Famous Folk

Before a man can wake up and find himself famous he has to wake up and find himself.

Many left County Down in search of fame and fortune - here's a list of some that were successful in their quest for a better life in Australia. Courtesy of: The Australian National University (ANU), through its Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB).

BARCLAY, AUBREY COLVILLE HENRI de RUNE (1880-1950), journalist and conservative campaigner, was born on 20 January 1880 in County Down, Ireland, youngest of six sons and brother of three daughters of William Malo de Rune Barclay, army officer, and his wife Harriet Jane, née Leslie. In 1881 the family moved to Tauranga, New Zealand, where William took a position with the Department of Lands and Bridges.

FOWLER, THOMAS WALKER (1859-1928), civil engineer, was born on 23 November 1859 at Blaris Lodge, near Hillsborough, Down, Ireland, son of James Barrington Fowler, farmer, and his wife Deborah, née Bulmer (Boomer). He received secondary education at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast.

FRAZER, JOHN (1827-1884), merchant, company director and philanthropist, was born in Dromore, County Down, Ireland, son of John Frazer and his wife Sarah, née Waddell. As 'a carpenter and joiner' he arrived at Sydney as a bounty immigrant in the Margaret on 23 January 1842, with a brother and two sisters.

GLASS, HUGH (1817-1871), speculator, squatter and merchant, was born at Portaferry, County Down, Ireland, son of Thomas Glass, merchant, and his wife Rachael, née Pollock. In 1840 he migrated to Victoria and began farming on the Merri Creek; by 1845 he had established himself as a station agent and merchant. In 1853 he married Lucinda (Lucy), youngest daughter of Captain Nash, Victorian squatter and sometime of the 21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.

GLEDSON, DAVID ALEXANDER (1877-1949), trade union leader and politician, was born in 1877 at Saintfield, Down, Ireland, son of William Gledson, miner, and his wife Mary, née Magill. Migrating to Queensland in 1885, the family settled at Bundamba where David was educated at the local state school. Going to work early in the Bundamba mine, he was inspired with union ideals by Gilbert Casey. Blacklisted and dismissed from Bundamba, he followed his father into the Tivoli pit. After a strike in 1905, he helped to found the Queensland Colliery Employees' Union.

GLENNY, HENRY (1835-1910), businessman and author often known as 'The Australian Silverpen', was born on 5 August 1835 at Newry, County Down, Ireland, the first son of Joseph Glenny, linen merchant, and his wife Elizabeth, née Grandy, both staunch Irish Protestants. After schooling at Newry he worked for a time with his father until permitted to migrate to Australia. At 18 Glenny arrived in Victoria in the Phoenix, eager to try his luck on the Victorian diggings. At White Flat and Eureka he had little success and accepted the offer of the Geelong merchants, J. & T. Bray, to manage a general store in a tent at the Gravel Pits. Although store-keepers as well as diggers had grievances, he came out on the side of officialdom, volunteering for the mounted police patrol on the day after the rising at Eureka. In 1855 he was appointed postmaster and clerk of courts at Beechworth. After a year he resigned and went to Castlemaine to manage a store. He then taught at Blanchard's school for young ladies and gentlemen. There he met 14-year-old Emma Jane Blanchard whom he married on 14 February 1859 at Castlemaine.

GORDON, SAMUEL DEANE (1811-1882), merchant, pastoralist and politician, was born on 12 October 1811 at Ballynahinch, County Down, Ireland, son of David Gordon, farmer, and his wife Mary, née Deane. Educated at private schools in Ireland he arrived in Sydney about 1830. He worked in several Sydney mercantile houses before becoming a merchant. At Liverpool he had a large store by 1840 and later the agency for the Albion brewery. In the 1840s he turned to pastoral speculation and leased Banandra run, 50,000 acres (20,235 ha) on the Murrumbidgee. In 1848 he sold his Liverpool store and moved to Sydney where he set up as a wine and spirits merchant. In 1854 he was appointed a magistrate and next year became a director of the Sydney Exchange Co., the Hunter River Railway Co., the English, Scottish and Australian Bank and the Sydney Insurance Co. He was on the committee of the Sydney Bethel Union. On 22 October 1839 at East Maitland he had married Eliza, daughter of Peter Dickson of Kirkcudbrightshire; she died in 1856, leaving a son and four daughters.

HIGGINS, HENRY BOURNES (1851-1929), politician and judge, was born on 30 June 1851 at Newtownards, Down, Ireland, second son of Rev. John Higgins and his wife Anne, née Bournes. John Higgins, brought up in the Church of Ireland and destined for a safe career in a bank, displeased his father by entering the Wesleyan ministry.

