Artist & Soldier

Location: CofE*P*46

Third son of Arthur Merric Boyd (1862-1940; Fawkner Memorial Park) and Emma Minnie née à Beckett (1858-1936; Fawkner Memorial Park), Penleigh was born on 15 August 1890 at the à Beckett manor home, Penleigh House near Westbury, Wiltshire, England; his brothers included Merric (q.v.) and the author Martin (1893-1972) (“charming, generous, frivolous and funny”). 

Boyd was always destined to become an artist. He studied at the National Gallery School (1905-09) under Frederick McCubbin (q.v.) and Bernard Hall (1859-1935); by the time he left for Europe in early 1911 to spend two years in London and Paris, Boyd already had some fine paintings to his credit. His time in London (April 1911-May 1912) was spent more in the presence of his Chomley cousins, but while at St. Ives, Cornwall he followed in his parents footsteps by having “Springtime, St. Ives” (1912) exhibited at the Royal Academy (“praised for…rendering the distant glitter of sunlight on water”); in Paris (May 1912-Jan 1913), E Phillips Fox (q.v.) was a close friend and neighbour who influenced Boyd by introducing the en plein air technique which can be seen in “The Seine, Paris” (1913) (“characteristic use of cool colours and broken brushwork”). On 15 October 1912, he married Edith née Anderson (1880-1961) (“she was intelligent as well as beautiful…it was in nearly every way a perfect match”) and they had three children; Robin (1919-71) became a noted architectural critic and writer. On returning home in 1913 to stage several profitable exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, Boyd had the world at his feet – an enchanting bride, a studio at Chelsea and success at the Royal Academy with his best work yet to come. 

Renowned for his lyrical and poetic paintings, his love of the Warrandyte area (1914-23) figures prominently in many of his works including “The Breath of Spring” (1919) (“acclaimed as a tour de force”), “Wattle blossom” (1919), “Spring fantasy” (1919), “’Twixt shadow and shine” (1921) (“a Cootamundra wattle tree mantled in glorious bloom”) and probably his most famous work “The old bridge, Warrandyte” (1914), noted by a critic as “a clever impression of an effect of sun on mellow decay, as reflected in gently flowing waters, blue with the intensity of a cloudless sky”. 

In August 1915 he enlisted for active overseas duty (“he despised coldfoots and shirkers”) and served with the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company (1915-18) rising to the rank of sergeant before being gassed at Ypres, Belgium and invalided to England; his creative outlet to the war was to produce “Salvage” (1918) a series of pen and ink drawings. But the war seems to have affected his judgement and he made some uncharacteristic decisions leading up to his tragic death. 

Described by a friend as “radiant, able, full of happy courage and enterprise”, his life was cut short when he was killed instantly in a car accident near Warragul, Victoria on 28 November 1923 while driving to Sydney. The Age described Boyd at the time of his death “as without doubt one of the greatest painters of landscape Australia has produced”. Though the passage of time has not been kind to Boyd, largely forgotten and overshadowed by other members of the famous Boyd artistic dynasty he is still considered the finest painter of the wattle in bloom through his many evocative depictions; a contemporary wrote;

“comparisons…are odorous, but Boyd, I think, will yet stand with [Sir Arthur] Streeton (Ferntree Gully Cemetery) as the greatest of our Australian landscape painters”.

Source: 
ADB Volume 7 1891-1939 (A-Ch).
Niall, B., “The Boyds” (2002).
The Age 14 October 1914, 29 November 1923.
James, R., “Penleigh Boyd 1890-1923” (2000).

(By permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an2813253)

Sculptor & Conservationist

Location: Lawn*N*61

Guy Martin à Beckett Boyd was born on 12 June 1923, the third of five children to Merric Boyd (q.v.) and Doris née Gough (q.v.). He and his brothers and sisters were encouraged and inspired by their family in their creative and artistic lives and all became artists. The garden of their rambling home Open Country was full of trees and lent itself to an appreciation of nature. 

