Sir William Clarke, 1st Baronet
Sir William Clarke | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Southern Province | |
| In office 1 September 1878 – 1 May 1897 | |
| Preceded by | John Bear |
| Succeeded by | Sir Rupert Clarke |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 March 1831 near Jericho, Van Diemen's Land |
| Died | 15 May 1897 (aged 66) |
| Resting place | Melbourne General Cemetery |
| Spouses | |
| Parents |
|
Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet (31 March 1831 – 15 May 1897), was an Australian businessman and philanthropist in the Colony of Victoria. He was raised to the baronetage in 1882, the first Victorian to be granted a hereditary honour.[1]
Clarke was born in Van Diemen's Land, the son of the pastoralist William John Turner Clarke. He arrived in the Port Phillip District (the future Victoria) in 1850, where he managed many of his father's properties and acquired some of his own. Upon his father's death in 1874, he became the largest landowner in the colony. Clarke was made a baronet for his work as the head of the Melbourne International Exhibition, which brought Australia to international attention. He also served terms as president of the Australian Club, president of the Victorian Football Association, and president of the Melbourne Cricket Club, and was prominent in yachting and horse racing circles. Clarke gave generously to charitable organisations, and also made significant financial contributions to the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne and the University of Melbourne. He was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council from 1878 until 1897, although he was not particularly active in politics.
Early life
Clarke was born at Lovely Banks (one of his father's properties, near Jericho) in Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania), the eldest of three sons of William John Turner Clarke and his wife Eliza (née Dowling).[1]
Clarke first arrived in Victoria in 1850, when he spent a couple of years in the study of sheep farming on his father's Dowling Forest station, and afterwards in the management of the Woodlands station on the Wimmera. For the next ten years he resided in Tasmania, working the Norton-Mandeville estate in conjunction with his brother, Joseph Clarke.
Career
In 1862 Clarke stood against George Higinbotham in the Brighton by-election for the Victorian Legislative Assembly, but was not elected. In 1878, he successfully ran for Victorian Legislative Council for the Southern Province.[2]
In 1862 Clarke assumed the management of his father's concerns in Victoria, and on the latter's death in 1874 succeeded to his estates in that colony.[3] In the same year he was appointed president of the commissioners of the Melbourne international exhibition which was opened on 1 October 1880. In 1882 he gave £3,000 to found a scholarship in the Royal College of Music.[4]
Amongst Sir William Clarke's other public donations are the gift of £2000 to the Indian Famine Relief Fund, of £10,000 towards building the Anglican Cathedral at Melbourne, and of £7,000 to Trinity College, Melbourne University.[3]
He was the inaugural president of the Victorian Football Association, presiding from 1877 until 1882.[5]
Clarke was a very prominent Victorian Freemason and was elected provincial grand master of the Irish Constitution in 1881 and then district grand master of both the Scottish and English Constitutions in 1884. In 1889 he became the very first Most Worshipful Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Victoria, an amalgamation of the three bodies that had operated at that time under their own constitutions. In 1885 he had largely financed the building of the Freemasons' Hall at 25 Collins Street.
Later life
He married twice, firstly in 1860 to Mary Walker, daughter of the Tasmanian businessman and politician John Walker. He was widowed in April 1871, and in January 1873 remarried to Janet Marian Snodgrass, the daughter of the Victorian pastoralist and politician Peter Snodgrass. He had two sons and two daughters by his first wife, and another four sons and four daughters by his second; he was survived by Janet and nine of his children. His second son, Ernest Edward Dowling Clarke (1869–1941), was a noted racehorse owner, closely associated with trainer James Scobie.[7]
He was created a baronet in 1882,[8] by Queen Victoria in recognition for his many donations and for his presiding over the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880.[9]
Clarke died at Melbourne on 15 May 1897. His son Rupert succeeded him as the 2nd Baronet. The baronetcy of Clarke of Rupertswood is one of only two active hereditary titles in an Australian family.
Clarke was a household name in Victoria.
Footnotes
- ^ a b Morrissey, Sylvia. "Clarke, Sir William John (1831 - 1897)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
- ^ "Sir William John Clarke". Members of Parliament. Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
- ^ a b Mennell, Philip (1892). . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
- ^ "Miscellaneous". The Argus (Melbourne). No. 11, 239. Victoria, Australia. 28 June 1882. p. 9. Retrieved 3 February 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ Fiddian, Marc (2004), The VFA: a history of the Victorian Football Association, 1877–1995, pp. 20–21
- ^ Collins, David J.; Rae, Ian D. (2008). "R. W. E. MacIvor: Late-nineteenth-century Advocate for Scientific Agriculture in South-eastern Australia". Historical Records of Australian Science. 19 (2). CSIRO: 125. doi:10.1071/hr08007. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
- ^ "Death of Mr. E. E. D. Clarke". The Age. No. 26767. Victoria, Australia. 30 January 1941. p. 4. Retrieved 27 July 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "No. 25178". The London Gazette. 15 December 1882. p. 6390.
- ^ McGinness, Mark (16 February 2005). "A fair dinkum Aussie baronet". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 34. Retrieved 13 November 2012.
References
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Clarke, William John". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.