A. T. Saunders


Alfred Thomas Saunders was an accountant and amateur historian of the early days of South Australia. Using his personal collection of newspaper clippings, and only his memory of its contents to find relevant articles, he came to be regarded as South Australia's unofficial historian, with a particular interest in the sea and River Murray. On many occasions he challenged statements by public figures, thereby raising public interest in local history. He famously disputed an assertion by the distinguished author Joseph Conrad, resulting in a cordial correspondence.

History

Saunders's grandparents, William and Ann Galway left the north of Ireland on the Adam Lodge in 1837 and arrived in Sydney on 13 July 1837. Ten years later they came to Port Adelaide in the Juno, the first steamship to enter Port Adelaide from another colony under its own steam. Both his mother and her sister married ship's captains. His father, Captain Thomas Alfred Saunders arrived in South Australia from Hobart in 1849, and in 1852 was appointed first harbormaster at Port Elliot, then a busy harbour, and while there, helped survey the treacherous Murray Mouth.
Saunders was born at Queenstown in the house his grandfather William Galway built in 1859, then the only two-storey house in the area, later owned by Frank Coleman.
In 1867, after only two years' schooling, Saunders began work as an office boy. From late 1875 to 1876 he worked as a clerk for Coombe Brothers, storekeepers in the fledgling town of Port Pirie, so gained valuable first-hand knowledge of its early days. From 1895 to 1905 he was employed by the sharebroker H. L. Conran to keep his records.
In November 1886 he contributed his first article to a South Australian newspaper, his impressions of the effect the newly laid railway to Mount Gambler was having upon Beachport. He continued to write, and as the years went by the pursuit of South Australian history became a very serious hobby.
His greatest asset in this endeavour was his collection of clippings from every South Australian newspaper from 1837 to 1909, arranged chronologically, and relying on his memory to locate the required article.
He also had records of the arrival of every ship which had visited South Australia. Nearly every day he answered an enquiry relating to South Australian history, and frequently contacted authors and newspapers, not only in every Australian State, but also in England and America, with corrections on matters of fact.

Bully Hayes

Around 1911 Saunders took to visiting his bedridden aunt, who regaled him with stories of her time in the Spice Islands, where she had met the famed naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and the notorious Bully Hayes. The more he checked her dates and facts, the more he trusted her memory and decided to commit the Hayes story to print.
Having begun to write a history of Hayes, he found it essential to visit Singapore, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Any search undertaken by him was not abandoned until all possible avenues of information had been exhausted. Clerks in the British Admiralty were often called upon to delve into the dusty past, to complete Saunders's record of some old time sailing ship.

Joseph Conrad

He once wrote to Joseph Conrad, pointing out an error that the author had made, and after Conrad replied, acknowledging the mistake, a correspondence sprang up between them. Conrad had visited South Australia as mate of the ship Torrens in 1893, and Saunders wrote again to Conrad to ascertain if the Galsworthy in her passenger list was the author John Galsworthy. A later visit to South Australia in the Otago was recalled in another letter by Conrad to Saunders:

Matilda Wallace

In 1922 Saunders discovered an anonymous pamphlet in the Public Library titled Twelve Years' Life in Australia from 1859-1871. After making a public plea in The Register, he was able to identify, with the help of John Lewis, who met her in 1867, the author as Matilda Wallace, née Hill. He expressed considerable admiration for 'what a plucky young and small "Pommy" woman did in South Australia and New South Wales in the early days'. He recognised the pamphlet as a valuable account of her experiences following her arrival here from Somerset. Saunders commented 'her history is well worth reading, and the phonetic spelling of places is interesting'.
When Matilda arrived in a new settlement, she would not have been greeted by a sign on its outskirts that revealed its name. She could only hear the way locals spoke its name and attempt to represent the name in English, and so it is not surprising that Saunders commented on her phonetic spelling of place names. The first place name in her memoir that Matilda spelled phonetically was`Curri Mantel' Valley. It would seem "ro" was misheard as "ri" and the "del" ending mistaken for "tel". This is probably not unexpected when Matilda was still a very new arrival to Australia and was used to a Somerset accent.
Following Saunders's investigations, Matilda's story was retold in the Adelaide Stock and Station Journal and repeated in at least one South-East newspaper.

German settlement in South Australia

Saunders questioned the attitude of those, such as Pastor Brauer, who opined that South Australia in general and George Fife Angas in particular, owed a debt of gratitude to the 500-odd Germans who left their country to settle in South Australia around 1838. Angas had lost heavily in financing the unplanned third voyage; that of the Catharina under Captain Schacht, Pastor Kavel's people from Posen. Kavel had been ungrudging in his gratitude to the English and Dutton in particular.

