William John Clarke
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Sir William Clarke 1st Baronet |
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|---|---|
| Born |
31 March 1831 Lovely Banks, near Jericho, Van Diemen's Land |
| Died | 15 May 1897 (aged 66) |
| Occupation | pastoralist, cattle-breeder, politician |
| Title | Baronet |
| Spouse(s) |
Mary Walker (m. 1860; d. 1871) Janet Marian Snodgrass (m. 1873) |
| Parents |
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| Member of the Victorian Legislative Council for Southern Province | |
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In office September 1878 – May 1897 |
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Mary Walker (m. 1860; d. 1871)
Sir William John Clarke, 1st Baronet, (31 March 1831 – 15 May 1897) was the 1st Baronet in the Colony of Victoria and an Australian pastoralist, cattle-breeder, politician and philanthropist.
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). Clarke senior was an early Tasmanian colonist, who acquired large pastoral properties in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand and settled afterwards in Victoria at Rupertswood, Sunbury.
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.
Clarke took some interest in local government and was chairman of the Braybrook Road Board. On the death of his father he found himself with a very large income, much of which he began to use for the benefit of the state. His largest gifts were £10,000 for the building fund of St Paul's cathedral and £7000 for Trinity College, Melbourne University. In 1862 Clarke stood against George Higinbotham in the Brighton by-election for the Victorian Legislative Assembly, but was not elected. He was elected a member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Southern Province in September 1878, but never took a prominent part in politics.
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