Guy’s passion as an environmentalist and his concern for the preservation of nature sprang from these early days. He learned the art of pottery from his father, whose studio was at their home. He was also influenced by his paternal grandparents, Emma Minnie (1858-1936; Fawkner Memorial Park) and Arthur Merric Boyd (1862-1940; Fawkner Memorial Park) and stayed with them frequently in their home by the beach at Sandringham. At the age of twelve, he realised he had a particular ability for sculpting and was already creating mature and evocative pieces of clay and plaster by the age of fourteen. During the Second World War, as a pacifist, he refused to bear arms. He found a place in the army teaching pottery to repatriated soldiers in NSW. When the war was over, he established the “Martin Boyd Pottery” in Sydney, creating popular and decorative pieces. In 1952, he returned to Melbourne and married Phyllis née Nairn. As a partnership, they established “Guy Boyd Pottery” and had seven children. 

In 1965, Guy began sculpting full-time, creating a reputation as Australia’s foremost figurative sculptor. The family moved to Brighton where Guy was the instigator of the Brighton Foreshore Protection Society. He fought numerous battles for conservation including protecting the Brighton foreshore from a boat marina (“beaches are for families”), the improvement of the beach area, and the preservation of the Brighton bathing boxes. He fought against a proposed oil pipeline to be put under Port Phillip Bay and against the damming of the Franklin River (Tasmania), among other environmental issues. These campaigns were all successful. He was characteristically courageous and outspoken against injustice and was instrumental in seeing Lindy Chamberlain freed from jail and exonerated. 

Guy and Phyllis moved to Canada for some years in the ‘70s, where he achieved critical acclaim for his work both there and in America. He returned to Australia, purchasing the former home of his grandparents in Sandringham. He is represented in numerous public collections, among them universities, The National Library of Australia, and Sydney International Airport. His themes for sculptures were of simple gestures, beach scenes, dancers, aboriginal myths, biblical themes and the image of mother and child. His most prominent piece in Brighton is “The Prodigal Son” a large wall relief at St. Andrew’s Church, Brighton, which was completed and dedicated near the end of his life. 

Guy died of a sudden heart attack in Brighton, aged 64.

Source: 
Article written and researched by Lenore Boyd.

(Image courtesy of Lenore Boyd)

Artist, Potter & Soldier

Location: Lawn*P*138

Without doubt one of Australia’s greatest artists of the 20th century, Boyd is the most recognisable of the famous artistic dynasty and was born on 20 July 1920 the eldest son of Merric Boyd (q.v.) and Doris née Gough (q.v.) and brother of Guy (q.v.). Growing up with the “Boyd innocence” at Open Country – the family’s creative haven at Murrumbeena, Melbourne – Arthur showed exceptional talent from the start; gentle, shy and hesitant, by the time he left the local state school he had great difficulty spelling (“My God I feel this not being able to spell. It just about drives me mad”). 

In 1942 he met twenty-one year old art student Yvonne Lennie at a life drawing class and through his future wife (“she brought exceptional grace and strength in the role of artist’s wife”) mixed with the likes of Albert Tucker (q.v.), Sidney Nolan (d 1992) and Joy Hester (Box Hill Cemetery) coming into contact with the art patrons John and Sunday Reed; Boyd was more content with the welcoming and relaxed intellectual atmosphere of Open Country than the ideological debating hot house of Heide (“I found it was best to keep a fair distance because you could get eaten up and I didn’t like that”). After serving with the Cartographic Company during the war (1941-44) where he met John Perceval (q.v.) he started “Arthur Merric Boyd (AMB) Pottery” (1944-55) in partnership with others before embarking on painting full-time. 

