Clipper Ship 'City of Adelaide'

William Sandover was a hotelkeeper before he became a politician. By 1866 he was sufficiently affluent to take his family on a trip back to England, and for them to enjoy the comfort of the first-class saloon of the City of Adelaide. While in England, wife Mary gave birth to Alfred who was likely conceived during the voyage from Adelaide to London. In July 1867, William and Mary rejoined the City of Adelaide for their return trip to Adelaide, but this time with four children including infant Alfred.

William Sandover (1823-1909) was born in Devon, England and migrated to South Australia in 1849.  He married Mary Billing Bate (1826-1913) at St John’s Church, Adelaide in January 1854.  Their first child Mary was born in November of that year, but she died at the age of three weeks.  Over the following ten years three more children were born to them in Adelaide.

On the trip to England, they sailed from Port Adelaide on 5 January 1866 and arrived in London on 13 April 1866, a duration of 100 days.  Traveling with their parents were William jnr 9, Ellen almost 5, and Elizabeth who had her 2nd birthday a week after they arrived. On 24th November 1866 at Plymouth in Devon, Mary gave birth to Alfred.  In adult life, Alfred was the donor of the Sandover Medal, which has been presented annually to the fairest and best player in the West Australian Football League.

William Sandover the father became a Member of the SA Parliament representing the seat of Gumeracha from July 1868 to March 1870, then was a Member and President of the SA Legislative Council from 1873 to 1883.  The Sandover River, Stock Route and Highway in the Northern Territory were named after him.  William also had an interest in the Stuart Hotel, Adelaide.  William and his wife died at their home in Rose Park.

William Sandover jnr (1856- ) married Bertha Jewell in Adelaide in December 1882.  He established a pharmacy and hardware business in Perth, and in 1884 his younger brother Alfred joined him in the firm.  William Sandover & Co. expanded rapidly after the opening of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie goldfields in the 1890s; the firm was described as 'brimful of all the latest ideas in machinery, mining, agricultural and domestic requisites'.

Both brothers were invited to join a group of Fremantle merchants who, concerned about the high freight rates charged by English shipping companies, had formed (1884) the West Australian Shipping Association Ltd in 1884. The W.A.S.A. chartered its own ships and came to control much of the Western Australian trade.

In 1923 Sandovers Ltd acquired the Perth branch of the Adelaide company, G. P. Harris, Scarfe & Co., and registered it as Harris, Scarfe & Sandovers Ltd.  Alfred was appointed chairman, and he was to retain the position until he retired in 1957 at the age of 90.
Ellen Sandover (1861-    ) married Robert Kay in August 1893 at her parents’ home in Rose Park SA.  Living at Marryatville, they raised a boy and two girls.

Source: Jenny Mills, The Australian Dictionary of Biography

The fire in the William Sandover & Co. building, Hay Street, Perth, 24 April 1907 (Source: State Library of Western Australia. SLWA: 012841D)

 1823 - 1909