Robert Wynn Williams

Robert Godfrey Wynn Williams (11 September 1864 – 8 September 1929) was a solicitor and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.

Robert Wynn Williams
Robert Wynn Williams in 1912
Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
for Charters Towers
In office
27 April 1912 – 22 May 1915
Preceded byVernon Winstanley & John Mullan
Succeeded byWilliam Wellington
Personal details
Born
Robert Godfrey Wynn Williams

11 September 1864
Auckland, New Zealand
Died8 September 1929(1929-09-08) (aged 64)
Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia
Resting placeLynd Highway Cemetery
NationalityNew Zealand Australian
Political partyMinisterialist
Spouse(s)Lizzie Macpherson (m.1894 d. 1951)
RelationsHenry Wynn-Williams (uncle)
Charles James Watkin Williams (uncle)
OccupationSolicitor

Early days

Wynn Williams was born on 11 September 1864 in Jermyn Street (now Anzac Avenue), Auckland, New Zealand, to parents Robert Wynne Williams and his wife Jane (née Lloyd).[1][2] His uncle Henry Wynn-Williams was the first to add "Wynn" to his surname, and his father then added "Wynne" to his surname. It is not clear where this originates from, and it could either refer to the old-English word for 'friend', Welsh for 'fair', or to the Reverend John Wynne who had baptised Sir Charles Williams, his father's oldest surviving brother.[3]

Aged 8, Robert Wynn Williams was sent to London to Christ's Hospital to receive his education.[4] Aged 15, he returned to New Zealand to train in Christchurch under his uncle Henry as a lawyer.[4] After he was admitted to the Supreme Court of New Zealand at age 21, he practised as a lawyer for some time in Auckland before declining health prompted him to move to Ireland. In 1890 he was working as a surveyor in New South Wales before working as a solicitor for Thynne and Macartney in Brisbane in 1892.[5]

He headed to Charters Towers in 1894 to start his own practice, specialising in mining and company law, operating this business up until his death in 1929.[5]

Political career

Williams, representing the Ministerialists, won the seat of Charters Towers at the 1912 state elections. He held the seat for three years, being defeated in 1915.[5]

Personal life

On 21 April 1894, Williams married Elizabeth Macpherson (died 1951)[6] in Sydney. He died in Charters Towers in 1929[5] and was buried in the Lynd Highway Cemetery.[7]

Notes
  1. "Births". The New Zealand Herald. I (276). 30 September 1864. p. 8. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  2. Wynn-Williams 2013, pp. 166, 187.
  3. Wynn-Williams 2013, p. 15.
  4. Wynn-Williams 2013, p. 166.
  5. "Former Members". Parliament of Queensland. 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  6. Family history research — Queensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  7. Charters Towers Regional Council Burial Register — Charters Towers City Council. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
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References
  • Wynn-Williams, Robert (2013). Free from Humbug: The Life and Times of Henry Wynn Williams. ISBN 9780473226244.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Parliament of Queensland
Preceded by
Vernon Winstanley & John Mullan		 Member for Charters Towers
1912–1915		 Succeeded by
William Wellington
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