne Francis, and grandson of George Suitor (q.v.), was born at Bathurst, New South Wales, on 30 April 1839. He was educated at The King's School, Parramatta, and after obtaining five years experience on his father's station, took up land in the Bathurst and Wellington districts. He made a study of sheep-breeding and his flocks became known throughout the colony. He also bred a superior type of horse for coaches which were extensively used in Australia at that period. In 1875 he was elected to the legislative assembly of New South Wales for his native city, and, except for a few short intervals, held the seat until 1900. He was minister for justice and public instruction in the second Parkes (q.v.) ministry from 22 March to 16 August 1877, and held the same position in the third Parkes ministry from December 1878 to April 1880; he was minister of justice from May to August 1880, then became postmaster-general until November 1881, when he became minister of public instruction until January 1883. From February 1886 to January 1887 he was postmaster-general in the Jennings (q.v.) ministry. He was minister of public instruction in the second Dibbs (q.v.) ministry from January to March 1889, and held the same post in Dibbs's third ministry from October 1891 to August 1894. In this year he represented New South Wales at the Ottawa colonial conference. He retired from the legislative assembly in 1900, and was nominated to the legislative council where he represented the Lyne (q.v.) and See (q.v.) ministries and was vice-president of the executive council from June 1900 to May 1903. On 2 June 1903 he was appointed president of the legislative council, and held this position until his death. On 29 April 1914 the members of the legislative council gave a banquet in honour of Suttor's seventy-fifth birthday. In replying to the toast of his health Suttor mentioned that his father, uncle, brother and himself had given between them over 80 years of service in parliament. He also said that there were then 138 living descendants of his father and mother.

Suttor's activities were not confined to politics. He was a trustee of the national art gallery and of the Australian museum, and was a member of the senate of the university. He was always keenly interested in the primary producer, was president of the Sheep-breeders' Association, and president of the Royal Agricultural Society of New South Wales. He was an excellent chairman and president of the council, invariably courteous and dignified. Except for an occasional holiday he had scarcely an idle day in his life, and when he died on 4 April 1915 few men were better known in his state, and possibly no one was more esteemed. He married in 1863 Emily, daughter of T. J. Hawkins, who predeceased him. He was survived by three sons and five daughters. He was knighted in 1903.

Burke's Colonial Gentry; The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 April 1915; Birthday Banquet tendered by the Members of the Legislative Council, Official Souvenir.

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SUTTOR, GEORGE (1774-1859),

pioneer,

was born at Chelsea, England, in 1774, the son of a gardener and botanist on the estate of Lord Cadogan. Coming under the notice of Sir Joseph Banks (q.v.) he was sent to Australia with a collection of trees and plants including grape-vines, apples, pears, and hops. These were put on board H.M.S. Porpoise in October 1798, but delays took place and it was not until September 1799 that a proper start was made. A gale, however, came on, the Porpoise was found to be unseaworthy, and a return was made to Spithead. In March 1800 another start was made on a vessel taken from the Spaniards and re-named the Porpoise, which arrived at Sydney on 6 November 1800. In spite of these delays Suttor managed to land some of his trees and vines still alive. It was agreed that he was to be given a grant of land, and he settled at Chelsea Farm, Baulkham Hills. In a few years time he was sending oranges and lemons to Sydney, obtaining good prices for them, and had become a successful settler. At the time of the Bligh (q.v.) rebellion in 1808 he took up the cause of the deposed governor with great courage. When Colonel Paterson (q.v.) arrived Suttor's was the first signature to an address presented to him promising to give him "every information and support in our power in order that full satisfaction and justice may be given to the governor (whom we highly revere) . . . we cannot but feel the most confidant reliance that you will take prompt and effectual means to secure the principals in this most unjustifiable transaction". Suttor was, however, arrested and sentenced to be imprisoned for six months. The stand taken by him was much to his honour; a full account of it will be found in the Historical Records of Australia, vol. VII, pp. 131-7. He always spoke of Bligh as a "firm and kind-hearted English gentleman, no tyrant and no coward" (W. H. Suttor, Australian Stories Retold, p. 6). In 1810 he was summoned to England as a witness on behalf of Bligh, and arrived in Australia again in May 1812. In 1814 he was given the position of superintendent of the lunatic asylum at Castle Hill and he was still in this position in 1817, but he took up land again and in 1822 removed to beyond the Blue Mountains. Nine years later Suttor was living on the Baulkham Hills property, and he also built a house at Sydney. He visited England in 1839 and was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society. In 1843 he published a volume on The Culture of the Grape-Vine and the Orange in Australia and New Zealand, and in his old age he remembered his first patron, and wrote the Memoirs Historical and Scientific of Sir Joseph Banks, which appeared in 1855. Suttor died at Bathurst on 5 May 1859, He married in 1798 a Miss Dobinson and founded a distinguished Australian family. Mrs Suttor died in 1844, but five sons and three daughters survived their father. Of the sons, William Henry (1805-1877) was a member of the New South Wales legislative council from 1843 to 1854, and a member of the legislative assembly from 1856 to 1872. He died at Bathurst on 20 October 1877. His eldest son, William Henry Suttor (1834-1905), entered the legislative assembly in January 1875 and became minister for mines in the Farnell (q.v.) ministry in December 1877. He was nominated to the legislative council in 1880 and in 1889 became vice-president of the executive council and representative of the Parkes (q.v.) ministry in the legislative council. He was one of the representatives of New South Wales at the March 1891 federation convention. He died in 1905. He published in 1887 Australian Stories Retold. His brother, Sir Francis Bathurst Suttor, is noticed separately. Another son of George Suttor was John Bligh Suttor (1809-1886), who for some years represented East Macquarie in the legislative assembly, and at the time of his death was a member of the legislative council.

