Frank Dobson (Australian politician)

Hon. Frank Stanley Dobson (20 April 1835 – 1 June 1895),^[1] M.L.C., M A., LL.D., F.L.S., was an Australian politician, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council.

Dobson was the second son of John Dobson, of Hobart, by Mary Anne, daughter of Matthew Atkinson, of Carr Hill, near Gateshead, and of Temple Sowerby.^[2] Dobson was born in Tasmania (brother of Sir William and half-brother of Alfred and Henry Dobson)^[3] and educated at The Hutchins School, Hobart, and St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1861 and LL.D. in 1870. Dobson entered at the Middle Temple in January 1856, and was called to the English bar in April 1860, and to the Tasmanian bar on 28 August 1861.^[2] Having taken up his residence in Australia, he was called to the Victorian bar on 26 September 1861. He was Law Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, of which he was made M.A.^[2]

In 1865 Dobson entered the Victorian Legislative Council of as member for the Southern Province, and held office as Solicitor-General in the Bryan O'Loghlen Ministry from 9 July 1881 to 7 March 1883.^[2][4] Dobson then represented the South Eastern Province from November 1882 to June 1895.,^[1] he was Chairman of Committees of the Legislative Council. In 1887 he was appointed Queen's Counsel.^[1]

Dobson married, on 8 June 1871, Edith Mary, younger daughter of John Carter, Q.C., who died; and he then married Henrietta Louisa, daughter of W. S. Sharland, of New Norfolk, Tasmania.^[2]

Dobson was president of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria in 1884, was a fellow of the Linnean Society and member of the Victorian Acclimatisation Society. He died at his home in South Yarra, Victoria on 1 June 1895.^[3]

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