Robert Wynn Williams
{{Short description|Australian politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix =
|name = Robert Wynn Williams
|honorific-suffix =
|image = Wynn Williams - Queensland politician.jpg
|caption = Robert Wynn Williams in 1912
|constituency_AM1 = Charters Towers
|assembly1 = Queensland Legislative
|term_start1 = 27 April 1912
|term_end1 = 22 May 1915
|predecessor1 = Vernon Winstanley & John Mullan
|successor1 = William Wellington
|alongside1 =
|birth_date = 11 September 1864
|birth_place = Auckland, New Zealand
|death_date = {{death date and age|1929|9|8|1864|9|11|df=y}}
|death_place = Charters Towers, Queensland, Australia
|restingplace = Lynd Highway Cemetery
|birthname = Robert Godfrey Wynn Williams
|nationality = New Zealand Australian
|party = Ministerialist
|otherparty =
|spouse = Lizzie Macpherson (m.1894 d. 1951)
|known_for =
| occupation = Solicitor
| relations = Henry Wynn-Williams (uncle)
Charles James Watkin Williams (uncle)
| alma_mater =
}}
Robert Godfrey Wynn Williams (11 September 1864 – 8 September 1929) was a solicitor and member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
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).{{cite news|title=Births|url=https://beta.paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH18640930.2.35.1|access-date=8 March 2016|work=The New Zealand Herald|volume=I|issue=276|date=30 September 1864|page=8}}{{sfn|Wynn-Williams|2013|pp=166, 187}} 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.{{sfn|Wynn-Williams|2013|p=15}}
Aged 8, Robert Wynn Williams was sent to London to Christ's Hospital to receive his education.{{sfn|Wynn-Williams|2013|p=166}} Aged 15, he returned to New Zealand to train in Christchurch under his uncle Henry as a lawyer.{{sfn|Wynn-Williams|2013|p=166}} 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.{{cite web|title=Former Members|publisher=Parliament of Queensland|year=2015| url=http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/members/former/bio?id=2502574167|access-date= 7 March 2016}}
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.
Political career
Wynn 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.
Personal life
On 21 April 1894, Wynn Williams married Elizabeth Macpherson (died 1951)[https://www.qld.gov.au/law/births-deaths-marriages-and-divorces/family-history-research/ Family history research] — Queensland Government births, deaths, marriages, and divorces. Retrieved 6 March 2016. in Sydney. He died in Charters Towers in 1929 and was buried in the Lynd Highway Cemetery.[http://www.charterstowers.qld.gov.au/documents/41682213/41722621/Charters%20Towers%20Register%20of%20Burials.pdf Charters Towers Regional Council Burial Register] — Charters Towers City Council. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite book |last=Wynn-Williams |first=Robert |year=2013 |title=Free from Humbug: The Life and Times of Henry Wynn Williams |isbn=9780473226244}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-par|au-qld}}
{{s-bef|before= Vernon Winstanley & John Mullan}}
{{s-ttl |title= Member for Charters Towers|years=1912–1915}}
{{s-aft|after=William Wellington}}
{{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wynn Williams, Robert Godfrey}}
Category:Politicians from Auckland
Category:Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly
Category:19th-century New Zealand lawyers