William Frederick Stock

William Frederick Stock
W.F. Stock in 1892
Attorney-General of South Australia
In office
21 June 1892 (1892-06-21) – 15 October 1892 (1892-10-15)
PremierFrederick Holder
Preceded byRobert Homburg
Succeeded byRobert Homburg
Member of the South Australian House of Assembly for Electoral district of Sturt
In office
2 April 1887 (1887-04-02) – 14 April 1893 (1893-04-14)
Serving with John Jenkins
Personal details
Born(1847-07-28)28 July 1847
Clifton St Andrew, Gloucestershire, England
Died23 November 1913(1913-11-23) (aged 66)
North Adelaide, South Australia
Spouses
Clara Graham
​
​
(m. 1870; died 1888)​
Mary Haigh (née Spicer)
​
​
(m. 1909)​
Children3 daughters

William Frederick Stock, M.P., (28 July 1847[1] – 23 November 1913)[2] was a South Australian lawyer and politician, briefly Attorney-General of South Australia in 1892.[3]

History

[edit]

Stock was born in Clifton St Andrew, Gloucestershire, England, a son of Robert Stock and Caroline Stock, née Holland, and christened there on 3 September 1847.[4] Stock was one of five children who with their widowed mother sailed to South Australia aboard Statesman, arriving in February 1850.[5] He was educated at Adelaide Educational Institution[5] and St Peter's College, Adelaide, and in England.[3] He was admitted to the South Australian Bar in June 1871, and was three times Mayor of Glenelg in the late 1870s. He was President of the Railway Employees' Association.[3] In 1886 he entered into a limited form of partnership with his nephew Sydney Talbot Smith as Stock & Talbot Smith.[6]

In 1887 he was elected to the seat of Sturt in the South Australian House of Assembly. In June 1892, on the accession to power of the Holder Ministry, Stock was appointed Attorney-General.[1][3]

On 23 November 1913, Stock died at a private hospital in North Adelaide after a long illness.[2]

Family

[edit]

William Frederick Stock (c. August 1847 – 23 November 1913) married Clara Graham (1 June 1846 – 1 February 1888) on 16 April 1870;[7] their children were:

  • Kathleen Clara Stock (26 January 1871[8] – 1944), married Francis James Roche on 14 November 1891 in Shanghai,[9] and died in Auckland, New Zealand
  • Stella Denison Stock (12 November 1872 – 29 November 1950), married D'Arcy Talbot Bruce on 22 February 1894 in Surbiton, England[10] (div.1902); married George Henry Priest Shanks in 1902 in Kensington, England; and died in Torquay, England
  • Vivien Grace Stock (7 March 1875 – 13 September 1966), married William Steele (1872 - 1952) on 11 Sep 1897,[11][12] and died in Goodwood, SA

William Frederick Stock was twice related by marriage to Edwin Thomas Smith, who married his sister, Florence Stock (c. 1837 – 12 February 1862), on 25 June 1857; and then through Smith's second marriage to Elizabeth Spicer (31 May 1846 – 6 June 1911), when Stock married Elizabeth's sister Mary Haigh (née Spicer, ~1853 – 30 August 1917) on 12 May 1909.[13] Elizabeth and Mary were both daughters of early colonist Edward Spicer.[14]

Tregenna

[edit]

William Frederick Stock's mansion "Tregenna" on North East Road, Collinswood, set on 4.5 acres (1.8 ha) and attributed to architect Edward Davies, was built in 1899-1900. Following Stock's death in 1913, his widow Mary Stock continued to reside there. During World War I she was a prominent worker for the Cheer-Up Society,[15] and used the grounds of "Tregenna" to hold events such as gymkhanas and fetes for the Red Cross,[16] as well as for growing vegetables and fruit to supply Cheer-up Hut events for thousands of soldiers.[15]

"Tregenna" was put up for sale in June 1917,[17] but after Mary Stock's death in August 1917, her daughter from her previous marriage, Alice Hill (née Haigh, 1875 – 28 January 1929) continued to live there with her own family until her own death.[18] Alice's daughter May Hill (1 May 1909 – ) continued living on the property, holding gymkhanas for the Adelaide Horse Riding Club[19] and other charitable events[20] into the early 1950s.

The property was sold to the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1957[21] and new buildings in the grounds were constructed for use as studios and broadcasting facilities for the ABS-2 television service for SA, which commenced in 1960. By 1969 other existing ABC facilities in Hindmarsh Square and Norwood were considered inadequate, and the decision was made to consolidate all services at Collinswood. The "Tregenna" mansion was demolished in 1970, and replaced by an 8-storey brutalist building, opened in 1974.[22] The "Tregenna" name has been commemorated by the naming of the "Tregenna café" within the complex.[23]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "William Frederick Stock". Former members of the Parliament of South Australia. Retrieved 21 February 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Deaths". South Australian Register. 24 November 1913. p. 6. Retrieved 26 August 2014 – via Trove.
  3. ^ a b c d Mennell, Philip (1892). "Stock, Hon. William Frederick" . The Dictionary of Australasian Biography. London: Hutchinson & Co – via Wikisource.
  4. ^ "William Frederick Stock, 1847". England, Bristol Parish Registers, 1538-1900", index, FamilySearch. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Personal". The Advertiser. 24 November 1913. p. 14. Retrieved 10 July 2018 – via Trove.
  6. ^ Howell, P. A. (2002). "Smith, Sydney Talbot (1861–1948)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  7. ^ "Married". The South Australian Advertiser. 22 April 1870. p. 2. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  8. ^ "Births". South Australian Chronicle and Weekly Mail. 28 January 1871. p. 8. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  9. ^ "Marriages". Evening Journal. 31 December 1891. p. 2. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  10. ^ "Anglo-Colonial Gossip". South Australian Register. 4 April 1894. p. 6. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  11. ^ "Marriages". South Australian Register. 14 September 1897. p. 4. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  12. ^ "Death Of Mr William Steele". The Advertiser. 30 October 1952. p. 4. Retrieved 17 February 2025 – via Trove.
  13. ^ "Marriages". The Register. 19 May 1909. p. 4. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  14. ^ "Death of Mr. Edward Spicer, a South Australian pioneer". The Register. 8 May 1906. p. 5. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  15. ^ a b "Personal". The Express and Telegraph. 31 August 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 3 June 2018 – via Trove.
  16. ^ "Collinswood". The Register. 8 November 1915. p. 7. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  17. ^ "For Private Sale, "Tregenna"". The Register. Adelaide: National Library of Australia. 8 June 1917. p. 2. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
  18. ^ "Mrs A. H. Hill". The Chronicle. 2 February 1929. p. 47. Retrieved 16 February 2025 – via Trove.
  19. ^ "All bouts cancelled". The Advertiser. 31 October 1952. p. 20. Retrieved 17 February 2025 – via Trove.
  20. ^ "Musical". The Advertiser. 10 November 1953. p. 10. Retrieved 17 February 2025 – via Trove.
  21. ^ Report relating to the proposed construction of Sound Broadcasting Studios for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Collinswood, South Australia. Report No 1/1969. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works. Retrieved 16 February 2025.
  22. ^ "ABC Adelaide Channel 2 opens in 1960 from Tregenna mansion; joins ABC radio in new Collinswood block, 1974". Adelaide AZ. 1 May 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
  23. ^ "What's behind the doors of your ABC?". ABC Adelaide. 1 May 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2025.
Political offices
Preceded by Attorney-General of South Australia
1892 		Succeeded by
Parliament of South Australia
Preceded by Member for Sturt
1887–1893
Served alongside: John Jenkins 		Succeeded by
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