The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Blyth, Neville

1323915The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Blyth, NevillePhilip Mennell

Blyth, Neville, J.P., brother of the above and son of the late William Blyth, of Adelaide, by Sarah, third daughter of Rev. William Wilkins, of Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire, was born at Birmingham in 1828. He arrived in South Australia with his father in 1839, and engaged in commercial pursuits. He was member for East Torrens from March 13th, 1860, to July 9th, 1867, when he resigned. He was returned for Encounter Bay on April 16th, 1868, but retired at the dissolution on March 2nd, 1870. He was elected for Victoria on Aug. 24th, 1871, and at the dissolution in Nov. 1871 unsuccessfully contested Encounter Bay. He visited England and the continent of Europe from 1873 to 1875. On his brother, Hon. (now Sir) Arthur Blyth, accepting the office of Agent-General, he was returned in his stead for North Adelaide, on March 14th, 1877. Mr. Blyth was re-elected on March 29th, 1878, but resigned and finally retired from Parliament on Dec. 2nd in the same year. He was Treasurer in Mr. Hart's Ministry from Sept. 24th to Oct. 13th, 1868, and Minister of Education in Mr. Boucaut's Cabinet from Oct. 26th, 1877, to Sept. 27th, 1878. Mr. Blyth married at Alderley Edge, Cheshire, in 1852, Miss Julia Barnes, who still survives. Mr. Blyth took up his residence in England in 1878, and was a member of the London Commission for the Adelaide Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. He died at Sutton, Surrey, on Feb. 15th, 1890.