S. M. Johnstone, Journal and Proceedings, Parramatta and District Historical Society, vol. I, p. 71; Historical Records of Australia, ser. I. vols. II, VI, VII, IX; W. H. Suttor, Australian Stories Retold; The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 May 1886.

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SWINBURNE, GEORGE (1861-1928),

politician and public man,

was born at Paradise, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, on 3 February 1861. His father, Mark William Swinburne, who married Jane Coates in 1860, was then a draughtsman in the Armstrong works at Elswick, working for a salary of 27s. a week. Later he improved his position, and in 1892 established his own business as a brass-founder, engineer and coppersmith. His son was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, and in 1874 became apprenticed to a chemical merchant. His apprenticeship completed he became a clerk in the same business, studied engineering in the evening, shorthand and German before beginning work in the morning, and he also joined a debating society. On Sundays he taught a class in a Methodist Sunday school. In 1882 he went to London to a position in the gas and mechanical engineering business of his uncle, John Coates. Three years later he was taken into partnership and was able to put £300 of his own savings into the business. His chief recreation was music and in June 1885 he was one of the choristers at the Handel festival held in the Crystal Palace. In politics he was an ardent Gladstonian, and in 1886 became election agent for the Liberal candidate for South Saint Pancras who was elected after a strenuous campaign. Swinburne found electioneering a great strain, "a game not worth playing--ended in weariness, sleepless nights and restless days". In December 1885 his uncle had gone to Melbourne and found the prospects so good that Swinburne followed him and arrived in November 1886. His business was to secure contracts for erecting gas plants for the firm of John Coates and Company. In 1887 the Melbourne Hydraulic Power Company was formed, and in 1888 a similar company was established in Sydney. Swinburne was engineer and manager to the Melbourne company until 1897. He visited England in 1891 and fortunately withdrew most of his capital from Melbourne to help his father and brother in starting a business. He thus practically escaped the effects of the breaking of the land boom and the bank crisis of 1893. In 1897 he visited the United States and Europe, studied the development of electricity in competition with gas, and decided that each would have its own place.

