Charles Nicholson

Australian politician

Sir Charles Nicholson, 1st Baronet (23 November 1808 His name was later changed. He was educated at Edinburgh University where he took the degree of MD in 1833 after submitting a thesis, written in Latin, on asphyxiation. In 1845, Nicholson bought William Sandys Elrington's estate, 'Mount Elrington', near Braidwood. In 1843, he was one of the first elected members of the New South Wales Legislative Council as one of the representatives of Port Phillip District until 1848 and then as the representatives of the County of Argyle until 1856. He was elected speaker in 1846. Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt named a mountain in Queensland after him in 1844.

Nicholson took much interest in the founding of the University of Sydney and on 24 December 1850 was appointed a member of the senate. On 3 March 1851 he was unanimously elected vice provost. He was also elected a member of the library committee which laid the foundations of the present excellent library. At the inauguration ceremony held on 11 October 1852, eloquent addresses were given by Nicholson and the first principal, Dr John Woolley, which were printed as a pamphlet and may also be found in H. E. Barff's Short Historical Account of the University of Sydney. Nicholson became chancellor in 1854 and held the position until 1862. He was most active in forwarding the interests of the university and in 1860 presented a large and valuable collection of Egyptian, Roman and Etruscan antiquities to it, collected during a trip to Egypt and the Continent in 1856–1857. Nicholson's donation of nearly 1000 artefacts was the genesis of the Nicholson Museum at the University of Sydney, which has since been absorbed into the Chau Chak Wing Museum. A catalogue of the collection was published in 1870 by the curator Edward Reeve. Nicholson obtained donations to pay for the stained glass windows of the great hall between 1856 and 1859, himself subscribing £500. He was given the honorary degrees of D. C. L. by Oxford, and LL. D. by Cambridge and Edinburgh universities. He was knighted in 1852, and created a baronet in 1859. His eldest son, Charles Archibald Nicholson, the second baronet, became well known as an ecclesiastical architect (his achievements include the west front of St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast). His other sons were Archibald Keightley Nicholson, a stained glass artist and Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson, founder of the Royal School of Church Music.