William Henry Gocher (20 March 1856 – 18 August 1921) was an Australian artist and bimetallist who campaigned to end the ban on daylight

sea bathing The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...

in Sydney. Gocher was born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

in Suffolk to salesman Charles Gocher and Louisa King. He attended St John's College at

Hurstpierpoint Hurstpierpoint is a village in West Sussex, England, southwest of Burgess Hill, and west of Hassocks railway station. It sits in the civil parish of Hurstpierpoint and Sayers Common which has an area of 2029.88 ha and a population ...

and converted to Roman Catholicism, coming to Australia around 1872. He worked as an artist in Sydney from around 1884. On 2 May 1888 he married Elizabeth Josephine Storm at

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surround ...

. He was part of the bimetallic movement in the 1890s and was vice-president of the Bimetallic League of New South Wales; he also admired

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President ...

and supported

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

, believing it would save Australia from the "jeers of Jews, capitalists and the press". He ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 1901 and for the

New South Wales Parliament The Parliament of New South Wales is a bicameral legislature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), consisting of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (lower house) and the New South Wales Legislative Council (upper house). Each ...

in 1901 and 1904, continuing to campaign for bimetallism as president of the Australian Currency League from 1912 to 1918. A 1918 pamphlet, ''Australia Must be Heard'', implored the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

to bring about an armistice. A writer for John Norton's ''Truth'', he established the ''Manly and Sydney News'' in 1900 when he and his family moved to Manly. As part of a campaign against the ban on daylight bathing, he announced his intention to swim at midday in October 1902; the police took him away after he criticised their laxness, and he was not charged with any crimes. In November 1903

Manly Council Manly Council was a local government area on the northern beaches region of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, first incorporated in 1877. On 12 May 2016, the Minister for Local Government announced that Manly Council would be subsumed into the ...

legalised all-day bathing; many attributed Gocher with the victory. He returned to the city in 1906 and launched the ''Balmain Banner''. Having been devastated by one of his sons' death at Messines, he suffered a stroke in 1917 and died in 1921 of

arteriosclerosis Arteriosclerosis is the thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of arteries. This process gradually restricts the blood flow to one's organs and tissues and can lead to severe health risks brought on by atherosclerosis, which ...

and chronic nephritis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gocher, William 1856 births 1921 deaths 19th-century Australian journalists English emigrants to colonial Australia 19th-century Australian male writers 20th-century Australian journalists 20th-century Australian male writers Australian male journalists Writers from Ipswich