William Henry Bean

William Henry Bean was a prominent South Australian businessman and parliamentarian.
He was first elected to the Sixth Parliament of the South Australian House of Assembly for the District of West Torrens on March 28th, 1870, serving alongside Henry Strangways. His term lasted until November 23rd, 1871, when he lost his seat following the dissolution of Parliament.
Bean was later re-elected to the Ninth Parliament, this time serving with William James Magarey, from April 2nd, 1878 to March 19th, 1881. He successfully retained his seat in the Tenth Parliament, serving alongside Frederick Estcourt Bucknall from April 8th, 1881 to March 19, 1884. He did not contest the 1884 elections.
Bean's brother George Bean had held the seat previously and lost it under controversial circumstances. This is one of very few cases in Australia of a pair of brothers being parliamentarians.
He conducted the Adelaide affairs of Bean Brothers while George was overseas from 1869 to 1878. He also organised a large number of wool, hide, meat and bark shipments in partnership with H. J. Wilke.
He was appointed Justice of the Peace in 1872 but resigned in 1874.
W. H. Bean bought into a gold discovery "Golding's Find" at Mount Torrens in 1870. and was a director in James Scott's "El Dorado" Mount Pleasant mine in 1872.
He was on the board of the South Australian Zoological and Acclimatization Society. He resigned or was dropped in 1884.
In 1884 Bean Brothers Limited successfully sued him in the Supreme Court for making unauthorised payments. He was declared insolvent in 1885.
He was in London at the time of his brother George's death in 1912.