In April 1958 Boyd achieved his first critical break with the showing of the “Love, Marriage and Death of a Half-Caste” (“Brides”) series (1957-58) at the Australian Galleries; inspired by his visit to central Australia in the 1950s he was horrified by what he saw, of Aborigines herded like cattle at Alice Springs and half-castes living in squalor in shanty towns. Feeling the need for new experience rather than disillusionment Boyd headed for London the following year with the financial backing of Anne and Thomas (Tam) Purves. Tucker who had been making a precarious living in Europe since 1947 had warned Boyd of the “incredibly tricky, complex, corrupt” life and to bring “bags of money” as the English “will reject Arthur’s painting on sight”. But Boyd achieved financial and critical success soon after this arrival; in June 1962 he followed in Nolan’s footsteps to have a retrospective at the Whitechapel Gallery (“an accolade second only to…the Tate [Gallery]”). While Boyd would spend 1959 until 1974 alternating between Highgate (London), Ramsholt (Suffolk) and Paretaio (Tuscany) his yearning for a home in Australia would remain strong. From portraits (“Portrait of Max Nicholson” 1943), impressionism (“Reflected Rock and Riverbank Winter” 1981), nudes (“Seated Figure by Creek” 1972), biblical (“Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the tree” 1966-69), autobiographical (“Potter’s Wife in Garden at Murrumbeena” 1964-67), expressionism (“Melbourne Burning” 1946-47) to surrealism (“Shearers Playing for a Bride” 1957), Boyd’s works covered a diverse range of themes and evocative subjects, many of which have had a profound effect on society. 

Gentle, sensitive, compassionate, and tenacious, Boyd was above all noted for his generosity (“we own nothing, all we do is possess things for a short period; you don’t even own your wedding ring, nothing”) which was exemplified on Australia Day 1993 when his family gifted to the nation his beloved Bundanon and Riversdale properties on the Shoalhaven River, New South Wales after years of bureaucratic and political indifference. The Boyd vision was for the gift to be a place where “his tribe could get together, paint, write, make music, explore the bush and the river, or just enjoy themselves”. 

While travelling back to Sydney for the official opening, Boyd suffered a heart attack in February 1999, and died on 24 April 1999 at the Mercy Hospital while convalescing in Brighton survived by his wife Yvonne whom he married in March 1945 and his three children. Former Primer Minister, Paul Keating (1991-96) who accepted the family gift on behalf of the nation paid tribute to Boyd’s remarkable contribution to Australia:

“It has fallen to people like Arthur to define what it is to be Australian on canvas and to let us understand that we’re not Europeans anymore, that we’re not anything other than Australians. This is the debt we really owe him”.

Source: 
Niall, B., “The Boyds” (2002).
Hoff, U., “The Art of Arthur Boyd” (1986).
The Age 26 & 27 April 1999, 1 May 1999.

(Copyright Estate of Albert Tucker. Courtesy Lauraine Diggins Fine Art. By permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an23609734)

Timber Merchant & Labourer

Location: RC*T*201

Born on 15 December 1864 at the gold mining settlement of Springdallah, Victoria the youngest of five surviving children (“a son with fair hair and blue eyes”) to Irish born Patrick Bowen, a miner and his wife Catherine née Mooney. After his education at nearby Piggoreet local school, he left at the age of sixteen and headed to Melbourne (“a place of fascination”) and quickly found work as a labourer in the booming 1880s; he later worked on the construction of the cable tram network. By 1892, Bowen was working in a scrap metal yard at North Melbourne where he later became a partner (“a born entrepreneur”). The firm branched into the second-hand timber trade through demolition contracts which proved to be so lucrative the partners decided to go their separate ways and Bowen leased premises next door at 127 Dryburgh Street near the corner of Arden Street (“an ideal location for a timber yard”). He had found his calling. Soon after he formed an enduring partnership with his brother-in-law Redmond Pomeroy (d 1925) (Melbourne General Cemetery) on 29 April 1894 as “Bowen & Pomeroy”; the partnership between the two families would continue until 1954. 

Their personalities were in stark contrast; Bowen a natural leader of men, generous and approachable who treated them equal; and Pomeroy quiet, gentle, steady and conservative, at unease amongst the men in the timber yard. Amid the after effects of the bank crash in 1893 (“the building trade was one of the worst hit”), the firm weathered the downturn with the increased demand for cheaper second hand timber. By 1899 they had branched into the supply of new timbers and six years later second hand timbers had become “a minor position in overall sales”. On the back of expansion the firm achieved record sales (“a business on the rise”) until the onset of the Great War from £10,314 in 1906 to over £56,000 in 1913 serving some 200 different builders. During the war, the building trade slumped and numbers fell from 102 to 59 as men enlisted; returned soldiers were welcomed back into the company. 

