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.
Australian entrepreneur
Coursing was his preferred sport and he was President of the Ballarat Coursing Club from at least 1875 to 1882.[1][2][3][4][5] He awarded £20 for the winner of the 1875 Ercildoune Cup and in 1876 it was run on his Ercildoune estate.[6]
He was elected a member of the Victorian Legislative Council (1875-1881) and Legislative Assembly (1861-64) for the Western Province. He was knighted in 1875. Around that time he purchased the magnificent Ercildoune property for a rumoured £250,000.[7]
He died on 11 June 1895, and is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery, London. Lady Wilson stayed on at Grosvenor Square until 1907.[8]
Marriage and issue
In 1861 he married a daughter of the Hon William Campbell. William Campbell is credited with being the first person to find gold in Clunes in 1850 and so spark the Victoria gold rush. They had four sons and five daughters: all four sons and two of the daughters survived him.
His eldest son, Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon Chesney Wilson, married Lady Sarah Isabella Churchill, sister of Lord Randolph Churchill, he fell in The First World War on 6 November 1914 and is buried at Zillebeke Churchyard , West Flanders, Belgium.
Another son Wilfred Wilson was mortally wounded in an attack on Boer positions at Hartebeestfontein during the Second Boer War.
His daughter Maud Margaret Wilson married Warner Hastings, 15th Earl of Huntingdon in 1892.
His son Clarence lived at Grove Place, Nursling , Southampton, Hampshire
References
- ^ "Leader (Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 12 June 1875. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "Leader (Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 13 May 1876. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "The Age ( Melbourne)". TROVE National Library of Australia. 23 December 1878. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "Leader (Melbourne)". Leader. 28 December 1878. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "Ballarat Courier". TROVE National Library of Canberra. 5 May 1882. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "The Herald". TROVE National Library of Australia. 1 March 1876. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
- ^ "Ercildoune". The Leader (Melbourne). Victoria, Australia. 17 April 1875. p. 7. Retrieved 14 March 2020 – via Trove.
- ^ "Grosvenor Square: Individual Houses built before 1926 Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings)". British History Online. LCC 1980. Retrieved 5 January 2025.
- Serle, Percival (1949). "Wilson, Samuel". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
- L. J. Blake, Wilson, Sir Samuel (1832 - 1895), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, MUP, 1976, pp 418–419.