Swinburne was elected a member of the Hawthorn municipal council in 1898, four years later became member for Hawthorn in the legislative assembly, and sat as a supporter of W. H. Irvine. There had been a severe drought in Australia and the policy speech foreshadowed "important works for the conservation and distribution of water in the arid areas". It seemed almost providential that an engineer of the capacity of Swinburne should have come into the house at this juncture. The earlier experiments initiated by Deakin (q.v.) had not really been successful, and it was clear that their organization and principles would need careful revision. Swinburne had made a study of Victorian irrigation and realizing the great cost of storing the winter rains for summer use, held strongly that the water charges should take the form of a rate payable, not only by those who used the water, but by all whose land was in a position to benefit by irrigation. In November 1903 Irvine's health was so seriously affected by over-work that he was compelled to resign the premiership, and Bent (q.v.) who succeeded him gave Swinburne the portfolio of minister of water-supply. Swinburne was in England at the time but he collected all the available literature on the subject and studied it on the voyage out. He then visited the irrigation settlement with leading officers of his department. The whole problem was full of complications, but Swinburne was able to have the drafting of the water bill begun in June 1904. It involved the appointment of the state rivers and water supply commission to undertake the control and management of all state water. The bill passed through the assembly but lapsed in the council. In the meantime it met with much opposition and Swinburne had to travel through the country and convert the malcontents. In 1905 it passed the assembly again and Swinburne was asked to attend the council and explain the provisions of his bill. With some amendments the bill was passed by the council. This act was Swinburne's greatest achievement, regarded with admiration wherever irrigation is practised. Swinburne had become minister of agriculture in November 1904 and was also of great assistance to Bent as treasurer. As minister for agriculture he realized as no one had done before that the most important function of the department was to educate the people. It has been carried on ever since with this in view, and is an outstanding example of the wise working of a state department. Much of the credit for this is due to Swinburne, who revitalized a department that had not previously been sufficiently encouraged by the government. He was mainly responsible for the foundation of chairs in agricultural science and veterinary science at the university of Melbourne, but the latter chair has since been abandoned. Swinburne also had the handling of the Murray Waters agreement, and his obvious sincerity and knowledge were great factors in bringing about agreement. In 1907 Bent visited England and Swinburne was leader of the assembly during his absence. After Bent's return the ministry's position weakened, and Swinburne and four other ministers resigned on 31 October 1908. During the negotiations for the reconstruction of the ministry advances were made to Swinburne to take over the leadership of the party, and Bent offered to retire in his favour, but Swinburne, tired and overworked, could see no way of reconciling the conflicting interests in the party and declined the offer. He had felt the strain of a motion of censure on him moved in September. Behind this motion were severe attacks made on his probity by the Age newspaper. The motion in the house was defeated by a large majority, Swinburne brought an action against the Age, and in 1909 obtained a verdict for £3250 damages and costs. The Age took the case to two higher courts but was defeated in each case. Syme (q.v.) its proprietor had practically been a dictator in politics for many years. His mistake on this occasion was to attack a man who was not only perfectly honest, but had the courage to go into the witness box and the ability to withstand the cross-examination of two of the ablest barristers of the time. Swinburne in fighting this action did a great service to the state.

On 31 July 1913 Swinburne retired from parliament to become a member of the inter-state commission appointed by the federal government. A host of matters was referred to the commission, and Swinburne thought it right to resign from all his directorates and practically abandon the business career in which he had been so successful. Much work was done by the commission and it is due to a suggestion made by this body that the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research was eventually established. But a judgment of the high court had so reduced the power of the commission that in July 1917 Swinburne decided to resign. He was doing much war work and was chairman of the board of business administration of the defence department, and later was civil and finance member of the military board. In 1919 when the electricity commission was instituted Swinburne was appointed one of the four commissioners, with Sir John Monash (q.v.) as chairman. He resigned this position in 1925, when most of the initial difficulties of using brown coal for power generation had been surmounted.

Swinburne was always a hard worker but he was never too busy to find time for additional things of importance. He was a driving force in the establishment of the Eastern Suburbs technical college at Hawthorn, and one way and another contributed over £15,000 to it. Its name was afterwards changed to the Swinburne Technical College. He became a member of the council of public instruction after he left state politics, and especially encouraged decentralization and technical education. He was for some years on the council of the university of Melbourne and was also one of the trustees of the public library, museums and national gallery of Victoria. In April 1928 he became president of the trustees and much was hoped from him in this position. He had been a candidate for the Commonwealth senate in 1922 but the Labour candidates in 1922 were elected, and in 1928 he was elected to the Victorian legislative council. On 4 September 1928 he was in his place in the council chamber when he suddenly collapsed and died. He married Ethel Hamer on 17 February 1890 who survived him with four daughters. His bust by Paul Montford (q.v.) is at the national gallery, Melbourne. His second daughter, Gwendolen Hamer Swinburne, published in 1919 A Source Book of Australian History, and in 1923, Womanhood in the Life of the Nations.

