Sir George Strickland Kingston (23 August 1807 – 26 November 1880)

Deputy Surveyor, South Australia Colony

Kingston was appointed deputy surveyor to the new province and sailed with most of the surveying party in the Cygnet in March 1836. However it was he who was spared to return to England in August 1837 to ask for reinforcements for the Survey Department.

Later career

Kingston established himself as a civil engineer, architect and surveyor, and in 1840 the Adelaide Municipal Council briefly engaged him as town surveyor. He was later engaged as inspector of public works and, buildings. Among his works still standing are the south-eastern corner of Government House (1839), the original section of the Adelaide Gaol (1840), Cummins House at Camden Park (1841) and Kingston Historical House (1840, 1851). He also designed the first monument to Colonel Light in Light Square (1843). He designed White's Rooms, Adelaide's first public entertainment venue.

On 10 July 1851, Kingston was sworn in as an elected member of South Australia's first elected parliament representing the Electoral District of The Burra and Clare in the Legislative Council. He was re-elected in September 1855 and held the position until the Council's dissolution on 2 February 1857. On 9 March 1857, Kingston was elected to the newly established House of Assembly and became the first Speaker on 22 April 1857. Kingston held this position until 22 March 1860 and again from 31 March 1865 until his death on 26 November 1880. He died in 1880 aboard the RMS Malwa on his way to India and was buried at sea.

Other interests

Kingston was interested in the Volunteer movement and was once captain of the East Adelaide Rifles.), after their marriage on 10 April 1841. She died ten years later and Kingston married widow Emma Lipson (1816–1876), daughter of Thomas Lipson R.N., South Australia's first harbourmaster, on 4 December 1856 (no children resulted from this marriage).

  • His youngest daughter, Charlotte Julian Kingston (11 September 1845 – 20 May 1913) married Hubert Giles (21 October 1842 – 11 August 1901), son of William Giles, on 17 March 1880.
  • Strickland Gough "Pat" Kingston (1848–1897) married Kathleen Pittar Stanton in 1879. In 1894 she founded Yoothamurra School in Glenelg.
  • His youngest son, Charles Cameron Kingston (22 October 1850 – 11 May 1908) was Premier of South Australia from 1893 to 1899.

Memorials

Kingston's name has been applied to the following places in South Australia - Hundred of Kingston, Mount Kingston near Lake Eyre, Kingston Park (a suburb of Adelaide) and the township of Kingston SE. The township of Kingston-on-Murray was named after his son, Sir Charles Cameron Kingston.

List of buildings attributed to Sir George Strickland Kingston

  • Ayers House, Adelaide
  • Old Adelaide Gaol, Adelaide
  • Original Treasury Building, Victoria Square, Adelaide
  • Government House, Adelaide
  • Customs House, Glenelg
  • Cummins House, 23 Sheoak Avenue, Novar Gardens, South Australia
  • Colonel William Light Monument, Light Square, Adelaide (demolished 1905)
  • Kingston Historical House, Brighton
  • Lochend House, Campbelltown, the home of Charles James Fox Campbell
  • Residential Cottage Home, 3 Market Street, Burra
  • Sir George Kingston Building, University of South Australia, City West campus

References

Further reading

  • Langmead, Donald George Strickland Kingston: Pioneer and Architect, PhD thesis, Flinders University, 1983 (More comprehensive than Accidental Architect, below.)
  • Langmead, Donald Accidental Architect: the Life and Times of George Strickland Kingston, Darlinghurst; Crossing Press, 1994
  • Sansom, P History of the First Fifty Years of the South Australian Lodge of Friendship from 1834 to 1884, Adelaide, 1886
  • at Architects Database