William Bickford,
ARRIVED in the colony in 1839 with the intention of starting sheepfarming. Before leaving his home in Devonshire, England, he had received glowing and Utopian accounts respecting South Australia, but on arrival failed to find the realization of his hopes. The high prices asked by owners of sheep and cattle caused him to turn his attention to the business he had followed in the home country—a chemist—and he sent to England for a stock of drugs and other requisites and then opened the first druggist's shop in Adelaide. He was eminently successful, and very many of the preparations which he introduced are made up and sold to this day. At the early age of thirty-five years, after three days' illness, he died, leaving a wife and five children. After his decease the business was carried on for some years by the widow, when it ultimately passed into the hands of her sons, William and Harry Bickford, who have extended it until it is known as the leading wholesale druggist and sundry firm in South Australia, under the style and title of A. M. Bickford & Sons.