Swinburne was over six feet in height, thin, slightly angular, friendly in manner, tactful, alert, enthusiastic, and completely honest. He loved music, poetry and painting, was sincerely religious, though he never pressed his views on other men, and his many charities were never talked about. His clear-thinking and orderly brain, great grasp of detail and an immense capacity for work, made him a first-rate business man. He could have had any honour he desired but was content with the feeling that he had done his best for his country. He was only a few years in parliament, but the influence of his work was long felt, and every organization he was connected with owed much to him.

E. H. Sugden and F. W. Eggleston, George Swinburne a Biography; The Argus, Melbourne, 5 September 1928; personal knowledge.

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SYME, DAVID (1827-1908),

newspaper proprietor, "the father of protection in Australia",

was born on 2 October 1827 at North Berwick, Scotland, the youngest of the seven children of George Syme, a parish schoolmaster, and his wife, Jean Mitchell. His father's income was small but he managed to provide for his large family and send three of his sons to universities. His son, David, he educated himself, and the boy's childhood was one of unrelieved study with little companionship with other boys of his own age. David was 16 years old when his father died and he continued his studies in Latin, Greek and Hebrew with some doubt as to what his future was to be. He had thoughts of qualifying for the ministry but revolted from the Calvinistic teaching of the day, and after attending some classes at Heidelberg he returned to Scotland and obtained a position about 1850 as a reader on a Glasgow newspaper. His pay was small and there was little prospect of advancement, so towards the end of 1851 he sailed for San Francisco by way of Cape Horn and arrived after a voyage of five months. He immediately went to the goldfields but had little success, and early in 1852 took ship for Australia in a badly found and badly provisioned vessel, and arrived at Sydney in a half-starved condition. Syme took the first steamer for Melbourne and tramped to Castlemaine. There he had small success and Bendigo, Wangaratta and other diggings were tried. Once, at Mount Egerton, he and his partner nearly obtained a fortune, but their claim, which afterwards became very valuable, was jumped by other men and they were unable to obtain redress. Towards the end of 1855 Syme returned to Melbourne and joined his brother, Ebenezer [Syme] (q.v.), who was editing the Age newspaper. The paper was then threatened with failure, and Syme who had saved some money while on the diggings joined his brother in buying it for the sum of £2000. The paper struggled on for 18 months, when finding it could not support the two proprietors David obtained other employment. He became a contractor and in spite of strong competition was successful. In March 1860 his brother Ebenezer died, and finding it was difficult to sell the Age Syme decided to abandon his contracting and carry on the paper.

The task undertaken was one of great difficulty, and only the fact that the proprietor was willing to work 15 hours a day made success possible. The original policy of the Age included manhood suffrage, the opening of the lands for selection by the people, no compensation for the squatters, and compulsory, free and secular education. When protection was added to the programme great opposition was raised. It was felt quite honestly by the conservative and moneyed classes that if these things came about the colony would be in great danger. The opposition to the Age was carried even to the extent of boycotting its advertisement columns. But great as his difficulties were Syme was undismayed. Various abortive amending land acts became law between 1860 and 1869, but in the latter year an act was passed which embodied most of the principles for which Syme had fought. It was now possible for the land to be properly cultivated and a great principle had been established. A tremendous flow of population came into Victoria between 1850 and 1860 and towards the end of the decade there was some unemployment. Syme felt that manufacturing industries should be established and that this could only be done by bringing in protection. He won over to his side able men like Sir James McCulloch (q.v.) and Sir Graham Berry (q.v.), protection became the settled policy of the colony, and many manufacturies were established. But the account in Pratt's David Syme of the state of affairs in the colony and the benefits brought in by protection need not be completely accepted. It should be remembered that the neighbouring colony of New South Wales retained a policy which was practically free trade for most of the period before federation, and appears to have been as steadily prosperous as Victoria. But whether or not the importance of protection has been over-stated, Syme undoubtedly was responsible for its introduction. It was bitterly fought and led to great constitutional difficulties with the legislative council. The struggle went on for years, but Syme's contention that the people as a whole should rule and not any section of them was finally established, and for a long period the Age became the predominant factor in Victorian politics. In its early days there was difficulty in getting competent journalists, the best of them was G. Paton Smith who was editor for some years. After he left Syme took the editorial chair until A. L. Windsor (q.v.) became editor about 1870 and held the position until 1900. Possibly his ablest assistant was Charles Henry Pearson (q.v.) who began writing leaders about the year 1875.

