John Watt (politician)
John Brown Watt | |
|---|---|
| Member of Legislative Council of New South Wales | |
| In office 11 September 1861 – 20 April 1867 | |
| In office 11 September 1874 – 22 March 1890 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 May 1826 Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian, Scotland |
| Died | 28 September 1897 (aged 71) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Political party | Free Trade Party |
| Children | Oswald Watt |
| Relatives | George Holden (father-in-law) Susan Rankine (née Watt) (granddaughter) |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
John Brown Watt, MLC (16 May 1826 – 28 September 1897) was a Scottish-born Australian politician.[1] He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in Sydney, and he was a board member of the Imperial Federation League in London.[2] He was the founder of the Hospital for Sick Children, Glebe, and a director of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, and a director of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary, and a director of the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, and a director of the Union Bank of Australia (now the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited).[3][4]
Early life
Watt was born in Edinburgh, Mid-Lothian, Scotland. He was the eldest son of Royal Navy officer Alexander Hamilton Watt and his wife Margaret (née Gilchrist).[2] His father was a relative of James Watt, whose invention of the Watt steam engine in 1776 was the driving force of the Industrial Revolution.[5][6] Watt graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1840 and emigrated to Sydney via the Benares in 1842.[2]
Early career
Watt was appointed a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in September 1861, and he resigned on leaving for England in March 1866.[7]
He was reappointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council in October 1874. In 1877, he presented the sum of £1000 to the University of Sydney to found an exhibition for students from primary schools. He presided over the Royal Commission on Military Defences of 1881.[8]
Later career
He was the Commissioner for New South Wales at the International Exhibitions of Philadelphia (1876), Paris (1878), Sydney (1879), Amsterdam (1883) and at Calcutta (1883–84). In 1884, he was invited to the United Kingdom to join the Executive Committee of the Imperial Federation League.[9] In 1890, he forfeited his New South Wales Legislative Council seat due to absence in England.[8][10]
Watt died in Bournemouth, Dorset on 28 September 1897.[2]
Family
Watt married Mary Jane Holden; they had five sons and five daughters, including
- Oswald Watt, OBE, who was a celebrated aviator.
- Ernest Alexander Stuart Watt (born c. 1875 in Sydney) married Annie Elizabeth Caroline Weston on 3 April 1900.[11]
- Susan Gai Watt married Laurence Street (later Sir Laurence Whistler Street). She was the first female chair of the Eastern Sydney Health Service (later amalgamated with Illawarra).[2]
- They divorced and on 22 February 1912 Watt married Marie Margeurite Beerbohm, 22-year-old niece of Max Beerbohm.
- They divorced and he married again to 23-year-old Ruth Edmunds Massey on 2 September 1929.
References
- ^ https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/profiles/watt_john-brown.aspx
- ^ a b c d e Walsh, G. P. "Watt, John Brown (1826–1897)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 23 October 2013.
- ^ E. A. S. Watt, A Few Records of the Life of John Brown Watt (Syd, priv print, nd)
- ^ https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207905260
- ^ [1]
- ^ Carnegie, Andrew. James Watt. The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 215. ISBN 9780898755787
- ^ "Mr John Brown Watt (1826-1897)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
- ^ a b Mennell, Philip (1892). . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
- ^ Digby, Everard, ed. (1889). Australian men of mark (PDF). Vol. 1. Sydney: Charles F Maxwell. pp. 79–80. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
- ^ "Seat vacated" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). New South Wales: Legislative Council. 29 April 1890. p. 3.
- ^ Martha Rutledge (1990). Australian Dictionary of Biography: 'Watt, Ernest Alexander (1874–1954)'. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 9 June 2025.