Molineux, Albert   (1832 - 1909)

Born on 11 July, 1832 in Brighton, Sussex, UK, died on 6 June, 1909 at Semaphore, Adelaide, SA. (aged 76).

He was the eldest of the four sons of Edward Molineux, shoemaker and farmer, and his wife Martha. With free passages the family sailed for South Australia in the Resource and arrived on 23 January 1839.

Albert went to school and then worked on a farm at Klemzig but left to become a printer's apprentice.

In 1851 he joined the gold rush to Victoria and returned in 1855 with modest success.

He worked with his father on a farm at Gilbert River and then became a compositor with the Adelaide firm, Vardon & Pritchard.

On 7 March 1861 at Adelaide he married Mary Ann Harris; they had one son.

In 1875 Molineux decided to produce an agricultural journal and with a fellow compositor, Samuel Richards, as his partner borrowed type from Vardon & Pritchard and on 10 August produced the first edition of the 'Garden and Field'.

Richards resigned after six months but Molineux continued the journal in his spare time. He also wrote for the 'Observer' in 1875 and was later its agricultural editor. With these positions and his own journal he exerted great influence on South Australian agriculture.

From 1875 he advocated the establishment of experimental farms, the appointment of a professor of agriculture and the creation of a department of agriculture.

This became the Agricultural Bureaux system with a Central Bureau of nine members and branches limited to twelve members. The bureaux were not only recipients of information; they kept data on crops and fodder, supplied insects and weeds for identification and established experimental plots.
In 1888-1902 Molineux was secretary of the Central Bureau.

Through the Garden and Field he published material from the Chamber of Manufactures, the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society as well as various specialist groups.

As a committee member of the Field Naturalists Society he was indefatigable in seeking specimens, made the first trawling nets and obtained many specimens of fish hitherto unknown.

For these services he was nominated to the Linnean Society by Ferdinand Mueller and Charles French and elected a fellow.

He died of peritonitis on 6 June 1909 at Semaphore, SA, survived by his second wife Eliza, née Ingham.

Source: Extracted from:
https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/molineux-albert-4218
https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=5351
https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/sajournalists
Portrait Photo: 1890, Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Collecting localities for 'Molineux, A.' from AVH (2025)

Data from 106 herbarium specimens