Robert Gledden
GLEDDEN, Robert John JP FRCI (1855-1927)
R J Gledden was born in Pallion, Sunderland, Durham, England, on December 26, 1855, the son of sawmill owner, John Gledden and his wife, Isabella Gledden nee Smith. Some of his early education was in Germany and Finland. In the 1881 UK census he was living at Ruswarp, Yorkshire, and gave his occupation as civil engineer. He left London on the steamer, Duke of Westminster, to travel to Queensland as an assisted immigrant arriving in Brisbane on December 8, 1884. His future wife, Julia Maude Vaughan, was also an assisted immigrant on the same vessel. On December 11, 1886 he married Julia in Queensland.
In 1891 he was licensed as a surveyor in Queensland. He arrived in Western Australia, via Adelaide, in February 1892 on the steamer, South Australian and by May 5, 1892 he had been licensed as a surveyor in this State. He was encouraged by the Minister for Lands, William Marmion, to take up a surveying role on the goldfields.
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On October 27, 1892 he was appointed Mining Surveyor and Deputy Mining Registrar for the Yilgarn Goldfield. He also acted as Warden at Coolgardie. He issued Paddy Hannan with his miners right in June 1893, the day before the Kalgoorlie goldrush began.
With the thousands of miners that followed he had to hand write miners rights. Miners would make the long trek back from Kalgoorlie to Coolgardie to register their claims. One of the most significant was the claim that became the Great Boulder Mine.
Gledden later surveyed the township of Hannans that became Kalgoorlie. Mount Gledden, just to the east of Kalgoorlie, is named after him.
Gledden went into partnership with another mining surveyor, Evelyn Robert Manning, and by 1895 were advertising as surveyors and civil engineers. He was still surveying in 1900 but was also undertaking entrepreneurial activities such as buying a hotel at Widgiemooltha and applying for a liquor licence for a hotel in Boorara, south east of Kalgoorlie, in 1904. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for the East Coolgardie District in 1905. He then began extensive world travel in the period up to 1907 when he returned to surveying at Kalgoorlie.
On March 13, 1906 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute (now the Royal Commonwealth Society).
In 1908 he resumed his global travel taking an 18 month trip around the world. He continued property investment such as buying a Perth lot Pt F17, running from Hay street to Murray Street, for £16,000 in 1909. He and his wife would regularly take up the full subscription of municipal loans. His visits to Kalgoorlie were of shorter duration so that by 1912 his appointment of Justice of the Peace was cancelled as he was regarded as having left the district.
From 1912, Maude and Robert Gledden lived in Hawthorn Road, Caulfield, Victoria up until the death of Maude in on November 26, 1921.
In June 1925 he purchased the property on the corner of Hay and William Street that would later become the site of the Gledden Buildings for a reported £60,000. At this time, he was living in the Palace Hotel.
Gledden returned to Western Australia from London on the P&O ship, Mongolia, on June 7, 1927 and moved into the Palace Hotel. He was in poor health, suffering from a heart condition. He died on November 5, 1927 in Perth; his instructions for him to be buried next to his wife at Brighton Cemetery in Victoria were completed on November 21, 1927.
He was survived by his younger sister, Ann Eliza, who had married James Norrie in 1888 in England and who lived at Bournemouth. His parents and two brothers, Charles and Thomas, had predeceased him. He made provision in his will for an annuity for his sister of £400 a year. Apart from two other smaller annuities his estate was bequeathed to the University of Western Australia. His estate was assessed at £71,487 in Western Australia and £7,535 in Victoria.
His legacy has been the travelling fellowships, studentships and scholarships funded from the earnings of his bequest. His request was that the funds be used to promote and encourage education and research at the University of Western Australia in the disciplines of applied science, more particularly relating to surveying, engineering, mining or cognate subjects.
The Gledden Building on the corner of William and Hay Streets is named after him.
References:
http://passengersinhistory.sa.gov.au/node/924615 (accessed October 31, 2019)
Brisbane Courier, 17.2.1891, p4
Daily News, 28.10.1892, p3
Western Mail 7.5.1892, p29
Daily News, 21.4.1906, p5
Kalgoorlie Western Argus, 16.7.1907, p8
West Australian, 10.11.1909, p8
Chris Morgan, The Story of Sam Pearce, accessed on November 1, 2019 via https://www.outbackfamilyhistoryblog.com/?s=sam+pearce
Percival Serle, Dictionary of Australian Biography, Angus and Robertson, 1949
http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/Details/0c7c6360-655d-4a92-b9ac-5e3b1757d12d
https://www.ias.uwa.edu.au/gledden-fellows
