Anthony Forster (Australian politician)

Anthony Forster (15 May 1813 – 13 January 1897) was a politician, financier and newspaper owner/editor in colonial South Australia. [1]

Forster was born in Monkwearmouth, County Durham, England, the son of Anthony Forster, shipwright, and his wife Catherine.[1] Forster arrived in Glenelg, South Australia in the Siam on 25 April 1841.[1]

Forster was for some time editor of the South Australian Register.[2] In 1855 he was elected to the Mixed South Australian Legislative Council for West Adelaide, in opposition to James Hurtle Fisher. The seat was, however, declared vacant by the Court of Disputed Returns in November, Mr. Forster being re-elected on 1 January 1856.[3][4] When the Constitution Act came into force, Mr. Forster was elected to the Legislative Council for The Province in March 1857,[3] and sat till 2 February 1861, when he retired by rotation, but was immediately re-elected, and sat till December 1864, when he resigned. In 1866 he published "South Australia: its Progress and Prosperity" (London),[2] which gave banker and fellow-parliamentarian George Tinline credit for the Bullion Act of 1852, so mitigating the currency crisis.[5]

Forster died in St Leonards-on-Sea, Sussex, England, predeceased by his wife and all his children,.[1]

Family

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Forster married Margaret Gibson Sims (died in London on 6 July 1868) they had four children; all predeceased him.

  • Anthony Forster (1846–1847)
  • Rose Lambton Forster (1848–1848)
  • Anthony Yarwood Forster (1 September 1849 – 28 December 1874) (fell overboard from SS Hesperus, presumed drowned)
  • Francis Burnett Forster (1857–1864)

On 1 December 1869 he married Eliza Faulding, the widow of friend Francis Hardey Faulding (1816–1868). He divorced her six years later, citing infidelity with one Stark.[6] Eliza, born sometime around 1830, was the second daughter of Robert F. Macgeorge.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Lynravn, N. S. "Forster, Anthony (1813–1897)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  2. ^ a b Mennell, Philip (1892). "Forster, Anthony" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  3. ^ a b "Anthony Forster". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
  4. ^ "Statistical Record of the Legislature 1836 to 2009" (PDF). Parliament of South Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 March 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2013.
  5. ^ "Death of Mr. G. Tinline". The Advertiser. 6 February 1895. p. 7. Retrieved 31 August 2014 – via Trove.
  6. ^ "Law and Criminal Courts". South Australian Register. 25 November 1875. p. 3. Retrieved 26 February 2015 – via Trove.