George Shenton
Encyclopedia
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, the first Mayor of Perth, and a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council for over thirty years.
Early and family life
George Shenton was born in Perth, Western AustraliaPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
on 4 March 1842, the eldest son of George Shenton Sr
George Shenton Sr
George Shenton was a pharmacist, merchant, banker and philanthropist in colonial Perth, Western Australia.George Shenton was born in Winchester in England on 2 January 1811, the second of four sons of a wealthy silk manufacturer. At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to a pharmacist named...
, a wealthy businessman who was Perth's first pharmacist
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
. George Shenton Jnr was educated locally until 1855, when at the age of 13 he was sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to complete his education at the Wesleyan
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
Collegiate Institute (Queen's College
Queen's College, Taunton
Queen's College is a co-educational independent school located in Taunton, the county town of Somerset, England. It is a day/boarding school for children aged 2–18. The school incorporates Nursery, Pre-Prep, Junior and Senior schools. The current headmaster of the Senior School is Chris Alcock...
) in Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
. In 1858 he returned to Perth, where he received experience working in a range of his father's businesses, including running his father's store in Geraldton
Geraldton, Western Australia
Geraldton is a city and port in Western Australia located north of Perth in the Mid West region. Geraldton has an estimated population at June 2010 of 36,958...
, and managing the family's farm on the Greenough River
Greenough River
The Greenough River is a river in the Mid West region of Western Australia.-Course:Nominally located at , Greenough River has its headwaters near Woojalong Hills on the Yilgarn Plateau. It runs in a south westerly direction through deep valleys for approximately , passing through the Waterloo...
.
On 4 November 1868, Shenton married Julia Theresa Eichbaum in a ceremony at Fremantle
Fremantle, Western Australia
Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...
. They would have one son and nine daughters before her death in June 1887. To his great disappointment, his only son died in infancy.
Business activities
On 5 March 1867, George Shenton Snr drowned when his schoonerSchooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
, The Lass of Geraldton, capsized off Mandurah
Mandurah, Western Australia
Mandurah is the second-largest city in Western Australia and is located approximately south of the state capital, Perth.The city attracts a large number of tourists, including many international visitors...
in a storm. George Shenton Jnr then took over his father's businesses. The Shenton family's businesses continued to prosper over the next thirty years, but as George Shenton became more involved in politics he had less time to invest in his business activities. From 1884, his youngest brother Ernest gradually took over the running of the Perth store, and another brother, Edward, took the Geraldon business as his inheritance. This left George with responsibility for the shipping business that his father had established.
Shenton ran a number of coastal vessels in partnership with John Monger
John Monger
John Henry Monger was a Member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1870 to 1875, and again from 1890 to 1992....
, and the two men had some of the best-known sailing ships of the era. He exported substantial quantities of wool
Wool
Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
, timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
, sandalwood
Sandalwood
Sandalwood is the name of a class of fragrant woods from trees in the genus Santalum. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and unlike many other aromatic woods they retain their fragrance for decades. As well as using the harvested and cut wood in-situ, essential oils are also extracted...
and mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
s to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and pioneered Western Australia's trade with Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. He was an agent for a number of firms, including Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's of London
Lloyd's, also known as Lloyd's of London, is a British insurance and reinsurance market. It serves as a partially mutualised marketplace where multiple financial backers, underwriters, or members, whether individuals or corporations, come together to pool and spread risk...
, and Felgate's, a London company that controlled most of Western Australia's trade with Britain in the 1870s.
George Shenton also invested profitably in gold mining
Gold mining
Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...
. He was a member of the syndicate
Syndicate
A syndicate is a self-organizing group of individuals, companies or entities formed to transact some specific business, or to promote a common interest or in the case of criminals, to engage in organized crime...
that financed Leslie Menzie's 1894 prospecting
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
expedition that resulted in the discovery of the Menzies
Menzies, Western Australia
Menzies is a town located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, east-northeast of the state capital, Perth, and north-northwest of the city of Kalgoorlie...
gold field. The first lease became the famous Lady Shenton mine, which yielded over 130000 ounces of gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and paid out over £150000 in dividends. Shenton later became a shareholder
Shareholder
A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
and director of the Gold Estates Mining Company.