HUME, ANDREW HAMILTON (1762-1849), superintendent of convicts and farmer, was born on 24 June 1762 at Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland, the eldest son of James Hume, a Presbyterian minister, who had moved from the Scottish border in 1746 and settled at Moira.

IRVINE, Sir WILLIAM HILL (1858-1943), premier and chief justice, was born on 6 July 1858 at Dromalane, Newry, Down, Ireland, sixth of seven children of Hill Irvine, farmer and linen manufacturer, and his wife Margaret, née Mitchel. William, a nephew of John Mitchel the Irish patriot, was educated at the Royal School, Armagh, and at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1879), sharing college rooms with a cousin and leading 'a cheerful and rather riotous student life'. He won prizes in modern history and Italian and did well in mathematics. On graduation, achieved despite financial difficulties when Hill Irvine, overwhelmed by the failure of his linen mill, suffered a heart attack and died, William entered the King's Inns. But when his mother determined upon a new start overseas, he abandoned legal studies and persuaded her to go to Australia. Some of the family sailed for Melbourne in 1879 and set up house at Richmond.

JENNINGS, Sir PATRICK ALFRED (1831-1897), pastoralist and politician, was born on 20 March 1831 in Newry, County Down, Ireland, son of Francis Jennings, linen merchant, and his wife Mary, née O'Neill. He was a direct descendant of John Jennings of Ballymurphy who in 1633 forfeited his Irish estates rather than change his Roman Catholic religion. Educated in Newry and in Exeter, England, he lacked the money to study for the Bar and trained for a business career with a firm in Exeter. In 1852 he went to Victoria. He joined the 1855 rush to New Bendigo (St Arnaud), but his keen commercial sense led him into store-keeping. When his ventures extended into quartz-crushing and grazing land, the prosperous store was run by members of his family who had migrated with his mother in 1857, the year he became a magistrate.

KENNEDY, Sir ARTHUR EDWARD (1810-1883), soldier and governor, was born on 9 April 1810 at Cultra, County Down, Ireland, the fourth son of Hugh Kennedy and his wife Grace Dorothea, née Hughes. After study at Trinity College, Dublin, he was gazetted an ensign in the 11th Regiment on 15 August 1827. He served in Corfu, bought a commission and later spent three years in Canada as a captain in the 68th Regiment. In 1846 he returned to Ireland and as a poor law inspector in County Clare saw much of the Irish famine. He sold his commission in 1848 and joined the colonial service, becoming governor of Gambia in 1851, Sierra Leone in 1852 and Western Australia in July 1855.

KENNEDY, HUGH (1829-1882), university registrar, was born on 19 September 1829, the second son of Hugh Kennedy of Cultra, County Down, Ireland, and his second wife Sophia, née Lowe. In 1847 he matriculated to Balliol College, Oxford, and studied divinity, classics, mathematics and logic. He left, probably without a degree, although he later claimed a B.A. Oxon. In 1852 Kennedy married Eliza Ann, née Lloyd, and went to New South Wales. In January 1853 he became a clerk in the Colonial Secretary's Office and in March transferred to the Customs Department as seventh clerk.

KING, JOHN CHARLES (1817-1870), town clerk and politician, was born on 10 July 1817 at Dromara, County Down, Ireland, the son of Henry King (d.1840), a landed proprietor and farmer, and his wife Martha Jane, née Henry. He was educated at the Belfast Royal Institute and Belfast College and was intended for the Presbyterian ministry. Deciding against this vocation, King sailed in 1838 for Australia. In Sydney he was so impressed with what he heard of Port Phillip that he returned to Ireland, married Elizabeth Johnston, of Annandale, Scotland, and sailed again for Australia with his parents and members of his family. He arrived in Melbourne in the Salsette in January 1841 and immediately set up as an auctioneer and commission agent in Elizabeth Street. Later he briefly served as government auctioneer.

MACARTNEY, Sir EDWARD HENRY (1863-1956), solicitor and politician, was born on 24 January 1863 at Holywood, Down, Ireland, youngest son of William Isaac Macartney, formerly commissioner of police, Ceylon, of a prominent Northern Ireland family, and his wife Henrietta, née Dare. Educated at Holywood, Enniskillen, Gracehill and Dublin, Edward had over four years of commercial experience at Belfast.

McILRATH, Sir MARTIN (1874-1952) and WILLIAM (1876-1955), merchants and philanthropists, were born at Banbridge, Down, Ireland, sons of Robert McIlrath, farmer, and his wife Mary, née Urey. Martin, born on 9 July 1874, arrived in Victoria in 1889 and spent some time in the Wimmera district. In 1892 he joined his brother Hugh in a grocery business in Sydney; this developed into McIlraths Ltd and McIlrath Holdings Ltd, a State-wide grocery and provisions business with thirty-six chain stores in the Sydney metropolitan area.

