William Tennant Mortlock (1858 – 17 August 1913) was a

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

n grazier and politician. Mortlock was born near

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

, the son of William Ranson Mortlock. He was educated at

St Peter's College, Adelaide , other_name = The Collegiate School of St Peter , seal_image = St Peter's College, Adelaide Logo.svg , seal_size = 150 , image = SPSC chapel and memorial hall.jpg , image_size ...

and

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

. He read for the law at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and ...

while in England, but returned to South Australia in 1883 and did not pursue his legal studies further. He worked on his father's Yudnapinna Station, near Port Augusta, and he increased the family's pastoral property after inheriting it upon his father's death in 1884. In 1891 he purchased

Martindale Hall Martindale Hall is a Georgian style mansion near Mintaro, South Australia which appeared in the film '' Picnic at Hanging Rock''. Construction Martindale Hall was built for a wealthy bachelor pastoralist, Edmund Bowman Jr (1855–1921). T ...

at Mintaro, which would become his family's main station. Mortlock was elected to the

South Australian House of Assembly The House of Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. The other is the South Australian Legislative Council, Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House, Adelaide, Parliament House in the st ...

at the 1896 election, winning his father's old seat of Flinders. He re-entered parliament in 1901, winning a by-election for Flinders caused by the election of

Alexander Poynton Alexander Poynton OBE (8 August 1853 – 9 January 1935) was an Australian politician. He held ministerial office under Prime Minister Billy Hughes, serving as Treasurer (1916–1917), Minister for Home and Territories (1920–1921), and Pos ...

to the inaugural

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members o ...

at the 1901 federal election. However, he was again defeated at the 1902 election. He was heavily involved with the racing industry, serving as chairman of the Port Augusta Racing Club and co-founding the Martindale Racing Club; he also bred and raced Yudnapinna, winner of the 1911 Adelaide Grand National. He married Rosina Forsyth Tennant on 28 January 1891 at St. Peter's Church, Glenelg in a double-wedding with her sister, Clayre Jessie Tennant; both were daughters of Andrew Tennant. Rosina and William were cousins, as Andrew Tennant was a brother of William's mother Margaret. He died in a private hospital in North Adelaide in 1913, aged 55, following a six-month illness. He was interred in the Mortlock family vault at the North Road Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mortlock, William Tennant William Tennant Members of the South Australian House of Assembly 1858 births 1913 deaths People from Port Lincoln Colony of South Australia people

See also

References