Charles Townsend Gedye

Charles Townsend Gedye was a Victorian entrepreneur of Cornish descent who is best known as a shipping grandee in colonial Australia, co-owner and founder of the centenarian Dangar, Gedye & Co.^[1]

Charles Townsend Gedye
Charles Townsend Gedye, in the uniform of Consul to Norway and Sweden, circa 1883
Born	Charles Townsend Gedye 19th November 1833 Devonport, Plymouth, Devon
Died	6 December 1900 17, Craven Hill Gardens
Nationality	Anglo-Australian
Occupation	19th Century entrepreneurial business man
Spouses	Mary Harriet Wintle ​ ​ (m. 1853; died 1876)​ Grace Clifford Murnin ​ ​ (m. 1880)​
Children	3 daughters
Parent(s)	Charles Michael Gedye and Alice née Townsend

Life and Works

Charles Townsend Gedye was born in Devonport in 1833, the only surviving son of Charles Michael Gedye and Alice Townsend both from St Neot, Cornwall.^[2] At the age of 14, he accompanied his father on a mail ship (Louisa) for a new life in Australia.^[3] On arrival,^[4] Gedye's father was engaged as manager at a meat canning factory in Newcastle,^[5] while Gedye trained in book keeping and clerical work in support of his father.^[6]

 

The Gedye family home "Eastbourne" Darling Point, New South Wales, circa 1862 (attributed to Mary Gedye)

Gedye had a natural aptitude for numbers with an eye for detail, and in 1850 father and son went in to partnership. It was not long before Gedye took over as principal of the company from his father and moved his operations to Sydney.^[7] In 1853, Gedye married Mary Harriet Wintle, a celebrated Tasmanian watercolourist.^[8] For the next few years, Gedye moved with his growing family between Sydney and Newcastle, operating independently as a consultant auditor for the local government^[9] as well as various Sydney businesses.^[10][11][12]

Shipping

In 1866, Gedye collaborated with Frederick Holkham Dangar to invest in fast ocean-going clippers,^[13] and two years later, they part-owned their first vessel, South Australian.^[14] Both men scoured shipyards from Britain to San Francisco, handing over responsibility for their business interests to each other in their absence.^[15] In 1868, they part underwrote a second vessel, Hawkesbury, whose maiden voyage to Sydney was completed in 1869 and continued with the partnership in the Sydney-London trade until it was sold in 1889.^[16]

 

Neotsfield under full sail, flying the Dangar, Gedye flag circa 1900

The partnership itself was only formalised in 1870 with the creation of Dangar, Gedye & Co.^[17][18] The mainstay of their business was as commissioning agents for their own export/import freight, signing up many of the finest clippers of their day including the legendary Cutty Sark, which ran for the partners from 1885 to 1893, the period of her most sensational performances.^[19] Cutty Sark was arguably the most glamorous of the ships run by the partners, but they also commissioned many other notable racing clippers, including Tweed, Hallowe’en and Brilliant.^[20][21]

The first wholly-owned Dangar, Gedye & Co ship was the Peruvian Francisco Calderón, purchased in 1879. The Francisco was a coolie slave steamship which was stripped, re-fitted for sail and re-named Gladstone in homage to the then Prime Minister of Britain, a close friend of Dangar's.^[22] The second company clipper was launched in 1889, named Neotsfield.^[23]

Legacy

Gedye’s involvement in shipping raised his profile from merchant to business leader in a few short years. In 1870, he was commissioned as a Justice of the Peace in Sydney,^[24][25] mostly serving with the Water Police Courts.^[26] Shortly after, Gedye started appearing in a variety of directorships for mining companies from Gold^[27] to Copper^[28] to Oil Shale,^[29] and electricity,^[30] as well as serving as auditor for the Chambers of Commerce and sitting on the boards of a number of financial institutions.^[31] Gedye was admitted as a fellow to the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1877^[32] and in 1882, he was honoured with the office of Consul for the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway in New South Wales.^[33] Gedye had become a respected leader in Sydney, seen as a safe pair of hands by the colonial administration of the time, honoured by a grateful monarch.^[34]

Gedye died at his home in London in 1900.^[35] The company bore his name for more than a century until it ceased trading in 1976.^[36]

