Walter Vivian

Little is known of him outside of the period in which he was active in New South Wales politics and his parliamentary biography contains little detail. His death notice, inserted by five of his daughters, lists him as aged 77 at his death,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16607587 |title=Death: Walter Hussey Vivian |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=5 December 1929 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=12 |via=}} which would mean he was born in {{Birth based on age at death|77|1928|11|6|1845}}. A biography published by the Australian Town and Country Journal in 1890 states he was born in 1852, a member of the Vivian family, educated in England and Belgium, arriving in Australia in 1873 via Fiji.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71110518 |title=Walter Hussey Vivian, M.P. |newspaper=Australian Town and Country Journal |date=19 April 1890 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=32 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13345494 |title=Our London letter |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=17 December 1874 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=7 |via=Trove}}{{efn|A Mr Vivian arrived in Melbourne on the Nil Desperandum from Fiji on 20 June 1874{{hsp}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5872911 |title=Shipping intelligence: Arrived |newspaper=The Argus |date=27 June 1874 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=6 |via=Trove}} and W H Vivian arrived in Sydney on the Hero from Melbourne on 10 July 1874.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article162482274 |title=Arrivals: Hero |newspaper=The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser |date=18 July 1874 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=82 |via=Trove}}}} On 10 August 1876, he married Eliza Alison and his marriage announcement stated that he was the fourth son of William Vivian Esq of 15 Bolton Gardens, London.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13381913 |title=Marriages: Vivian - Alison |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=20 October 1876 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=1 |via=Trove}} In 1880, he was a squatter on the Bogan River, before returning to Sydney in 1885, becoming an estate agent.

He was a regular Free Trade candidate for a seat in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, standing unsuccessfully for Wollombi in 1885 and 1886, The Tumut and Glen Innes in 1889. In February 1890, he was elected an alderman for the Municipal District of Manly.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223596119 |title=Municipal district of Manly |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=75 |date=11 February 1890 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=1253 |via=Trove}} He won a seat in the Legislative Assembly at the 1890 Hastings and Manning by-election.{{cite NSW election |title=Index to Candidates: Viskauskas to Watterson |year=CandidateIndexes |district=CandidateIndex57 |access-date=2021-05-17}} He was involved in an unruly scene in parliament involving his brother-in-law William Alison, described by George Dibbs as a petty family strife. Each accused the other of having a pecuniary interest in relation to the Crown Rents Bill, due to William Alison senior owning the Canonbar station near Nyngan.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227461416 |title=Extraordinary scene in Parliament |newspaper=The Australian Star |date=8 August 1890 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=4 |via=Trove}} His parliamentary service lasted just over one year as he was defeated at The Hastings and Manning by just 5 votes. He lodged a petition against the election,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224304465 |title=The Hastings and Manning petition |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=441 |date=10 July 1891 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=5239 |via=Trove}} however that was dismissed as frivolous and vexatious.{{cite Hansard |speaker=Francis Suttor |speaker-link=Francis Bathurst Suttor |position= |jurisdiction=New South Wales |house=Legislative Assembly |url=https://api.parliament.nsw.gov.au/api/hansard/search/daily/searchablepdf/HANSARD-290296563-10628 |format=pdf |title=Elections and Qualifications Committee |page=909 |date=1891-08-18 |access-date=2021-05-17}} He stood for The Hastings and Macleay at the 1894 and 1895 elections but was defeated on both occasions.

Vivian was one of the New South Wales commissioners to the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 in London, in charge of the wool exhibits, the New South Wales Executive Commissioner for the Tasmanian International Exhibition of 1891–2 in Launceston,{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222132160 |title=Appointment Walter Hussey Vivian as Executive Commissioner |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |date=20 October 1891 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=8216 |via=Trove}} and one of the New South Wales commissioners to the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, on the committees for wool and silk, manufacturing and liberal arts, education and ethnology.{{cite book |author=New South Wales Commission for the World's Columbian Exposition |title=New South Wales: Statistics, History, and Resources |year=1893 |publisher=Year-Book of Australia |pages=8, 9 & 11 |url=https://archive.org/details/newsouthwalesst00austgoog |access-date=17 May 2021}}

By 1891, Vivian had become a stock and share broker.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222131440 |title=Application to register the New Baker's Creek North Gold-mining Company |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=645 |date=9 October 1891 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=8008 |via=Trove}}{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224322900 |title=Application to register The Gundaroo Gold-mining Company |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=217 |date=29 March 1895 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=2136 |via=Trove}}

Sometime in the early 1900s, Vivian left Australia for South Africa,{{Cite NSW Parliament |id=201 |name=Mr Walter Hussey Vivian |former=Yes |access-date=12 April 2019}} and in 1903 announced the death of his fourth daughter, Edith, at Johannesburg.{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article164901258 |title=Deaths: Edith Vivian |newspaper=The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser |date=23 September 1903 |access-date=17 May 2021 |page=829 |via=Trove}} He also lived at Durban before his death at Pinetown, Natal Province on 6 November 1928 (aged 77).

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{{s-bef|before=Charles Roberts}}

{{s-ttl|title=Member for Hastings and Manning | years=1890–1891 |with=James Young}}

{{s-aft|after=Hugh McKinnon}}

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Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

Category:Free Trade Party politicians

Category:1850s births

Category:Year of birth uncertain

Category:1928 deaths