Lot 682

Description

Societe D'Acclimatation (France), fondee le 10 Fevrier 1854, in silver (51mm) by Alphee Dubois, inscribed on reverse 'Sir Samuel Wilson/Pisciculture/1879'. Good extremely fine.

Sir Samuel Wilson (1832-1895), pastoralist and politician, born at Ballycloughan, County Antrim, Ireland on 7 February 1832. Migrating to Victoria in 1852, he purchased Longerenong Station at the junction of the Wimmera River and Yarriambiack Creek where he created a system of dams and channels. By 1879 he held vast holdings of land in Victoria and New South Wales as well as leasing land in New South Wales and Queensland. Wilson established breeding ponds for English trout near Burrumbeet, and supported the work of the Acclimatization Society by experimenting with ostrich farming and the breeding of angora goats. He represented the Wimmera in the Legislative Assembly in 1861-64 and the Western Province in the Legislative Council 1875-1881. In 1874 he gifted £30,000 to the University of Melbourne to build the gothic Wilson Hall. Knighted in 1875 he retired to England in 1881 and died in London on 11 June 1895.



Ex Noble Numismatics Sale 80 (lot 625).