The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Hughes, Sir Walter Watson

1395364The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Hughes, Sir Walter WatsonPhilip Mennell

Hughes, Sir Walter Watson, founder of Adelaide University, son of Thomas Hughes, of Pittenweem, Fifeshire, was born on August 22nd, 1803, at Pittenweem, where he served his apprenticeship to a cooper. He then went into the merchant service, and purchased a vessel, in which he traded between Calcutta and China, and in which he came to Adelaide in 1842. Settling in South Australia, he suffered severe reverses, but ultimately acquired great wealth through his connection with the Moonta, Wallaroo and Yorke's Peninsula Copper Mines, which he discovered and developed. In 1872 he was desirous of making a donation of £20,000 to Union College, Adelaide, which had been established for the training of candidates for the Nonconformist ministry; but was induced, mainly by Mr. Jefferis, to apply the sum to the endowment of a university on a broader basis. From this act of munificence sprang the now flourishing university of Adelaide, of which Sir Walter, who stipulated that the money should be applied to the endowment of a classical and an English professorship, is commonly styled "the Father." He was knighted in 1880, and resided in England for many years prior to his death, which took place at Fancourt, Chertsey, on New Year's Day 1887. Sir Walter married, in 1841, Sophia, eldest daughter of John Henry Hickman, of Warnbunga, S.A., who died in 1885.