In 1919, “Bowen & Pomeroy” branched into timber production with the joint formation of “St. Leonard’s Sawmill Company” at Toolangi to secure a guaranteed supply of hardwood then difficult to obtain but the venture ceased in January 1924; CJ Dennis (Box Hill Cemetery) the poet of “The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke” (1915) was a shareholder. Amongst the contracts for timber supplied include the Essendon Methodist Church (1915), the Williamstown (1913) and Footscray Town Halls (1914), Trades Hall in Carlton (1917), Menzies Hotel (1920s) and the Geelong North Ford factory (1925) a turning point in the company’s fortunes as it enabled the firm to compete successfully for contracts for large construction projects following the installation of an imported Mershon roller recut bandsaw. On 9 February 1924, Bowen’s second wife, Mary née Poer (“a warm hearted, generous women) whom he married on 16 July 1907 was killed in a car accident on the Geelong Road outside Footscray while heading to Geelong to spend the weekend; Richard escaped with minor injuries. 

Residing at Springdallah – Chatsworth Avenue, Brighton he died from myocarditis (heart disease) on 14 October that year aged 59 with an estate valued for probate at £51,858 (£7,538 real estate and £44,320 personal property) survived by his two children who he adored; John (q.v.) would rise to lead the company. On the day of his funeral, employees gathered at the corner of Nepean Highway and North Road as a mark of respect, a fitting tribute to a man who had been like a fellow worker to all; an employee once remarked that “his word was his bond and he treated men as his equal…he expected men to do the right thing and do a fair day’s work [but] he paid his staff well and gave them extra if he know they had earned it”. In July 1891 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in St. Kilda, he married Mary Ann née Pomeroy nine years his senior (“a cultivated women…accustomed to an independent lifestyle”); she died from a brain haemorrhage on 2 June 1905.

Source: 
Twigg, K., “Sixpence For A Piece of Timber. A History of Bowen & Pomeroy 1894-1994”, 1994.
The Argus 11 February 1924 & 1 November 1924.

(Image reproduced with kind permission of Bowen & Pomeroy Pty Ltd)

Timber Merchant

Location: Lawn*N*35

Born in 1909 the eldest of two children to Richard Bowen (q.v.), a timber merchant who co-founded “Bowen & Pomeroy Pty Ltd” (known today as “Bowens, Timber and Building Supplies”), and his second wife Mary née Poer. The untimely deaths of both co-founders within a space of three months in the mid-1920s was a critical junction for the company; Bowen senior’s will stipulated that his shares be held in trust until Jack reached the age of 25 (“this proved a wise stipulation”). 

Educated at Xavier, he longed to be part of the company and left school in 1926 aged 17 (“against his aunt’s advice”) and under the tutelage of two able deputies in Jack Dowling (“the salesman”) and Charlie Barrass (“the practical timber man”) bided his time working primarily in the office. Bowen could do little but see the company weather the storm of the Timber Industry strike (“the strike caused havoc at Bowen and Pomeroy”) and great depression of 1929 that saw staff levels fall from 85 in 1929 to 30 in 1931; characters like Alf ‘Baldy’ Durbar (“highly skilled and cantankerous…a stickler for detail [whose] only weakness was the Footscray football team”) who had been employed for over 30 years were laid off. The company was in such dire straits having suffered consecutive losses that led to the formation of a new company “Bowen & Pomeroy Pty Ltd” to realise the timber stocks of the old company (renamed “B & P Investments Pty Ltd”); Bowen emerged the majority shareholder at the same time the Pomeroy family reduced their interest. 