McMINN, GILBERT ROTHERDALE (1841-1924), surveyor and public servant, and WILLIAM (1844-1884), surveyor and architect, were born at Newry, County Down, Ireland, sons of Joseph McMinn, bank manager, and his wife Martha, née Hamill. After Joseph died, Martha sailed with her eight children in the Albatross and arrived at Port Adelaide in September 1850. On leaving school Gilbert took up surveying and William was apprenticed to the architect, James Macgeorge (d.1918).

MAGAREY, THOMAS (1825-1902), miller and pastoralist, was born on 25 February 1825 in County Down, Ireland, the son of James Magarey and his wife Elizabeth. He spent most of his boyhood in Lancashire, and 'was brought up to the milling business'. At 17, with his brother James, he migrated to Nelson, New Zealand, paying his own passage. In the Fifeshire he became acquainted with a number of Dissenters, who as 'United Christians' built Ebenezer Chapel and started a Sunday school and temperance society soon after landing.

MULLIGAN, JAMES VENTURE (1837-1907), prospector, was born on 13 February 1837 at Drumgooland, County Down, Ireland, son of James Mulligan, farmer, and his wife Maria, née Lee. He later adopted his second name. On 25 February 1860 he sailed in the Curling for Victoria and landed in Melbourne on 10 June. After an abortive attempt to join the Burke and Wills expedition he moved to New South Wales and settled in Armidale, where he opened a butcher's shop and learnt prospecting on the Peel River and other northern goldfields. In Queensland he joined the rushes to Gympie in 1867, Gilberton in 1871 and the Etheridge in 1873.

NEWELL, JOHN (1849-1932), miner, businessman and politician, was born on 30 November 1849 at Listooder, County Down, Ireland, son of James Newell, farmer, and his wife Margaret, née McDowall. Educated at a National school, he spent seven years with a grocery firm in Belfast. In 1872 Newell arrived at Brisbane in the Gauntlet to join an elder brother in mining at Stanthorpe; he left in 1876 for the Hodgkinson gold rush. Unsuccessful as a prospector, he returned to Brisbane, secured employment in a wholesale house and in 1877 was sent north to open a branch of the firm at Smithfield.

OSBORNE, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1873-1967), professor of physiology, man of letters and broadcaster, was born on 26 August 1873 at Holywood, Down, Ireland, son of Rev. Henry Osborne, Presbyterian clergyman, and his wife Martha Jane, née Alexander.

SCOTT, ANDREW GEORGE (1842-1880), bushranger, self-styled 'CAPTAIN MOONLITE', was born at Rathfriland, County Down, Ireland, and baptized on 5 July 1842, son of Thomas Scott, Anglican clergyman, and his wife Bessie, née Jeffares. Young Scott was described as 'dark, handsome, active and full of high spirits', but was known for impulsive acts of mischievous violence. He may have studied engineering in London, and legend has it that he served with Garibaldi in Italy in 1860.

WALKER, JAMES (1863-1942), builder, soldier and public official, was born on 16 August 1863 at Banbridge, County Down, Ireland, son of Isaac Walker, builder, and his wife Rose Ann, née McCann. Little is known of his family and early life. After migrating to Australia about 1881, Walker settled as a builder at Charters Towers, Queensland, where he married New Zealand-born Emily Jane Meredith with Anglican rites on 4 August 1897.

WILSON, ALEXANDER (1889-1954), farmer and politician, was born on 7 June 1889 at Whitespots, near Newtownards, County Down, Ireland, second son of Alexander Wilson, farmer and builder, and his wife Anna, née McGowan. Educated at the Clifton Street National School, Belfast, and Belfast Technical College, Alex migrated alone to Victoria in 1908. He worked for his cousin Hugh McClelland on his property in the Mallee then from 1914 grew wheat on his own farm at Speed. At the Presbyterian Church, Birchip, on 16 August 1922 he married 21-year-old Ivy Isabella Gould.

WRIGHT, DAVID McKEE (1869-1928), poet and journalist, was born on 6 August 1869 at Ballynaskeagh, Down, Ireland, second son of Rev. William Wright (d.1899), a missionary working in Damascus, and his wife Ann (d.1877), née McKee. David was educated locally at Glascar School, and from 1876 in England at Mr Pope's School and the Crystal Palace School of Practical Engineering, London. Migrating to New Zealand in 1887, he worked as a rabbiter on stations in Central Otago, and wrote prose and verse about station life for major provincial newspapers. He began divinity studies in 1896 at the University of Otago and next year was awarded a Stuart prize for poetry.

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