Clarke Rev William Branwhite

Clarke, Rev. William Branwhite, one of the discoverers of gold in Australia, was born at East Bergholt, Suffolk, in 1798. Educated at Dedham grammar school and Jesus College, Cambridge, he took orders, and, being interested in geology, made numerous excursions on the Continent of Europe. After a severe illness he went for his health to New South Wales in 1839, where he resumed clerical work, besides carrying out wide geological surveys. He was the first to discover tin and probably cinnabar in New South Wales, though his claim to the first discovery of gold is disputed. In early life he published some volumes of poems, and he was the author of numerous geological papers. He was elected F.R.S. in 1876, and awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society in 1877, the year preceding his death.