Malcolm McEacharn was a well-known Australian shipping magnate in the early part of the twentieth century and successfully stood for the Division of Melbourne at the inaugural federal election, held in 1901.
13 Facts About Malcolm McEacharn
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Malcolm McEacharn's father died in a shipwreck two years later, and, as the son of a dead sailor, the Royal Caledonian School in Islington cared for and educated him for seven years when he was of school age.
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Malcolm McEacharn began his own shipbroking business in 1873 at age 21.
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Malcolm McEacharn married his first wife Ann Peirson, from a landowning family near Pickering, in Goathland, North Yorkshire on 10 January 1878.
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Malcolm McEacharn personally selected meat and butter, which his chartered ship, the Strathleven, accompanied by Malcolm McEacharn, transported from Sydney to London.
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Malcolm McEacharn latched onto another boom in 1893, in the form of passenger and cargo trade to the Western Australian Goldfields with voyages to Java, Singapore and India.
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Malcolm McEacharn served a term as Mayor of Melbourne from 1897 to 1900, and was knighted in January 1900.
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However, while he continued with extensive involvement in local and national businesses, Malcolm McEacharn had ambitions beyond local government.
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Malcolm McEacharn supported both conservative and progressive stances on contemporary issues.
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Malcolm McEacharn strongly supported, for example, the interests of private employers, but at the same time, opposed women's suffrage and defended the use of Melanesian labour on the Queensland cane-fields.
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The subsequent by-election in March 1904 attracted great attention, which Malcolm McEacharn ended up losing to Maloney.
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Sir Malcolm McEacharn died suddenly of a heart failure induced by pneumonia on 10 March 1910 in Cannes, France.
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Malcolm McEacharn was survived by his wife, son and two daughters.