Samuel Wilson (Portsmouth MP), Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

Samuel Wilson (Portsmouth MP)

Australian pastoralist

Date of Birth: 07-Feb-1832

Date of Death: 11-Jun-1895

Profession: politician

Nationality: Australia

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius


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About Samuel Wilson (Portsmouth MP)

  • Sir Samuel Wilson (7 February 1832 – 11 June 1895) was an Irish-born Australian pastoralist and politician, and later a British Member of Parliament. Wilson was born in Ballycloughan, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1832.
  • He was educated at Ballymena and at first intended taking up civil engineering.
  • For three years he worked for a brother-in-law [Robert Chesney], a linen manufacturer, but in 1852 decided to emigrate to Australia.
  • He arrived in Melbourne in May 1852 and worked on the goldfields, but a few months later decided to join two brothers who had preceded him to Australia, and had a pastoral property in the Wimmera.
  • He was made manager of one of their holdings, and selling a small property he had in Ireland, with his brothers bought Longerenong station for £40,000.
  • He dug waterholes and made dams on the property which much improved and increased its carrying capacity. Yanko station in the Riverina was then purchased and much improved.
  • In 1869 Wilson bought his brothers' interests in their stations, afterwards bought other stations in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and became very wealthy.
  • He was interested in the Acclimatization Society of Victoria and in 1873 wrote pamphlets on the angora goat, and on the ostrich.
  • In 1878 a paper he had written was expanded into a volume, The Californian Salmon With an Account of its Introduction into Victoria, and published in the same year.
  • In 1879 another edition of this was published in London under the title, Salmon at the Antipodes. In 1874 Wilson gave the University of Melbourne £30,000 which with accrued interest was expended on a building in the Gothic style now known as the Wilson Hall.
  • It was the most considerable gift or bequest that the university had received up to then.
  • In the following year he was elected a member of the Victorian Legislative Council (1875-1881) and Legislative Assembly (1861-64) for the Western Province, but he never took a very prominent part in politics.
  • About the beginning of 1881 he went to England with his family and leased Hughenden Manor, once the property of the Earl of Beaconsfield.
  • He twice contested seats for the House of Commons without success, but in 1886 was elected as a Conservative for Portsmouth and sat until 1892.
  • In September 1893 he again came to Victoria and stayed until March 1895.
  • He became ill soon after his return to England and died on 11 June 1895, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. He was knighted in 1875.
  • He married in 1861 a daughter of the Hon.
  • W.
  • Campbell who survived him with four sons and five daughters. His eldest son, Lieut.-Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson, married Lady Sarah Isabella Churchill, sister of Lord Randolph Churchill. His daughter Maud Margaret Wilson married Warner Hastings, 15th Earl of Huntingdon.

Read more at Wikipedia

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