William Arthur Squire (1867-1908)

William Arthur Squire was born in April 1867 in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire.

Not much is known of his early years in England, but frontispiece of his Ritual, myth, and customs of the Australian Aborigines : a short study in comparative ethnology included a portion from “The Grave of the Last Native King of Wallerawang,” a poem “suggested by a picture” that had been published a month earlier in Illustrated Sydney News and New South Wales Agriculturalist and Grazier.

He was 13 when this engraving, and its inspired poem, were published, and so suggests he may have had an interest in Australian Aboriginal peoples since his early youth, an interest which he would explore for the rest of his relatively short life.

He arrived in Sydney on the 22 July 1886 at the age of 19, and immediately became involved in the local dramatic scene. On the 21 November 1887 he joined (or more likely formed) a theatrical group known as “The Strollers” at St Leonards. 

He performed at a variety of dramatic  productions and performances from 1887-1889. He began his Maitland connection through drama and sport; on the 17 April 1890, when he attended a meeting at the Sheather’s Royal Hotel, to discuss the establishment of a Philharmonic Society at West Maitland. He also played against the Maitland Rugby team, in his Sydney Pirates. He didn’t rate a mention, so he might not have been as good a rugby player, as he was a dramatic performer. The Philharmonic Society was established and on June 11 1891 he performed at its inaugural Girl High School Grand concert as a principal vocalist baritone.

On the 5 August 1891, he married Annie Turnbull, second daughter of William Turnbull, Esq., of Newcastle. The marriage took place at the residence of the bride’s father, by the Rev. Chas. Whyte. He was listed as still living in St Leonards, Sydney at the time. (Please note: The published family notice records William Turnbull as the father of the bride. But subsequent reports of the death of John Bewick Turnbull in 1906 list his daughter as Annie Squire, wife of William Arthur Squire). The latter newspaper report appears have confused the father of Annie, i.e. William Budd Turnbull (who later died in 1905) with his son, John Bewick Turnbull.

Sometime around 1891-1892 William Squire and his wife moved to West Maitland, where their first daughter Margaret Elizabeth Squire (1892-1979) was born. They resided at West Maitland until at least 1896, as their residence on the 29 January 1896 is listed as “West Maitland”.

On April 1 1895 he delivered his lengthy paper to the Maitland Scientific Society entitled Custom Myth Ritual and Symbolism. This was to become his greater work Ritual, Myth, and Customs of the Australian Aborigines. In late May 1895 he contracted typhoid and spent the rest of 1895 recovering from it. He also missed attending Henry O’Sullivan White’s presentation “Recollections of the Aborigines of New South Wales in the years 1848-1849-1850,” that was read before the Maitland Scientific Society on the 20 August 1895. See: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2018/01/25/paddy-tighe/

From February to May 1896, a series of articles under the title of Ritual, Myth, and Customs of the Australian Aborigines By W. A. Squire was published in twelve installments. He continued to present papers along Aboriginal cultural themes, and published his Ritual, Myth, and Customs articles as a complete work. At the May 4 1896 meeting of Maitland Scientific Society (that was poorly attended) Mr. W.A. Squire delivered two short papers “A sketch of the historical development of art”, and another “The cave paintings and rock carvings of the Australian aborigines,” where he stated that,  little more than a year ago (i.e., 1895) he had visited one of the caves in the Wollombi district where there was a large painting evidently depicting marriage by capture, and gave a description of it. The Newcastle Herald reported that he described Aboriginal art is the “bedrock” of our Modern Art.

In July he compiled and published of list of Aboriginal Place Names, very similar to the kind of work that the Canon Carlos Stretch would later  undertake in the 1930s.

From at least August 1896, he was working on a new operetta, entitled “The New Arcadia,” for which he conceived the story and wrote the libretto to which Mr. G. F. King, A.R.C.O. set to music. It was performed on the 15 September 1896, in the Town Hall, West Maitland, to rave reviews, and successfully raised funds to build a library for the Girls’ High School.

In January 1897 he relocated to Natal, South Africa, perhaps to join his father in law, who was managing mining sites across the province. He became a principal in the firm Squire, Mitchell and Co., Australian provision merchants, and formed an Australasian Cricket Club. He also acted as a kind of ambassador, enabling local companies, such as the Pender Bros access to international markets for their honey products, by entering them in the Durban and Coast Agricultural annual show for which they won first prize and a silver medal inscribed with the words: “Durban and Coast Society Agriculture and Industry” with a wreath of native flowers enclosing the inscription –  “Pender Brothers, for Australian Beehives, first prize, 1897.”

From 1899 Squire became editor for The Natal Bulletin, and the following year a Boer war correspondent for a number of Northern Newspapers. These articles were transmitted through the Maitland Mercury and Newcastle Herald that kept him in frequent touch with his friends in Maitland.

In 1907, his second daughter, Viva Bewick Squire, was born, and named in honour of his late brother in law. He returned to Australia in late 1907, without them, as his wife and children were in England, probably visiting family relatives. 

On a Wednesday afternoon, the 22 January 1908, around 4:30pm, Thomas Grant found to body of William Arthur Squire whilst walking across the Australian Agricultural Company’s paddock in the vicinity of Lake Road, near the Bar, Merewether Beach. Squire had taken his own life.

A penciled note was found in a pocket, which read as follows:- “I cannot write to Rita: this will break her heart. I ask Will to instruct her and strengthen her faith in the Christian religion. I killed myself. In Natal I cannot face my innocent wife and children. Mother, Nar, Rita, Viva, all forget my evil. Remember only my good.” On the reverse side were the words “Forgive me all, Will.” 

For more information: https://hunterlivinghistories.com/2018/06/22/william-arthur-squire/