By 1933, the company had turned the tide but more importantly emerged streamlined and a more efficient enterprise with a crop of enthusiastic talented men who were to play a major role in the future. In contrast with WWI, the outbreak of the Second World War saw a seemingly insatiable demand for timber even though from January 1942 a total ban on all private buildings had been enforced; timber merchandising was added to the list of ‘protected industries’ allowing employees in the armed forces to be released. The end of the war “heralded the beginning of a remarkable period of prosperity” for the company that was to continue through to the 1960s fuelled by a back-log of work from six years of little building activity, the return of servicemen and increased immigration. 

During the post-war period, Bowen modernised the company by erecting a new joinery shop (1947) and moulding mill (1945), but the most significant decision was to branch into hardware retail (1947) albeit in the traditional form of behind the counter service. Described as “tall with broad shoulders and a commanding presence”, Bowen was above all generous and through his initiative the company donated money to various charities; he soon earned the respect of his peers in the industry with a reputation for integrity (“he did not have the charisma of his father”) and went on to serve on the executive of the Timber Merchants Association for 32 years. 

In the 1960s, the company faced emerging challenges with the introduction of new forms of substitutes of building materials; the concentration of building activity in the outer suburbs; and increased competition. But Bowen was an able strategist with a skill of blending conservatism with progress; in 1960 the company introduced a formal cadet training program that was acknowledged within the industry (“one of the most interesting and progressive moves…in the field of personnel training”); opened the first suburban branch at Mount Evelyn (1966); sold land at North Melbourne to finance the establishment of “Long Island Timber Company” (1970), a bulk timber supply outlet at Hastings; and introduced the concept of accounting budgets then unheard of in the industry (1963) (“Bowen and Pomeroy placed itself ahead of many of its competitors”).  

Residing at 6 Cosham Street Brighton, Bowen died suddenly from a heart attack on 9 May 1971 aged 61 after 40 years as managing director and was survived by his wife Marie née Hourigan whom he married in March 1935; his eldest son John (b 1943) succeeded his father on his death (“thrust reluctantly into the position”) in what is a rare example of a family owned and controlled business founded over 125 years ago.

Source: 
Twigg, K., “Sixpence For A Piece of Timber. A History of Bowen & Pomeroy 1894-1994”, 1994.

(Image reproduced with kind permission of Bowen & Pomeroy Pty Ltd)

Senator & Union Official

Location: Meth*D*7

Born on 9 November 1880 at Balmoral near Hamilton, Victoria the son of William Blakey, woolclasser and Louis née Woodford and educated at the local primary school. Active with the Clerks’ and later the Australian Railways Union, Blakey became secretary of the Hamilton branch of the Australian Labour Party; he later served as a member of the State Executive (1906) becoming State Secretary in 1912. Between 1910 and 1917 he was elected as a Labour Senator and served on the Joint Committee of Public Accounts (1914-17) before being defeated. He later unsuccessfully sought re-election in 1925 and 1928. 

As a director of the Australian Natives Association, Blakey was involved in the annual Adam Lindsay Gordon (q.v.) pilgrimage held at the Brighton General Cemetery. Married to Clifton née Hines in 1911, Blakey died on 4 July 1935 at Mooroopna Hospital after a long illness; The Agedescribed Blakey as “a good platform speaker, and had a genial personality”. James Scullin (Melbourne General Cemetery), then leader of the Opposition was a pallbearer at his funeral that took place on Friday 5 July at 3pm.

Source: 
The Argus 5 & 6 July 1935.
The Age 5 July 1935.

(Image reproduced by permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an23236633)

Architect & Soldier

Location: CofE*ZG*19

Blackett was born on 18 September 1873 at Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria the son of the noted pharmacist and government analyst Cuthbert Blackett (d 1902) and Margaretta née Palmer. Educated at Scotch College and later Melbourne University, in 1895 he worked as a draftsman in Western Australia for two years before returning to Victoria. 