The first protectionist tariff had been a very moderate one and McCulloch was not willing to go further. Though Syme thought highly of McCulloch's ability he opposed him and transferred his support to Graham Berry. Parliament became tired of the turmoil and more than once ministries were formed consisting partly of freetraders and partly of protectionists. This did not satisfy Syme and in 1877 his advocacy brought in Berry with a large majority. The council, however, rejected his tariff and fresh constitutional difficulties arose. The governor, Sir George Bowen (q.v.), was placed in a difficult position, and took the unprecedented step of asking Syme's advice. His reply was that the governor should act in conformity with the opinions of the law officers of the crown. This he did but Syme thought the advice was bad and told the premier so. Berry then asked Syme for his advice and took it. It is evident that Syme at this time was virtually the ruler of the colony. Constitutional difficulties continued for some time, but at last the legislative council was reformed by largely increasing the number of eligible voters and making other changes in its constitution to bring it more in touch with the public.

Syme had supported Berry in the fight for protection and during the constitutional struggle, but was not satisfied with him as an administrator, and though opposed to James Service (q.v.) he recognized that Service had the very qualities Berry lacked. He therefore supported the coalition ministry formed in 1883 which did good work for three years. There was a feeling of general confidence, a tendency to over-borrow and to spend huge sums on railways and other public works. This led to the mining and land booms which really burst in 1889, though the full effects were not realized until the bank crisis of 1893. In 1891 the Age began a series of articles alleging bad management and incompetence on the part of the railway commissioners, which led at last to an action for libel being brought against the Age by the chief commissioner, Richard Speight. Other articles attacked the civil service generally. At the first trial of the railway libel case begun on 1 June 1893 the jury disagreed, and the second trial which began on 17 April 1894 and lasted for 105 days resulted in a verdict for the defendant on nine out of the ten counts, and on the tenth count the damages were assessed at one farthing. Speight, however, was ruined and Syme had to pay his own costs which amounted to about £50,000. As a sidelight on the power exercised by Syme at this period, it may be mentioned that the leading counsel for the plaintiff when addressing the jury stated that "no government could stand against the Age without being shaken to its centre".

Syme had early realized that agriculture would need development in Victoria and twice sent J. L. Dew to America to study irrigation and agricultural methods. He also sent Alfred Deakin (q.v.) to India to report on irrigation in that country. As a result the development of irrigation began which after some early failures was to be successfully extended in later years. He also supported the measures which brought in early closing, anti-sweating, factory legislation, and old-age pensions. When the question of federation became really important towards the end of the century it was Deakin, a protégé of Syme's, who became the leader of the movement in Victoria. At the election for the convention to frame the constitution Syme selected 10 men from the 24 candidates for his support, and they were duly elected. During the first federal parliament he fought for comparatively high protective duties, but his influence did not extend to any great extent beyond Victoria and he was for the time unsuccessful. In later years, however, considerable increases in duties were made. In the last years of his life Syme was exercised about the faults of party government. Some of these he had drawn attention to in chapter VII of his Representative Government in England. His suggested remedies have failed, however, to obtain much support. He died at Kew near Melbourne on 14 February 1908. He married in 1859 Annabella Johnson who survived him with five sons and two daughters.

During his 50 Years of ownership of the Age Syme did comparatively little writing for it himself, though he read nearly everything that appeared. His clear concise style is apparent in his Outlines of an Industrial Science, published in London in 1876. Largely written as a vindication of protection it is also a plea for the extension of the activities of the state. In 1881 appeared Representative Government in England, a thoughtful study of the history of parliament in England. His next book On the Modification of Organisms, published in 1890, is largely a criticism of Darwin's theory of natural selection. His last volume, The Soul: A Study and an Argument (1903), discusses in a spirit of inquiry the nature of life, instinct, memory, mind, and survival after death.