The libel case

On 12 January 1918, the South Australian Register published a letter from Saunders which accused Government members Crawford Vaughan, Reginald Pole Blundell and Clarence Goode of complicity in shady land deals, notably the purchase at inflated prices from accomplices, of land intended for First AIF soldier-settlers. As a result of his enquiries, assisted by whistleblowers, and energetic publicising of his findings and opinions, a Royal Commission was held which found two officials guilty of misdemeanours, but failed to impeach Vaughan, Blundell and Goode, who issued Saunders with a writ for libel. Prominent citizens such as the Hon. D. M. Charleston, writing as a member of the Stock Exchange Club, contributed to a defence fund, but the writ was withdrawn.

A. T. Saunders, Captain Cadell and the Randells

Saunders had a very jaundiced view of the personality and achievements of Francis Cadell, comparing him unfavourably with Charles Sturt and William Randell, accusing him of "childish vanity". He called his pioneering paddle-steamer Lady Augusta a "two-funnelled monstrosity". "Cadell", said Saunders, "had plenty of political, financial, and Adelaide Government House pull... and Government money was poured into his pockets. His father, relatives, friends, and clique kept him well before the public and in the press. Lieutenant-Governor Young and Governor MacDonnell omitted from despatches that the Randells had the Mary Ann on the Murray months before Cadell had the Lady Augusta; yet Cadell failed, and whined that he had been ruined by competition... he did not stick to his Murray River business, but was running round seeking for notoriety and the limelight, and asking for concessions. Randell had not powerful moneyed friends, such as Cadell had; yet, undismayed by bad luck, Randell plugged on, stuck to the river, and succeeded. The Randells personally, and not by proxy, made a success of river navigation, and in so doing showed boldness, courage, and originality."
Saunders may have been alone in his campaign against the memory of Cadell. Some who knew the man, such as George Johnston, Thomas Goode and others such as John Lewis M.L.C. and W. J. Magarey had a much higher opinion of him. George Hart however concurs with Saunders, adding that Cadell was not troubled by fits of honesty.
Saunders somehow acquired the board minutes of Cadell's River Murray Steam Navigation Company, and donated it to the Public Library of South Australia to put on the public record the "brilliant genius Capt. Francis Cadell".
In 1899 Saunders was elected to the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia.

Critiques

Saunders had a good brain but a minimum of schooling, so found writing irksome, and he had no knowledge of record-keeping standards. This led to him developing his own systems, which required a minimum of writing and were highly effective, but incomprehensible to anyone else. He had a perfect memory for names, places and dates, but was incapable of memorising abstractions such as the conjugation of a simple French verb or the batting averages of a cricket player.
Saunders had a very jaundiced view of the Lutheran Church and the German people, finding them boorish and insular. Such sentiments found ready acceptance during the First World War.

Some selected newspaper articles

  • Comments about shipping; 1923 critique of an article by W.G.R., where he mentions around 100 ships and captains.
  • Comments on the usefulness or otherwise of shore-based lifeboats.
  • A long article on Bully Hayes
  • Criticism of Government purchase of overpriced swampland near Semaphore.
  • Some early doctors
  • History of The Advertiser
  • Obituary for his old friend George Liversage Barrow.
  • Medical progress, exemplified by the deaths of Dr. David Wark's family.
  • Naming of the suburb Semaphore
  • Buildings in old Port Adelaide
  • Some early schools
  • Early and curious burials

Family

  • His mother's sister Mrs. R. H. Allen who migrated to Sydney in 1837, first interested him in "Bully" Hayes.
  • Thomas Allen, whom she married in 1850, was master and owner of the Swallow and Schah Jehan, and master of other ships.
  • His cousin T. M. Allen was master of the steamer Koombana, which was lost with all hands in March 1912.
  • His father, Thomas Saunders was at one time master of the Margaret Brock and later harbormaster of Port Elliot.
  • His brother William Henry Saunders was for many years town clerk of Port Adelaide.
On 13 September 1877 he married Helen Gordon Wald, at one time a near neighbour in Queenstown. Among their children were:
  • Helen Muriel Saunders married Percy Neville Wood in 1904, lived at North Adelaide
  • Florence Margaret Sinclair Saunders
  • Thomas Allen Saunders of North Adelaide
  • Jessie Gordon Saunders married Arthur Scholefield Mann in 1912
  • Magnus Graham Saunders of Leabrook