Frederick Sheppard Grimwade

{{Short description|Australian politician and businessman}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}

{{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}}

Frederick Sheppard Grimwade (10 November 1840 – 4 August 1910) was a businessman and Victorian member of parliament.[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A040343b.htm Australian Dictionary of Biography entry]

Biography

Born in Norfolk, England, Grimwade arrived in Victoria in 1863. In 1867 he bought a pharmaceutical company and renamed it Felton Grimwade & Co.,{{cite web|url=http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/asaw/biogs/A001045b.htm |title=Felton Grimwade & Co - Corporate entry - Encyclopedia of Australian Science |publisher=Austehc.unimelb.edu.au |date= |accessdate=2018-03-14}} which soon became the largest in the colony, prospering well into the next century. Today some of Australia's largest public companies have a lineage going back to his family and businesses.

File:Graves of Alfred Felton (1831–1904) and Frederick Sheppard Grimwade (1840–1910) at St Kilda Cemetery.jpg

Grimwade represented North Yarra Province in the Legislative Council for thirteen years from 1891. He opposed gambling, workers' compensation, old-age pensions and the national harmonization of time zones, but he passionately and successfully advocated for the legalization of cremation.Geoffrey Blainey, Black Kettle & Full Moon: Daily Life in a Vanished Australia, Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Vic., 2004.

Legacy

Frederick Grimwade was buried in St Kilda Cemetery on 5 August 1910.{{cite web|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article10449836?searchTerm=Frederick%20Grimwade%20funeral%201910&searchLimits= |title=Trove |newspaper=Argus |publisher=Nla.gov.au |date= 5 August 1910|accessdate=2018-03-14}} His mansion, "Harleston" (1875), was later donated by his family to Melbourne Grammar School and renamed Grimwade House.{{Cite web |url=http://www.mgs.vic.edu.au/about/mgs_about_history_grim.php |title=Melbourne Grammar School : About Us : History : Grimwade House |access-date=12 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829101822/http://www.mgs.vic.edu.au/about/mgs_about_history_grim.php |archive-date=29 August 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }} His country retreat at Somers on the Mornington Peninsula, "Coolart", eventually became a public wetlands reserve.

Grimwade's children included Major General Harold Grimwade, who was a businessman and pharmacist and served as an artillery officer in France during World War I, and Russell Grimwade, who was a chemist, botanist, industrialist and philanthropist.

References