From 1899, Blackett was involved in a number of architectural partnerships notably with his cousin William Blackett Forster (1914-32); noted “for his house remodelling and as a designer of interior decoration and fittings”, in 1929 “Blackett & Forster” won the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects’ medal for Francis House, Collins Street (1927). Other designs include the Warburton Chalet (1929) and Victor Horsley Chambers, Collins Street (1926). On 13 February 1917 he enlisted and served in the Education Service attaining the rank of Lieutentant returning home in November 1919. As an architect, Blackett’s contribution was through the advancement of the professional bodies rather than his private practice. He served as a councillor of the Royal Victorian Institute Architects (1907-52) and president in 1916-18 and 1928-30; he later went on to become first president of the Australian chapter in 1930 and was awarded a life fellowship in 1952. His greatest achievement was as a member of Legacy. As vice-president (1926-27), Blackett along with others, including Donovan Joynt VC (q.v.) was instrumental in campaigning for the Shrine of Remembrance concept in the face of fierce opposition from the State Government, the R.S.L, the Melbourne City Council and Keith Murdoch’s Herald newspaper.  

Thrice married (Gertrude Lewis 1904; Anne Lewis née Hancock 1930; Isabel McCallum née Wills 1960), Blackett resided at 71 South Road, Brighton Beach and died on 2 June 1962 survived by his wife; all are interred in the same grave.

Source: 
ADB Volume 7 1891-1939 (A-Ch).
The Age 4 June 1962.
The Herald 4 June 1962.
AWM Biographical Cards for Official History (AWM140).
Who’s Who in Australia (1933-34).
Blatchford, C., “Legacy: The Story of the Melbourne Legacy Club” (1932).
Russell, W. B., “We Will Remember Them: The Story of The Shrine of Remembrance” (1991).
Allen, H. (ed), “The University of Melbourne Record of Active Service” (1926).

(By permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an10046136)

Public Servant

Location: CofE*ZD*914

Born at Newcastle, New South Wales on 12 April 1861 the son of John Bingle and Frances née Corlette; Bingle’s paternal grandfather, John (1796-1882) introduced the first regular trading service between Sydney and Newcastle in 1822. After his education at the local grammar school, Walter spent a decade working with the firm his grandfather founded, “Bingle & Co”. 

After a period as vice-consul in Italy and the Netherlands, Bingle began a lifetime in the public service, rising from a clerk in the NSW public service (1885), to the position of permanent secretary of the Federal Department of Works and Railways (1917-26). Bingle was closely involved in pre-Federation conferences; in 1901 he transferred to Melbourne and became chief clerk under his former Premier, Sir William Lyne (Waverley Cemetery). As acting head of Home Affairs (1907-09 and 1914-16), Bingle was implicated in the Blacket Royal Commission investigating Walter Burley Griffin’s design for Canberra alleging that he “had been obstructive in delaying communication of vital information to Griffin”; years later, Bingle commented to a friend he had tried to do his best to advance Canberra. 

Described as “reflective in temperament and easily moved”, he died on 7 August 1928 aged 67 survived by his wife Emily née Pinhey whom he married on 19 October 1887. Reflecting on four decades as a public servant, Bingle noted that “the highest officially are not always the most desirable socially”.

Source: 
ADB Volume 7 1891-1939 (A-Ch).
The Argus 8 August 1928.
The Herald 23 January 1926.

(By permission of the National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an23194270)

Councillor, Mayor & Manufacturer

Location: CofE*ZA*1127

Born at Lancashire, England in 1844, the eldest son of George Billson (1817-86), brewer and politician and Isabella née Blades. Early in 1848 the family migrated to Adelaide, South Australia and the following year joined the gold rush in California, USA but returned to settle in Victoria from 1852; at Beechworth from 1867 he purchased a brewery and with George ran a cordial and aerated waters manufactory from 1872. 

A prominent citizen, Councillor and Mayor of Albury in New South Wales before moving to Dun Lappie – Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick, in 1901, Billson was elected to the St. Kilda City Council (1901-11) serving as Mayor in 1909. His aerated water manufacturing business on Brighton Road, Elsternwick (between Albion and Maryville Streets) was described as “one of the most compact and cleanly establishments in Melbourne”. With Charles Catani (q.v.), Billson was appointed an original member of the St. Kilda Foreshore Committee on 19 June 1906 that was responsible for the development of the St. Kilda Esplanade into what it is today. The Cyclopedia of Victoria writing in 1903 notes that;

“Mr Billson supports local industry in every possible branch…All bottles manufactured in the Melbourne Bottle Works, likewise other supplies such as the boiler and bottling machines and the engine which drives the plant”. 

