The Honourable William Anderson (3 January 1828 – 6 May 1909), J.P., was a Scottish-born, colonial

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

n farmer and politician, member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...

from 1880 to 1892 for Villiers and Heytesbury. __NOTOC__

Early life

Anderson, the son of James Anderson and Hannah his wife, was born at Montrose, Scotland, on 3 January 1828, and was taken to Launceston,

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...

(renamed to

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

in 1856), in October 1841, arriving on 1 April 1842. The family removed to

Port Fairy Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the Souther ...

in Victoria in 1844; and in 1849 he took over his father's business as a builder, which he managed until 1854, when he joined his father in purchasing Rosemount Farm. He became a member of the first Belfast Road Board, was elected president of the Belfast Shire Council, made a justice of the peace in 1864.

Politics

Anderson sat in the Legislative Assembly for Villiers and Heytesbury from May 1880 to April 1892, when he was defeated. In 1854 Anderson was elected an elder of the Presbyterian church, and was for two years president of the Protection of Aborigines Society. He succeeded Chief Justice

William Foster Stawell Sir William Foster Stawell KCMG (27 June 181512 March 1889) was a British colonial statesman and a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia. Stawell was the first Attorney-General of Victoria, serving from 1851 to 1856 as an ...

as president of the Royal Horticultural Society of Victoria. In 1887 he was awarded the Minister of Agriculture's prize for the best managed farm in southern Victoria. He was appointed

Minister of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

in the Gillies Government on 2 September 1890, and resigned with the rest of his colleagues in the following November.

Personal life

Anderson married Ann Broadbent, a daughter of William Broadbent of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

; she died on 13 May 1906. They did not have any children. Anderson died on 6 May 1909 in Colombo,

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

while making a trip to Britain.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, William 1828 births 1909 deaths People from Montrose, Angus People from the Colony of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Vice-presidents of the Board of Land and Works Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia 19th-century Australian politicians Ministers for public works (Victoria)