Our Centenary of Women’s Suffrage
Sir Malcolm McEacharn 1
Malcolm McEacharn was born in London in 1852; his father, who died in 1854, was a master mariner who had engaged in the Australian trade. After leaving school at age 14, Malcolm entered a shipping office as a junior clerk, rose to a senior position, and then struck out for himself as a ship broker. In 1875 he joined with Andrew McIlwraith to start the shipping firm McIlwraith, McEacharn and Co., based originally in Queensland (amongst other ventures the firm pioneered the frozen meat trade between Australia and England). From 1879 he was actively involved in expanding his Australian business interests, mainly in Queensland, where he settled in 1880; he came to Melbourne in 1887 to open a branch of the shipping line, which then became the headquarters of the firm.
Once settled in Melbourne Malcolm McEacharn began to take a leading part in the commercial life of the city, holding a number of directorships and being at one time the vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce. As a result of his business connections with Japan, he was asked to become honorary consul for that country. In 1893 he was elected to the City Council, serving as mayor from 1897 to 1899. He was knighted in 1900, and in 1903 he was again induced to occupy the civic chair as Lord Mayor. During his time on the Council he initiated or supported a range of municipal projects; as noted in The Age obituary, ‘he assisted materially by his work in the council, and out of it, to further the growth of the city, both on the industrial and on the ornamental side’.
In 1901 Sir Malcolm was elected as the representative for Melbourne in the first Federal Parliament. During this campaign, as in the later ones, he received active support from business men and property owners. He was the target of noisy opposition, the favourite term of abuse being ‘you smoodger!’ He was accused of using coolie labour on his ships trading with Calcutta, but not on local shipping. This he strongly denied, and was supported by the secretary of the Seamen’s Union, who confirmed that Sir Malcolm had acceded to union pressure and had removed colored crews from his boats. Also during this campaign Sir Malcolm expressed his strong opposition to women’s suffrage, which drew a firm public rebuke from the United Council for Women’s Suffrage.
He stood again for Melbourne in 1903, and again experienced what appeared to be organised hostile demonstrations at his meetings. However this treatment was seen by press commentators as enlisting support for him. It was alleged that Mr Maloney’s committee had offered to use their good offices to assure orderly meetings, and Sir Malcolm’s secretary had said they welcomed interruption as it would get them a sympathy vote. Sir Malcolm also had the problem that he had lost the votes of those who had business places in the city, but did not reside there, as a result of the new Federal Election Act. He was returned by a very small majority, and then saw the result voided by the Court of Disputed Returns. He lost the by-election to William Maloney, who had opposed him in 1901 and 1903. Sir Malcolm then abandoned politics, his Council seat, his command in the Victorian Scottish Regiment (which he had helped found), and Australia, returning to Scotland in 1905.
Sir Malcolm McEacharn died suddenly, of heart failure aggravated by pneumonia, at Cannes in the South of France on 10 March 1910. He was cruising in the Mediterranean for the sake of his health; he had been suffering from serious heart troubles for some time.
‘Immediately news of Sir Malcolm McEacharn’s death was received on the Bay the flags of all vessels were hoisted half mast out of respect for his memory, and two steamers of the McIlwraith McEacharn line, were painted with the blue streak of mourning round the hulls.’ The Age, 12 March 1910.
- Unless otherwise acknowledged, biographical material drawn from the following: Dunstan, D 1986, ’McEacharn, Sir Malcolm Donald (1852-1910)’, in B Nairn and G Serle (General Editors) Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, vol. X pp. 263-264; Obituaries in The Age and The Argus; Other material from contemporary reports in The Age and The Argus.
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