William Henry Burgess Piddington (24 April 1856 – 27 September 1900) was an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

and a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

for six years.

Birth and education

Piddington was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

and educated there and

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

whilst the school was situated at

Newington House Newington House is a historic house in Silverwater, New South Wales, Australia and is located west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Parramatta. The house and chapel are situated on the souther ...

on the

Parramatta River The Parramatta River is an intermediate tide-dominated, drowned valley estuary located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With an average depth of , the Parramatta River is the main tributary of Sydney Harbour, a branch of Port Jackson. Seco ...

. He was the first son of London-born William Jones Killick Piddington and his Tasmanian wife Annie, née Burgess. William Snr was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

minister who in later life became an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Albert Piddington Albert Bathurst Piddington King's Counsel, KC (9 September 1862 – 5 June 1945) was an Australian lawyer, politician and judge. He was a member of the High Court of Australia for one month in 1913, making him List of Justices of the High C ...

was a younger brother, and Ralph Piddington was his nephew.

Banking and parliament

In 1872, Piddington commenced working for the

Commercial Banking Company of Sydney The Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited, also known as the CBC, or CBC Bank, was a bank based in Sydney, Australia. It was established in 1834, and in 1982 merged with the National Bank of Australasia to form National Australia Bank. Hi ...

and he was the branch manager in

Walcha, New South Wales Walcha () is a town at the south-eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. The town serves as the seat of Walcha Shire. Walcha is located by road from Sydney at the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolt ...

, when he won the local Legislative Assembly seat in 1894. He resigned from the Legislative Assembly on 23 May 1900 and was made bankrupt on his own petition 2 days later. He retained the seat at the resulting by-election.

Death

He died from

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

whilst still a member of parliament and was survived by his wife and five children.

References

1856 births 1900 deaths Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Free Trade Party politicians Protectionist Party politicians People educated at Newington College 19th-century Australian politicians Colony of New South Wales people {{Australia-FreeTrade-politician-stub