Governor Sir William Denison Succeeded by John Robertson Role Australian politician | Name William Forster Preceded by Charles Cowper | |
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Born 16 October 1818
Madras, India ( 1818-10-16 ) Spouse(s) Eliza Jane Wall (m. 1846) Died October 30, 1882, Edgecliff, Sydney, Australia Books The Weirwolf: A Tragedy, The Genius and the Ghost | ||
William Forster (16 October 1818 – 30 October 1882) was an Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales from 27 October 1859 to 9 March 1860 and poet.
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Forster was described in his youth as a "sallow, thin, saturnine young gentleman". He was not a great orator but was a debater of ability, though his habit of indulging in bitter personalities detracted from the effectiveness of his speeches. James Martin once described him as "disagreeable in opposition, insufferable as a supporter, and fatal as a colleague" but, however true that may have been, it was only one side of his character. A cultured and honest man, thoroughly aware and disdainful of the tricks and shifts of party government, he tried to hold an independent course and do what was best for his country. This was appreciated by the constituencies that elected him to all but one of the parliaments of his lifetime.
Biography
Forster was born in Madras, India, the son of Thomas Forster, army surgeon, and his wife Eliza Blaxland, daughter of Gregory Blaxland. His parents married in Sydney and travelled to India in 1817, Wales in 1822, Ireland in 1825 and settled down in 1829 in Brush Farm, Eastwood, built by Blaxland in about 1820, and the birthplace of the Australian wine industry. He continued his education in Australia at W. T. Cape's school and The King's School.
Forster became a squatter near Port Macquarie and the Clarence River, in New England, on Gin Gin on the Wide Bay and Burnett River (near Hervey Bay). In 1867 he still controlled over 30,000 hectares in Queensland. In 1846 he married Eliza Wall and he settled with her on Brush Farm in 1854. They had two sons and six daughters, including World War I surgeon Laura Forster, before Eliza died in 1862. He was appointed a magistrate in 1842, but was sacked in 1849, when an aboriginal was shot by one of his Blaxland relations.
Forster was "probably the most erudite and literate of the squatters" and from 1844 onwards he contributed significantly to Robert Lowe's the Atlas, including The Devil and the Governor, a poem attacking Governor Gipps, described as one of the best Australian satirical poems written in the 19th century. He also contributed to Henry Parkes' The Empire and other papers.
Parliamentary career
When responsible government was granted, Forster was elected to the first Legislative Assembly in 1856 as member for United Counties of Murray and St Vincent. From 1859 to 1860 he represented Queanbeyan. and, though conservative in tendencies, he opposed the nominee upper house and advocated railway construction on a large scale. He did not believe in party government and endeavoured to maintain an independent position but, when the Cowper government was defeated in 1859, he became leader of a ministry which lasted for only a little more than four months.
Forster won a by-election for East Sydney in May 1861 and in October 1863 was again asked to form a ministry. He was unable to do so but became Colonial Secretary in (Sir) James Martin's ministry until February 1865. From 1864 to 1869, Forster was member for Hastings. Though he had been a bitter opponent of John Robertson he was given a seat in Robertson's first cabinet as Secretary for Lands in October 1868 but retained his portfolio for only three months after Charles Cowper became Premier in January 1870. He was member for Queanbeyan from 1869 to 1872, Illawarra from 1872 to 1874 and Murrumbidgee from 1875 to 1876.
In February 1875, Forster became Colonial Treasurer in Robertson's third ministry and a year later was appointed Agent-General for New South Wales in London. After the third Parkes ministry was formed in December 1878, Forster was recalled because of his dispute with Thomas Woolner over his commission for a statue of James Cook for Hyde Park, Sydney, the offence he gave to London society by wearing bushman's clothes and speaking against the federation of Australia. He returned to New South Wales, was elected for Gundagai, and was offered and declined the position of Leader of the Opposition.
Forster in his younger days was a clever journalist but he did not publish anything in book form until towards the end of his life. His one work in prose, Political Presentments, which appeared in London in 1878, includes able discourses on the working of parliament, the development of democracy in Europe, and the political situation of the time. His volumes in verse were The Weirwolf: a Tragedy (1876), The Brothers: a Drama (1877), Midas (1884), works of a vigorous and poetic mind, which in spite of their length can still be read with interest.
In 1873 he married Maud Julia Edwards and they had three sons and two daughters. He died in Edgecliff.
The town of Forster, New South Wales was named after him.