George Randell
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The Honourable George Randell |
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| Member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia |
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In office 25 January 1875 – 1 May 1878 |
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| Preceded by | Edmund Birch |
| Succeeded by | Stephen Henry Parker |
| Constituency | Perth |
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In office 5 July 1880 – 21 October 1890 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Hardey |
| Succeeded by | None (council reconstituted) |
| Constituency | None (nominated by governor) |
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In office 17 July 1893 – 16 July 1894 |
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| Preceded by | Robert Bush |
| Succeeded by | None (council reconstituted) |
| Constituency | None (nominated by governor) |
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In office 28 May 1897 – 21 May 1910 |
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| Preceded by | Stephen Henry Parker |
| Succeeded by | Walter Kingsmill |
| Constituency | Metropolitan Province |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia |
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In office 29 November 1890 – 4 July 1892 |
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| Preceded by | None (new seat) |
| Succeeded by | Henry Lefroy |
| Constituency | Moore |
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In office 15 June 1894 – 5 May 1897 |
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| Preceded by | Thomas Molloy |
| Succeeded by | Lyall Hall |
| Constituency | Perth |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
5 October 1830 New Milton, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 2 June 1915 (aged 84) West Perth, Western Australia, Australia |
George Randell (5 October 1830 – 2 June 1915) was an Australian businessman and politician. He served intermittently in the Parliament of Western Australia between 1875 and 1910, including as a minister in the government of Sir John Forrest.
Born in England, Randell arrived in Western Australia in 1850, and subsequently gained prominence in Perth as a businessman. He was elected to the Perth City Council in 1870, and then to the colony's Legislative Council in 1875, where he served until 1878. He returned to the Legislative Council in 1880, as an appointee of the governor. In 1890, Randell won election to the seat of Moore in the newly created Legislative Assembly. He resigned in 1892 and was re-appointed to the Legislative Council the following year, but re-entered the Legislative Assembly at the 1894 election, winning the seat of Perth. For a time, Randell led the opposition against the Forrest government, although he eventually joined Forrest's ministry, serving as Colonial Secretary and Minister for Education from 1898 to 1901. He had left the Legislative Assembly again in 1897 to return to the Legislative Council, where he remained until his retirement in 1910.
Randell was born in Milton (now New Milton), Hampshire, England, to James Randell, a cordwainer and trader, and Jane Randell. He was educated in Milton, learning blacksmithing and engineering, and by 1850 was a blacksmith in the village. He married Jane Hyde on 8 April 1850, and 19 days later, they sailed to Western Australia aboard the Sophia, arriving on 27 July 1850. Initially working as a carpenter, engineer and produce merchant, Randell founded the Perth to Fremantle paddle steamer service in 1860. From his arrival in Western Australia, he also became a mainstay of the Congregational church in Western Australia, holding every lay office over his more than sixty years of involvement. On 17 March 1868, his wife Jane, with whom he had fathered six sons (one of whom had died in infancy in 1861), died of concussion. He married Mary Louise Smith at Trinity Church, Perth, on 14 October 1869. They had two daughters and a son, Ernest Randell (who later became a noted cricketer), before Mary died on 24 August 1874. On 26 January 1881, Randell married Lucy James (née Francisco), the widow of Edward James who had died the previous year—Randell thus became the stepfather to Walter James, a future premier under responsible government in 1902–1904. In 1887, he resumed his old steamer business, but sold it in 1894 to the Swan River Shipping Company.
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