Image: “Alderman Edward John Baines”, Brisbane City Council, Identifier BCC-B120-33473, via BCC Library
Edward Joseph Baines was the hotelkeeper of the Pineapple Hotel at Kangaroo Point. He was an alderman 1868 – 1880 mayor in 1872. His political career ended with his death. In The Brisbane Courier, he was remembered: “There is in Brisbane to-day one “old identity the less; one who would never say “die,” and who insisted to the end that he was “only a young fellow yet.” Alderman Baines – Host Baines of “The Pineapple” – has “shuffled off this mortal coil.” He was considered eccentric, and perhaps he was so, but we happen to know that he was a bighearted goodnatured man and that no appeal to him for help in any case of real distress was turned “a deaf ear” to. His funeral will take place at half past 3 o’clock this afternoon.”
[sources: 1880 ‘The Brisbane Courier’, Wikipedia]
James Swan was born in 1811 in Glasgow. In 1837, Swan emigrated from Glasgow to Sydney with the Rev. Dr John Dunmore Lang and worked on his paper The Colonialist. In 1846, the Moreton Bay Courier was founded in Brisbane by Sidney Lyons, who persuaded James Swan to come to Brisbane and work on the newspaper, soon he took over the newspaper. In 1859, Swan sold the Moreton Bay Courier to Thomas Blacket Stephens (Brisbane’s second Mayor) who renamed it the Brisbane Courier. James Swan died on 26 May 1891 on board Jelunga while in the Mediterranean Sea bound for England. He was travelling with his wife for a 12-month visit. James Swan was an alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council from 1872 to 1875 and was mayor from 1873 to 1875.
[sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wikipedia]
Image: “Alderman Richard Ash Kingsford”, Brisbane City Council, Identifier BCC-B120-33427, via BCC Library
Richard Ash Kingsford was born in 1821 in Canterbury, Kent, England. He arrived in Sydney in 1852 with his wife and moved to Brisbane in 1854 as a partner in a drapery business in Queen Street with his brother John. He served as an alderman on the South Brisbane Municipal Council in 1875-76 and was elected mayor of Brisbane in 1876. In May 1875 he was elected to the South Brisbane seat in the Legislative Assembly and lost his seat in the 1883 election. While living at The Springs, Tingalpa, his eldest daughter Catherine married William Charles Smith and the couple added Kingsford to the family surname. The couple were the parents of noted Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
[Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography, Wikipedia]
Alfred Hubbard was born in England about 1812-1813. He arrived in Brisbane in about 1860 and was a shopkeeper in Queen Street. Alfred served as an alderman of North Ward on the Brisbane Municipal Council from 1875 to 1879 and was elected mayor of Brisbane in 1877 – 1878. Alfred Hubbard died aged 74 years in 1887 at his residence “The Poplars” at Labrador.
[Sources: Wikipedia]
John Daniel Heal was born near Bradford-on-Avon, England in 1825. He emigrated from England to Brisbane in mid-1856. In Brisbane, John Heal worked at his trade as a stone mason. In 1863, he leased the Prince Consort Hotel in Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley and became a publican. In 1887-1888, Heal tore down the old hotel and had a larger hotel erected, which was designed by Richard Gailey. The Prince Consort Hotel is listed on Queensland Heritage Register. He was very involved in community affairs and was a great advocate for the progress of Fortitude Valley. He was an Alderman for the Fortitude Valley Ward 1870-1873 and 1875-1894. He was Mayor in 1879. He died in Brisbane in 1908.
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Wikipedia]
John Sinclair was born in Scotland in 1827. In 1854 John Sinclair came to Brisbane as an engineer on the steamer Boomerang. was an alderman of the Brisbane Municipal Council for the ward of Kangaroo Point 1871 – 1874, 1876-1882 and 1886-1887. In Sept 1881, during his time as mayor, Brisbane received a royal visit from Prince Edward (later Duke of Clarence and Avondale and Earl of Athlone) and his brother Prince George (later George V of the United Kingdom).
[Sources: Friends of Toowong Cemetery, Wikipedia]
Robert Porter was born about 1825–1826 in London. With his wife Sarah Martha Elizabeth Trowbridge they arrived in Brisbane in 1860 and settled in the home, Corio, in Wharf Street, Kangaroo Point in which they lived for the rest of their lives. Robert Porter was a contractor, mostly in bridge and wharf construction in both the northern and southern parts of Queensland. He was an alderman for the Ward of Kangaroo Point for many years. He was a mayor in 1882.
[Sources: Wikipedia]
Please, check my next post with more biographies of Brisbane Mayors.