He died suddenly at home on 9 September 1927 aged 83; his brother Alfred Arthur (1858-1930) followed his father and became a well-known politician, brewer and citizen of Beechworth.

Source: 
The Argus 12 September 1927.
The Age 12 September 1927.
The Prahran Telegraph 16 September 1927.
Smith, J. (ed), “Cyclopedia of Victoria” (1903).
Cooper, J., “The History of St. Kilda” (1931).
ADB Volume 7 1891-1939 (A-Ch).

Premier, Politician, Councillor, Mayor & Land Speculator

Location: CofE*D*132

Undoubtedly one of the most colourful if not at times, controversial figures in Victorian history, Bent was born at Sir John Jamison’s (1776-1844) grand estate Regentville, Penrith, New South Wales on 7 December 1838 (“just five months after his parent’s marriage”), the son of a convicted house-breaker James Bent (q.v.) and his wife Maria née Toomey (d 1867); there are doubts whether James is the birth father (“he was not exactly warm and generous towards Thomas”). The family arrived in the Port Phillip district in 1849 and Thomas continued his education at St. Mark’s Anglican School, Fitzroy (“one of its first pupils”) which ended in 1851 when his father set up a market garden in East Bentleigh. 

From the humble beginnings of a market gardener, Bent rose to become Premier (1904-09) on little more than a gifted tongue and an uncanny ability to sway an outcome. His cunning was evident early in his career as rate collector for the Moorabbin Road Board (1862-63) and later Brighton Borough (c1870-74) where he used the position to engineer three election victories; after his astonishing 1871 defeat of George Higinbotham (q.v.) by just fourteen votes, irregularities were found that “had nothing to do with human error” but Bent’s shrewd use of “his public position, the provisions of the relevant Acts and an awareness of human foibles to stack the electoral roles”. He served as a member of the Moorabbin (1863-65, 1865-1909) and Brighton City Councils (1874-1909) where he was able to wield control of both through the election of many family and business associates including his brothers Edmund and John, Macansh (q.v.), O’Shea (q.v.), Walstab, and Munro.

In state politics as member of the Legislative Assembly seat of Brighton (1871-94, 1900-09), Bent was a master of bluff, lobbying, logrolling and obstructive tactics; he served in many ministerial positions, including Railways (1881-83, 1902-03, 1904-09), Public Works (1903-04), Treasurer (1904-09) and was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1892-94 before his defeat by William Moule (q.v.). Ebullient and efficacious, he was above all cunning in his ability to “use his political position for personal profit”; as Minister of Railways, he was able to influence the duplication of the Brighton line in 1882 thus increasing the value of his land holdings in the area. At one stage he was the largest land holder in the Brighton district and one of many ‘land boomers’ in the Victorian parliament. Bent was to an extent an enigma. “Bluff, but sensitive to criticism, public spirited but self seeking, ruthless but kind hearted, conservative yet egalitarian”; he possessed abundant spirit and zest.  

Twice married (Elizabeth née Hall d 1861; Elizabeth née Huntley d 1903), Bent was knighted in 1908 and died on 17 September 1909 survived by his daughter Elizabeth Bleazby (q.v.) who went on to become one of the first women councillors in Victoria. The suburb of Bentleigh (East Brighton) was named in honour of Sir Thomas Bent in 1907.

Source: 
ADB Volume 3 1851-90 (A-C).
Glass, M., “Tommy Bent. Bent by name, Bent by nature” (1993).
Thomson, K & Serle, G., “A Biographical Register of the Victorian Legislature 1851-1900” (1972).
Cannon, M., “The Land Boomers” (1986).
Bate, W., “A History of Brighton” (1983).
Cribbin, J., “Moorabbin. A Pictorial History” (1995).
The Herald 17 September 1909.
The Age 19 September 1909.

(Image courtesy La Trobe Picture Collection, State Library of Victoria, H23028)