John Goodlet

John Hay Goodlet (22 March 1835 – 13 January 1914) was a Scottish-born Australian timber merchant and philanthropist.

He was born in Leith to merchant George Goodlet and Mary Hay. He migrated to Melbourne in 1852, working for a building firm until 1855, when he moved to Sydney. He imported timber to Jervis Bay, and entered a partnership with James Smith in 1862. On 3 May 1860 he married Ann Dickson, who would go on to be the first president of the Young Women's Christian Association's Australian branch. He had a sawmill in Erskine Street and later a brickworks at Granville, a pottery in Surry Hills and two further mills. He was twice chairman of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, and was a railway commissioner from 1890 to 1891. He was also a lieutenant-colonel in the militia.^[1]

Goodlet survived the 1893 bank crash with difficulty, but had recovered well and became known for charitable donations, including Sydney Hospital, the Benevolent Society and, most significantly, the Presbyterian church. He was a New South Wales representative at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Churches and at the 1910 World Missionary Conference. His wife died in 1903 and on 3 February 1904 he married Elizabeth Mary Forbes. Goodlet died, childless, in 1914.^[1]

References

1. Teale, Ruth (1972). "Goodlet, John Hay (1835–1914)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 14 November 2015.