References

1. Fraser, A.D. (1938). THIS CENTURY OF OURS - Being an Account of the Origin and History during One Hundred Years of the House of Dangar, Gedye and Malloch Ltd, of Sydney. Sydney: Hallstead Press Pty Limited.
2. Stoke Damerel Parish records 1818 – 1860
3. Warner, Mary-Anne. "Mariners and ships in Australian Waters". Mariners and ships in Australian Waters. Warner. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
4. The Sydney Morning Herald (6 December 1847). "SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE - ARRIVALS". No. Page 2. TROVE. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
5. Gedye, Nicholas (1994). The Gedye Exodus. Sunderland: Nicholas Gedye (printed by Robert Attey & Sons, Sunderland). p. 21.
6. Laura Norsworthy, ‘’GEDYE FAMILY’’, page 1, circa 1940
7. Fraser, NEW PARTNERS,Op. Cit., Chapter 9, p69
8. Kerr, Joan (September 1992). The Dictionary of Australian Artists, Sketchers, Photographers and Engravers to 1870. OUP Australia and New Zealand (10 Sept. 1992). ISBN 978-0195532906.
9. The Sydney Morning Herald (10 May 1860). "WOOLAHRA MUNICIPALITY". No. Page 5. TROVE. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
10. Empire (1 August 1867). "Commercial". No. Page 5. TROVE. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
11. The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (25 January 1870). "GENERAL NEWS". No. Page 2. TROVE. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
12. The EVENING NEWS (8 March 1872). "LATEST MINING". No. Page 2. TROVE. Retrieved 4 April 2021.
13. Fraser, GREAT DAYS OF SAIL, Op. Cit., Chapter 13, pp96-116
14. Fraser, THE SQUATTING AGE, Op. Cit., Chapter 12, p96
15. New South Wales Government Gazette (12 February 1869). "NOTICE". No. 416. TROVE. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
16. Fraser, GREAT DAYS OF SAIL, Chapter 13Op. Cit., p99
17. New South Wales Government Gazette: Sydney (1 July 1870). "PARTNERSHIP NOTICE". No. 1433. TROVE. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
18. Fraser, F.H. DANGAR AND C.T. GEDYE,Op. Cit.,Chapter 14, p117
19. Lubbock, Basil (1924). The Log of the Cutty Sark. Glasgow, Scotland: James Brown & Son.
20. Brilliant. "Category:Brilliant (ship, 1877)". Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
21. Hallowe’en. "Category:Hallowe'en (ship, 1870)". Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
22. Gladstone. "Category:Gladstone (ship, 1873)". Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
23. Anon, Anon. "Famous Ships" The "Neotsfield"". Ship Modelers Association. Ship Modelers Association. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
24. The Brisbane Courier (19 August 1870). "OFFICIAL NOTIFICATIONS". No. Page 3. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
25. New South Wales Government Gazette (12 December 1871). "NOTICE". No. 2818. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
26. The Sydney Morning Herald (31 October 1870). "WATER POLICE COURT". No. Page 2. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
27. The Sydney Morning Herald (1 May 1872). "MINING". No. Page 7. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
28. The Evening News (Sydney) (8 March 1872). "LATEST MINING: DRUMMOND COPPER CO". No. Page 2. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
29. The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser (13 April 1876). "SYDNEY MARKETS". No. Page 8. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
30. The Sydney Morning Herald (7 July 1882). "MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL". No. Page 4. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
31. The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (3 March 1883). "Commercial items". No. 420. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
32. The Sydney Morning Herald (7 November 1878). "NEWS OF THE DAY". No. Page 5. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
33. New South Wales Government Gazette (12 September 1882). "Colonial Secretary's Office". No. 4687. TROVE. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
34. Anon, Anon (5 November 1884). "News of the Day". No. Page 9. The Sydney Morning Herald. TROVE. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
35. Gedye, Charles Townsend (8 January 1901). "England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1858-2019". Probate Index 1901. UK Government, Middlesex.
36. Coulthart, J.S. (19 November 1976). "IN the matter of the Companies Act, 1961, and in the matter of DANGAR GEDYE & MALLOCH PTY LIMITED". No. 148. Through TROVE. Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 April 2021.

Bibliography

A.D. Fraser (Ed.) - 1938, "THIS CENTURY OF OURS, Being an Account of the Origin and History during One Hundred Years of the House of Dangar, Gedye & Malloch Ltd, of Sydney.", published Halstead Press Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2012