Syme was over six feet in height, lean, upright in carriage, stern and reserved-looking. He went little into society, he could not be persuaded to make a speech or sit on a committee. The Age was his life, its reputation was clearer to him than anything else. Though a rich man he was not prominent in connexion with charitable appeals, but he paid the expenses of a rifle team to Bisley and financed expeditions to New Guinea and Central Australia. In 1904 he gave £3000 to Melbourne university to endow the Syme prize for research in biology, chemistry, geology and natural philosophy. When the introduction of linotype machines threw many of his compositers out of work, he was thoroughly conscientious in seeing that they were provided for. The elder men were pensioned and others were set up in business or placed on the land. In congenial company Syme could talk brilliantly and without arrogance, and he could be a good friend, but his armour of reserve helped to found the legend that he was hard, dour, and arrogant. He seemed reluctant to give praise, he could be fault-finding, his temper was not always under control, but the members of his staff were loyal to him and felt a pride in their head. He has been called unscrupulous and it is true that if he were fighting any man or principle a case was built up without regard to what might be said on the other side. Neither was the other side given full opportunity to reply. If Syme thought a man was a danger to his country, the order was issued that he was to be written out of his position without compromise or consideration of mitigating circumstances. He had strong principles and would not palter with them, his power was enormous but he was never accused of using his power for his own advantage. It has been said that for 25 years no cabinet was formed in Victoria without his being consulted. That may not be literally true but he was not nicknamed "King David" for nothing. He was a great personality and had an immense influence on the development of the state of Victoria.

Ambrose Pratt, David Syme, the Father of Protection in Australia; The Age and The Argus, 15 February 1908; Cyclopaedia of Victoria, 1903; private information and personal knowledge.

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SYME, EBENEZER (1826-1860),

journalist,

brother of David Syme (q.v.), was born at North Berwick, Scotland, in 1826. He went to the university of St Andrews to be educated for the ministry but finding difficulties in accepting the creeds of the day became an unattached evangelist, working mostly in the north of England . He also began to write for the reviews and succeeded George Eliot as assistant editor of the Westminster Review. In 1852 he sailed for Melbourne and immediately found occupation as a journalist. When the Age was founded in 1854 Syme joined the staff and two years later, the paper being in difficulties, it was sold to him and his brother, David. He was elected member for Mandurang in the first legislative assembly of Victoria, but as this conflicted with his journalistic work he did not stand again when his term expired. in 1857 he took sole control of the Age and joined in the struggle for the opening up of the lands. His health, however, began to suffer and he died after a lingering illness on 13 March 1860. His son, Joseph Cowen Syme, was for many years part proprietor and manager of the Age.

P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Ambrose Pratt, David Syme, the Father of Protection in Australia.

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SYME, SIR GEORGE ADLINGTON (1859-1929),

surgeon,

was born at Nottingham, England, on 13 July 1859, and was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne. His father, George Alexander Syme (1821-1894), a brother of David Syme (q.v.) and Ebenezer Syme (q.v.), was a graduate of the university of Aberdeen and became a Baptist clergyman in England. On account of failing health he followed his brother, David, to Australia in 1862 arid joined the staff of the Age. He became editor of the Leader from which he retired in 1885 and died on 31 December 1894. His son did a brilliant course at Melbourne university, graduating in 1881 with first-class honours in surgery, medicine and forensic medicine.

He continued his studies at King's College, London, worked under Lister and gained his F.R.C.S. Eng. in 1885. He returned to Melbourne and became examiner in anatomy, and physiology at the university. In 1888 he qualified for the degree of Ch. M. and in 1890 was acting-professor of anatomy. In 1893 he became honorary surgeon to in-patients at St Vincent's hospital, and held the same position at Melbourne hospital from 1903 to 1919. When war broke out he left Australia in December 1914 as lieutenant-colonel, and was chief of the surgical staff in No. 1 general hospital at Cairo. He was present at the landing at Gallipoli. Invalided to England he was consulting surgeon to the Australian Imperial Forces in London. He returned to Australia in 1916 and was attached to the Caulfield military hospital as surgeon. Syme was president of the Australian medical congress in 1923, and three times president of the Victorian branch of the British Medical Association. During the last two years of his life he was much interested in the formation of the Australasian College of Surgeons, of which he was the first president. On his retirement in 1924 he was presented with his portrait painted by Sir John Longstaff (q.v.) and subscribed for by members of his profession. In the same year he was created K.B.E. He died on 19 April 1929. He married Mabel Berry, who survived him with one son and three daughters. His portrait by Longstaff is in the Medical Society hail at Melbourne.

