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William P MacGregor

Yarra Yarra Rowing Club (VIC)

William Peter MacGregor

Born 1853 in Scotland and died 24th February 1899 aged 46 years in Melbourne.

1887 - 1899 - Patron of Yarra Yarra Rowing Club

From the Yarra Yarra Rowing Club newsletter 'Yarra Yabbie' no 19, 1986-6-20

Club History

BHP and YYRC, with BHP making the headlines again, it is interesting to note that our Patron from 1889 to 1899, Willian Peter McGregor was deeply involved with the big Australian.

Mr. McGregor was born in 1853 and was a pastoralist of Wilcannia and Glenlyon near the South Australian border, and as a Scotsman was very fond of bagpipes.

He was a member of the N.S.W. Legislative Assembly from 1885 to 1887 representing Wentworth (the whole of western N.S.W.).

His main claim to Parliamentary fame was assisting the passage of the bill to authorise the building of the Silverton tramway Co. (a private railway) in January 1888, he was a director of the company from 1885. (The vested interest clauses were not operative in those days).

He became a director of BHP in 1885, was made chairman in April 1886, a position he held until 1891, he resigned as director in 1892, and died in 1899.

From the 1971/72 Yarra Yarra Rowing Club annual report:-

Almost contemporaneously, William P MacGregor (died 24/2/1899) was patron Probably a brother of A MacGregor, a vice president, William P MacGregor had been a chairman of the Broken Hill Propriety Co Ltd.

The NSW Parliament site records as follows:

Qualifications, occupations and interests

Pastoralist and mining company director. Arrived in Broken Hill - Silverton District c.1878; and took up a station near Silverton. In 1886 became the Chairman of Broken Hill Proprietry Ltd; had interests in nearly all mines at Silverton and Broken Hill; Large shareholder in the railway from Cockburn to Broken Hill via Silverton. First patron of Barrier branch of Amalgamated Miners Association.

The following obituary appeared in The Argus on Saturday 25th February 1899, page 10.

Jim Skidmore and Andrew Guerin
June 2024

Sources include:

NSW Parliamentary website: Mr William Peter MACGREGOR (1853 - 1899) (nsw.gov.au) extracted 16th June 2024
DEATH OF MR. WILLIAM P[?] MAGGREGOR. (1899, February 25). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), p. 10. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9539084, extracted16th June 2024.

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The idea for this history originated from the Olympic Rowing and World Senior Rowing Championship histories written by Andrew Guerin and Margot Foster in 1991, 1992 & 1993 for the Australian team handbooks. Andrew Guerin developed and extended these histories to the current format in 2004 for publication in 2004 and then expanded the site.

Steve Roll has been an invaluable contributor to the website in locating errors and finding Christian names of rowers. His superb work is acknowledged.

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