Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/488

 462 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Captain ingUs resignation, a year or so subsequently, of the then Harbormaster, Captain Quin, when he assumed the vacant position, which he has held ever since. Captain Inglis has never ventured far into public matters, but he has for many years been a member of the South Australian Caledonian Society, and for two years was Chief of the Port Adelaide branch. He has earned the reputation of a painstaking, energetic, and eminently competent officer. His service to the Marine Board has been of great value, whilst as a private citizen he has earned high esteem. The late Mr. George Swan Fowler WHEN Mr. George .Swan Fowler died on October i, 1896, at his residence, Wooton Lea, Glen Osmond, there passed away one of the few remaining business men of the South Australia of the "sixties.' He was born at Anstruther, Scotland, on March 9, 1839, and was a son of the late Mr. James Fowler, a prominent business man in his native town. His elder brother, James, had preceded him to Australia, and prepared the way. The latter gentleman founded the business of Messrs. Fowler, in Rundle Street, Adelaide, in 1853. He was joined by another brother, the late Mr. David Fowler, and the firm became known as D. & J. Fowler. In 1859 the pioneer died, and George Swan Fowler came to South Australia in i860. All the three brothers were experienced in the grocery trade, in which th(Mr father was engaged in Scotland. But Messrs. David and G. S. Fowler quickly recognised that their chief opportunity lay in the need then existing in Adelaide for wholesale grocery merchants. Wholesale trade premises were opened in King William Street, and there the firm has remained for ^t, years. A branch was immediately opened in London, and through that means a considerable portion of the success attained has been gained. Stores were rented on the old historical McLaren W^harf at Port Adelaide, but seven years later the importations became so large that these were insufficient for their purposes. Larger premises were opened in Adelaide, and the staff of employes was considerably increased. In more recent years Messrs. D. & ]. Fowler have largely increased their sphere of operations and their articles of trade; and in 1889 they purchased property and built a large factory. Since the death of Mr. David Fowler in 1881, the major portion of the management devolved on the subject of this notice. A few years ago he acquired a paramount interest in the Adelaide Milling Company, one of the largest trading concerns in the Province. He introduced to Australia the McArthur-Forrest Cyanide Process of gold recovery, and was for many years local director of the Australian Gold Recovery Company. Mr. Fowler represented, with the late Sir J. C. Bray, the District of East Adelaide, from 1878 to 1881, and in April of the latter year was re-elected; but on June 7 he resigned in order to take a prolonged rest. He did not again enter the political arena. Prom March 10 to May 10, 1881, he was Treasurer in the re-constructed ministry of .Sir William Morgan. Mr. Fowler was for three years Chairman of the East Torrens School Board of Advice ; and was prominendy identified with the Baptist Church.