Frederick Estcourt Bucknall
Frederick Estcourt Bucknall was an English-born Australian publican, brewer, and politician.
Life
Bucknall was a member of the Estcourts of Estcourt, an influential old family, in the counties of Gloucester and Wiltshire, but born in London, where his father, William Bucknall of Crutched Friars, was Commodore of the Royal Thames Yacht Club.Shortly after he arrived in South Australia around 1860 via Melbourne, the original Torrens Dam was nearly completed, and he built a fleet of fine pleasure craft which he placed on the lake for hire, but the dam failed and was washed away, putting paid to his enterprise. He built a boatshed on the Port River to the south-east of where the Jervois Street bridge was later built, and created a great deal of interest in sculling on the Port River. He gained approval as a Licensed Victualler and built the South Australian Club Hotel in St Vincent Street, Port Adelaide, near the site of his boatshed. He married the widow of Mr. Henry Haussen, a proprietor of the Hindmarsh Brewery.
In 1878, Bucknall and Arthur Harvey formed the Grange Land and Investment Company to develop the suburb of The Grange.
The business prospered, and he became a wealthy man. In 1883, he built a magnificent mansion, "Estcourt House," on the seafront between The Grange and Glanville. He and Mrs. Bucknall went on a visit to England. While they were away, the land boom turned to bust, and with the failure of the Commercial Bank of South Australia in 1886, he lost much of his fortune. He was forced to relinquish his mansion to the AMP Society and find employment in the E. Benda and Co. office on Grenfell Street.
Bucknall died at his residence in Childers Street, North Adelaide.
Politics
Bucknall entered Parliament as a member for West Torrens on 8 April 1881 as a colleague of W. H. Bean, and was elected for another three years in 1884 with Arthur Harvey with a break 1885–1886 while he visited England for his health.Bucknall supported projects to build the Outer Harbor and the North–South Railway, but for some, he was remembered as having instituted mandatory horse troughs outside licensed premises.
Civic life
Bucknall was Mayor of Hindmarsh in 1881, 1882, and 1883, a position he filled with distinction.Other interests
In his youth, he was a boxer, athlete, and president of the Hindmarsh Cricket Club, of which he was patron for over ten years before his death.He was an enthusiastic rower, swimmer, and yachtsman. He went into boatbuilding and owned the yachts Brilliant, Rosa, and Enchantress, which he bought from Sir Thomas Elder.
He was secretary of the Licensed Victuallers' Association for some time and president for six years. In recognition of this service, he was made a life member.
He was an excellent musician and was, at one time, an organist of the South Australian Grand Lodge of Freemasons, of which he was a member.
Family
On 1 October 1874, he married Rosa Haussen, the widow of brewer Henry Herman Haussen ; her children by her first husband included:- Emily Mary Haussen married Harry Walker on 20 April 1881
- Rosa Henrietta Haussen married Arthur Wellington Ware on 11 March 1884
- Ellen Florence Haussen
- Ada Haussen married William John Allsop Begg
- Henry Spencer "Spence" Haussen
- Amelia Haussen married architect Arthur Dan Bendle Garlick on 8 April 1890
- Frederick George Haussen
- Anna Hermanna Haussen married solicitor George Andrew Greer on 18 June 1890
- Louisa Bucknall. She married Charles John Smith in 1899 in Perth, Western Australia, where she died.
- Flora Forest Bucknall.
- Frederick Bucknall, jun. lost in the sinking of the Loch Bredan.
- Isabelle Bucknall. Unmarried.
By the terms of their father's will, the children of H. H. Haussen were very well provided for and were prominent in business and society, while those of F. E. Bucknall shared their parents' straitened circumstances and have lapsed into obscurity.