Shenton became a director of a number of local companies, and was Chairman of Directors of the Western Australian Bank from 1886 until his death. On the establishment of a Perth Chamber of Commerce in 1890, he became its first president.
In 1886, Shenton appointed H. F. Payne to manage his shipping agency. As he became increasingly involved in politics, his involvement in his shipping business decreased, and he came to rely more and more heavily on Payne. In 1903 he merged his company with the South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
n company Elder Smiths, to form a new company under the name Elder Shenton and Co. Ltd. This company survives today as the well-known Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
services provider Elders Limited
Elders Limited
Elders Limited is an Australian based agribusiness company.It was founded in 1839 in South Australia by Alexander Lang Elder as a new arm of his family's Scottish based merchant and shipping business. Its core business was a trading company and commission agent for wool and other agricultural...
. George Shenton became a principal shareholder and Chairman of Directors of the new company, but was largely uninvolved in the day-to-day running of the firm.
Political career
In 1867, the same year that he took over his father's businesses, Shenton was elected to the Perth City Council. He would remain a member of the council until 1888, a period of more than twenty years. From 1875 to 1877, he was chairman of the council, and when Perth became a mayoralty in 1880, he became the first Mayor of Perth. Shenton was Mayor until 1884, and again from 1886 to 1888. His major contribution to Perth during this time was the macadamMacadam
Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in around 1820. The method simplified what had been considered state-of-the-art at that point...
izing and kerbing of the city's roads.
Western Australia gained representative government in 1870, and in October of that year the first Western Australian Legislative Council
Western Australian Legislative Council
The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the Legislative Assembly. It sits in Parliament House in the state...
election
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
s were held. On 12 October 1870, George Shenton was elected unopposed to the seat of Greenough. The main political issue of the day was that of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
versus protection
Protectionism
Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between states through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to allow "fair competition" between imports and goods and services produced domestically.This...
. In accordance with the wishes of his constituents, Shenton took a protectionist stance, helping to push for an import duty on flour
Flour
Flour is a powder which is made by grinding cereal grains, other seeds or roots . It is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cultures, making the availability of adequate supplies of flour a major economic and political issue at various times throughout history...
. This was opposed by the governor
Governor of Western Australia
The Governor of Western Australia is the representative in Western Australia of Australia's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor performs important constitutional, ceremonial and community functions, including:* presiding over the Executive Council;...
, Sir Frederick Weld
Frederick Weld
Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld, GCMG , was a New Zealand politician and a governor of various British colonies. He was the sixth Premier of New Zealand, and later served as Governor of Western Australia, Governor of Tasmania, and Governor of the Straits Settlements.-Early life:Weld was born near...
, and when the Legislative Council successfully moved an amendment on the matter, Weld responded by dissolving the Council in March 1872. Shenton was then re-elected for Greenough, comfortably defeating his opponent, Geraldton merchant Henry Gray.
Shenton was absent from the colony during the 1872 election, and his campaign was run by his friend Charles Crowther
Charles Crowther
Charles Crowther was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Council from 1873 to 1887.Born in Lincoln, England, in 1834, nothing is known of his ancestry or early life. In December 1850 he arrived in Western Australia on board the Mary, obtaining employment in the firm of George Shenton Sr...
, who ran the Greenough Hotel. On the evening following the election Crowther held a supper and ball for Shenton's supporters. Although "treating the electors" was a common practice at the time, Gray lodged a complaint alleging that Crowther had bribed the electorate. In July 1873, the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Western Australia
The Supreme Court of Western Australia is the highest state court in the Australian State of Western Australia. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters , and hears the most serious criminal matters.The Supreme Court consists of a General Division The Supreme Court of Western...
upheld Gray's complaint, finding that Crowther's actions might have induced electors to vote for Shenton. No blame was attached to Shenton, but his election was declared void. Shenton then declined to stand for election again, so Crowther himself did so, heavily defeating Gray.
