Adolphus George Taylor (14 June 1857 – 18 January 1900) was an Australian journalist and populist politician, active in New South Wales the 1880s and 1890s.

Early life

Reputed the illegitimate son of a gentleman father, Taylor was born in

Mudgee Mudgee is a town in the Central West (New South Wales), Central West of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the broad fertile Cudgegong River valley north-west of Sydney and is the largest town in the Mid-Western Regional Council Local gover ...

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and was educated at the local Church of England School and became a teacher in Mudgee by 1875. He joined the New South Wales Permanent Artillery as a

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, but was

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

led for "insubordination" in 1878. He then joined or returned to the ''Mudgee Independent'' as a journalist.

Political career

Taylor - "a lanky youth, dressed in a torn coat that hang from his ears" - won a surprise victory in the seat

in 1882, pushing the longtime popular hero, Sir John Robertson, into second place. He became an expert in parliamentary procedure and constitutional law, and established that

George Reid Sir George Houston Reid, (25 February 1845 – 12 September 1918) was an Australian politician who led the Reid Government as the fourth Prime Minister of Australia from 1904 to 1905, having previously been Premier of New South Wales f ...

's appointment as a Minister for Public Instruction in 1883 was unconstitutional, forcing Reid to stand for a by-election, which he lost. His emotional and often drunken harangues of the House led to frequent expulsions and as a result of being suspended twice in a row for a week by the Speaker,

Edmund Barton Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton, (18 January 18497 January 1920) was an Australian politician and judge who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903, holding office as the leader of the Protectionist Party. He resigned to ...

, he successfully sued Barton for £1,000. In 1886, he travelled to

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to fight Barton's appeal to the

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, having raised his fare by lecturing on "The Iron Hand in Politics" and selling his stamp collection. He took "his wife, his mother, a cockatoo, a parrot and a magpie" to England and won his own case, although he then refused to accept the damages on the basis that they would come out of the taxpayers pockets rather than Barton's. In April 1887, Taylor resigned from Parliament so that he could be appointed examiner of

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s. He was re-elected to parliament as the member for West Sydney in 1890 but did not stand for the 1891 election, following widespread criticism of his delayed report of the rape of his 12-year-old maid servant by clerical imposter, James Joseph Crouch. He ran unsuccessfully for Sydney-King in 1894.

Later life

Taylor became the first editor of

the Truth The Truth may refer to: Film * ''The Truth'' (1920 film) starring Madge Kennedy * ''The Truth'' (1960 film) or ''La Vérité'', a French film by Henri-Georges Clouzot starring Brigitte Bardot * ''The Truth'' (1988 film), a Hong Kong trial crim ...

in 1890 and 1891, and he returned to edit it in 1894. In 1892 he edited a ''the Spectator'' short-lived rural paper. Alcoholic and probably neurosyphilitic, in 1898, aged 45, Taylor was admitted to the Hospital for the Insane in the Sydney suburb of

Callan Park Callan Park, with the heritage listed name Callan Park Conservation Area & Buildings, is a heritage listed site in Lilyfield, a suburb in the Inner West Council in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Calla ...

, where he died, survived by his wife, Rosetta Nicholls, who he had married in 1885. He was buried at Rookwood Anglican Cemetery on 20 January 1900. W.B. Melville recorded of Taylor, "He could discern the weaknesses of his contemporaries, he could not cure his own". William Coleman,''Their Fiery Cross of Union. A Retelling of the Creation of the Australian Federation, 1889-1914'', Connor Court, Queensland, 2021, p.336.

Notes

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Adolphus George 19th-century Australian journalists 19th-century Australian male writers Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1857 births 1900 deaths 19th-century male writers 19th-century Australian politicians Australian newspaper editors Australian male journalists