Syme was quiet, unobtrusive and modest, a man of few words. Apart from his profession he did much work on various commissions and committees. To describe him as a brilliant surgeon would be to use the wrong word. Nevertheless he was a great surgeon because he brought to his work a large fund of experience and knowledge, great powers of diagnosis, thorough conscientiousness and unremitting care. In 1923 when Dr Franklin Martin, director-general of the American College of Surgeons, and Dr William Mayo inquired throughout Australia and New Zealand who could most fittingly be selected for the honorary fellowship of the American College of Surgeons, they were everywhere given Syme's name. Nothing could have better expressed the admiration and respect of the whole of his profession.

A. L. Kenny, The Medical Journal of Australia, 13 February 1932; The Age and The Argus, 20 April 1929; The Lancet, 27 April 1920; The British Medical Journal, 27 April 1929.

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SYMON, SIR JOSIAH HENRY (1846-1934),

lawyer and politician,

son of James Symon, was born at Wick, Caithness, Scotland, on 27 September 1846. He was educated at the Stirling high school, of which he was dux in 1862, and the Moray training college, Edinburgh. He emigrated to South Australia in 1866 and was articled to a cousin, J. D. Sutherland, who was practising as a solicitor at Mount Gambier. Some of his work coming under the notice of (Sir) Samuel Way, who was then the leader of the South Australian bar, Symon was invited to join the firm of Way and Brook. While with them he completed his legal studies and was called to the bar in 1871. In 1872 on the death of Mr Brook he became a partner, and established a reputation as a barrister. In March 1881 he joined the William Morgan (q.v.) ministry as attorney-general; he was not a member of parliament but a few weeks later a seat was found for him as representative for Sturt. This government, however, went out of office on 24 June 1881. In this year Symon became a Q.C. and in 1884 declined a judgeship. In 1886 while on a visit to England he was offered and declined nomination for a seat in the house of commons for a conservative constituency. He returned to South Australia, and was defeated as a candidate for the Victorian district at the 1887 election, and was never in the South Australian parliament again.

Symon was an ardent federalist, did valuable work as president of the South Australian Federal League, and was elected as a representative of South Australia at the 1897 convention. As chairman of the judiciary committee he took an important part in the proceedings. In 1899 he again visited England and was able to be of assistance in connexion with the Commonwealth bill and its passing through the Imperial parliament, and in 1901 was created K.C.M.G. He was placed head of the poll at the South Australian election of senators in 1901, and was appointed leader of the opposition in the senate. At the second Commonwealth election he again headed the senate poll in South Australia, and from August 1904 to July 1905 was attorney-general in the Reid-McLean ministry. In 1911 he was the Commonwealth representative at the coronation naval review, but in 1913 he lost his seat at the election for the senate. He continued his practice as a barrister until 1923, and lived in retirement until his death on 29 March 1934. He married Mary Eleanor Cowle in 1881 who survived him with five sons and five daughters.

Symon was an excellent advocate and in criminal cases his addresses to the jury were masterpieces of pleading and oratory. He was a member of the Society of Comparative Legislation and International Law and frequently contributed to its journal. He also wrote extensively on federation and was a good Shakespearean scholar; his pleasant little volume, Shakespeare at Home, was published in 1905. Another volume, Shakespeare the Englishman, appeared in 1929 and some of his lectures were printed as pamphlets. He took much interest in viticulture and owned Auldana, a well-known South Australian vineyard. His many benefactions included £9500 to the university of Adelaide for the women's portion of the union, and he also established scholarships at the university of Sydney, Scotch College, Adelaide, and Stirling high school, Scotland. His fine library of 7500 volumes was left to the public library of South Australia.

The Advertiser, Adelaide, 30 March 1934; The Bulletin, 10 April 1935; B. R. Wise, The Making of the Australian Commonwealth; Quick and Garran, The Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth; W. Murdoch, Alfred Deakin; H. G. Turner, The First Decade of the Australian Commonwealth; Debrett's Peerage etc., 1933; E. Morris Miller, Australian Literature.

 

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