On 10 November 1875, Shenton was again elected to the Legislative Council, this time defeating Andrew Dempster for the seat of Toodyay. He would hold the seat until the advent of responsible government
Responsible government
Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability which is the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy...
in October 1890. As member of Toodyay, Shenton continued to favour protectionism, and staunchly opposed responsible self-government. As support for self-government grew, however, Shenton became less vocal on the subject, and when a crucial resolution on the subject was carried 13 votes to 4 in 1887, Shenton abstained from voting. Thereafter he ceased opposing responsible self-government, and in 1889 he was re-elected on a platform of immediate self-government under a compromise constitution.
Under responsible government, Western Australia adopted a bicameral legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
, with an elective Legislative Assembly
Western Australian Legislative Assembly
The Legislative Assembly, or lower house, is one of the two chambers of parliament in the Australian state of Western Australia. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Perth....
as its "lower house", and the nominative Legislative Council as its "upper house". Shenton decided not to stand for election to the Assembly, and was instead nominated to the Council, thereupon becoming Father of the House
Father of the House
Father of the House is a term that has by tradition been unofficially bestowed on certain members of some national legislatures, most notably the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. In some legislatures the term refers to the oldest member, but in others it refers the longest-serving member.The...
. His stated reason for entering the upper house rather than the lower house was that it would take up less of his time, but when the first Premier of Western Australia
Premier of Western Australia
The Premier of Western Australia is the head of the executive government in the Australian State of Western Australia. The Premier has similar functions in Western Australia to those performed by the Prime Minister of Australia at the national level, subject to the different Constitutions...
, Sir John Forrest
John Forrest
Sir John Forrest GCMG was an Australian explorer, the first Premier of Western Australia and a cabinet minister in Australia's first federal parliament....
, invited Shenton to join his Cabinet
Cabinet (government)
A Cabinet is a body of high ranking government officials, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or an Executive Committee.- Overview :...
Ministry as Colonial Secretary
Colonial Secretary of Western Australia
The Colonial Secretary of Western Australia was one of the most important and powerful public offices in Western Australia, in the time when Western Australia was a British colony. The Colonial Secretary was the representative of the British Colonial Office in Western Australia, and was usually...
, he accepted.
As Colonial Secretary and the only Government minister in the upper house, Shenton had an extremely heavy workload. When the prestigious and far less demanding office of President of the Legislative Council became available in 1892, he immediately resigned from Cabinet to offer himself for election to the position. The following year he was appointed Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
.
In July 1894, the Legislative Council became elective, and Shenton was elected to a Metropolitan Province
Metropolitan Province
The Metropolitan Province was a multi-member electoral province of the Western Australian Legislative Council, located in the metropolitan region of Perth. It was created by the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1893, and became effective on 22 May 1894 following the first council elections following...
seat. He held the seat and the Presidency of the Legislative Council until his retirement in May 1906.
Later life
Shenton's health was failing when he retired in 1906, and he lived for only three more years, dying in London on 29 June 1909. He was buried in West Norwood CemeteryWest Norwood Cemetery
West Norwood Cemetery is a cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery.One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries of London, and is a site of major historical, architectural and...
. His estate at his death was valued at £186627.
Cultural references
George Shenton is honoured by the Perth suburb Shenton ParkShenton Park, Western Australia
Shenton Park is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Subiaco and 4 km west of the Central business district. Its postcode is 6008...
. His home, named Crawley Park by a previous owner, was situated on a 200 acre (0.809372 km²) site much of which is now the site of the University of Western Australia
University of Western Australia
The University of Western Australia was established by an Act of the Western Australian Parliament in February 1911, and began teaching students for the first time in 1913. It is the oldest university in the state of Western Australia and the only university in the state to be a member of the...
. The suburb Crawley
Crawley, Western Australia
Crawley is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Subiaco.The earlier name of the locality was Crawley Park.It is home to the University of Western Australia, the state's oldest and most prestigious university...
is named after Shenton's land. The Crawley Park homestead in which Shenton lived, now known as Shenton House
Shenton House
Shenton House is an historic building within the grounds of the University of Western Australia. It is a two-story Georgian/Edwardian style building with surrounding verandas....
, still stands in the University Grounds, and is managed by the National Trust of Australia
National Trust of Australia
The Australian Council of National Trusts is the peak body for community-based, non-government organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's indigenous, natural and historic heritage....
.