John Sandes
Encyclopedia
John Sandes was an 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 journalist and author.

Early life

Sandes was born in Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 the son of the Rev. Samuel Dickson Sandes, and his wife Sophia Julia, née Besnard. John Sandes was taken to England in 1872 and educated at King's College London
King's College London
King's College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. King's has a claim to being the third oldest university in England, having been founded by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in 1829, and...

, Trinity College, Stratford-on-Avon, and Oxford University, where he graduated B.A. in 1885.

Career

Sandes came to Melbourne in 1887 and joined the staff of The Argus
The Argus (Australia)
The Argus was a morning daily newspaper in Melbourne established in 1846 and closed in 1957. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most of its history, it adopted a left leaning approach from 1949...

, for which he was a capable musical and dramatic critic. Sandes, along with E. T. Fricker and D. Symmons, were the original three journalists who conducted the "Passing Show" column by 'Oriel', a feature of the paper carried on by generations of writers for more than 50 years. A collection of Sandes' verses from this column, 'Rhymes of the Times', was published in 1898, and in 1900 appeared another collection, 'Ballads of Battle'. The latter of these included the poem "With Death's Prophetic Ear" which gave Sandes a popular reputation. In 1903 he became a leader writer and reviewer on the Sydney Daily Telegraph, and in 1919 represented that paper at the peace conference. In 1910 Sandes' first novel Love and the Aeroplane was published.

Sandes was editor of The Harbour, a monthly devoted to shipping interests, from 1925 until shortly before his death at Wauchope, New South Wales
Wauchope, New South Wales
-People from Wauchope:* Iva Davies - Musician, Icehouse* Alison Langdon - Channel Nine News Reader - Today Show* Phil Jamieson - Musician, Grinspoon* Andrew Stoner - NSW National Party of Australia leader, Member for Oxley...

. In his own name and under the pseudonym of "Don Delaney", Sandes was the author of several short popular novels, which were published between 1910 and 1917 and are listed in E Morris Miller's Australian Literature. In 1897 Sandes married Claire Louise (d.1928), daughter of Sir Graham Berry
Graham Berry
Sir Graham Berry KCMG , Australian colonial politician, was the 11th Premier of Victoria. He was one of the most Radical and colourful figures in the politics of colonial Victoria, and made the most determined efforts to break the power of the Victorian Legislative Council, the stronghold of the...

. Sandes was ill with cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 for eighteen months before his death, he was survived by two sons. He was an excellent journalist with a special talent for writing occasional verse.
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