Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/399

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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He died on August 8th, 1889, at the age of seventy-four.

Ramsay, Hon. John James Garden, M.L.C., for some time represented Mount Barker in the Legislative Assembly of South Australia, but was in 1880 elected to the Legislative Council, for which he sat down to the day of his death. Mr. Ramsay was Commissioner of Public Works in the Ayers Ministry from Jan. so March 1872, and in the two Bray Governments from June 1881 to June 1884. He was Chief Secretary under Mr. Playford from June 1887 to June 1889. On Jan. 18th, 1890, he died from the effects of injuries sustained through the bursting of a lamp in a railway carriage in which he was travelling. In 1886 Mr. Ramsay received the Queen's permission to bear the title of Honourable within the colony.

Ramsay, Hon. Robert, was born in 1842 at Hawick, Roxburghshire, and went with his parents to Victoria at the age of four years. He was the eldest son of the Rev. A. M. Ramsay, of St. Enoch's Church, Collins Street, now the Assembly Hall, was educated at the Scotch College, and was afterwards a law student at the Melbourne University, subsequently becoming a partner in the well-known firm of Macgregor, Ramsay & Brahe, solicitors, Melbourne. In 1870 he was elected to the Assembly for East Bourke, and held a seat in the Francis Ministry without portfolio from June 1872 to July 1874. From the latter date till August 1875 he was Postmaster-General under the late Mr. Kerferd, holding the same post in conjunction with that of Minister of Education in the last MᶜCulloch Government from Oct. 1875 to May 1877. After three years in opposition Mr. Ramsay, in March 1880, joined Mr. Service as Chief Secretary and Minister of Education, and held the combined office till the Ministry retired in August of the same year. Mr. Ramsay, who was a Conservative and free-trader, introduced and carried a bill abolishing pensions to future civil servants. Mr. Ramsay, who married in 1868 Isabella Catherine, second daughter of Roderick Urquhart, of Yangery Park, died on May 23rd, 1882.

Randell, William Richard, was born in May 1824 at Sidbury, Devonshire, England, and went to South Australia with his parents in 1837. Until 1853 he was engaged in pastoral pursuits, but in July of that year he anticipated Captain Cadell in navigating the Murray, in a small steamer which he built for the purpose and named the Mary Ann. Two years later he explored the Murrumbidgee and Darling in the Gemini. Mr. Randell received a reward of £300 from the South Australian Government and £400 was raised for him by public subscription.

Rawson, Charles Collinson, J.P., son of Charles Rawson and Octavia his wife, was born at Boldon Rectory, Durham, England, on Dec. 13th, 1840, and emigrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney in Dec. 1857. He married Miss Winifred Harrison on August 30th, 1870. He was engaged in pastoral pursuits in the Mackay district of Queensland, and was chairman of the local branch of the North Queensland Separation League. Since his return to England, where he now resides, he has taken an active part in promoting the erection of Northern Queensland into a separate colony.

Real, His Honour Patrick, Puisne Judge, was born at Limerick, Ireland, in March 1847, and was taken to Australia as an infant in 1851. His father died on the voyage out, and his mother settled in Ipswich, Queensland, where he was apprenticed to a carpenter. Subsequently he was employed in the Ipswich railway workshops until, at the age of twenty-one, he formed the idea of becoming a barrister. Relinquishing his trade, he devoted himself to study, and was admitted to the Queensland Bar in Sept. 1874, and practised with success. In Feb. 1878 he was appointed Crown Prosecutor for the Central District of Queensland, and, on the death of Mr. Justice Mein, in 1890, a Puisne Judge.

Redwood, Most Rev. Francis, S.M., D.D., Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, N.Z., is the son of Henry Paul Redwood and Mary (Gilbert) his wife, and was born on April 8th, 1839, at the Lower Hanyard, Tixall estate, Staffordshire. Having gone with his parents to Wellington, N.Z., where they landed in Nov. 1842, he went with them a month later to Nelson, where they settled on the Waimea Plains. The future Archbishop studied first at Nelson, under the late Archpriest Garin, S.M., and afterwards in France and Ireland. He was ordained priest at Maynooth on June 6th, 1865, and was

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