GRAHAME, WILLIAM CALMAN (1863-1945), politician, was born on 3 February 1863 at West Maitland, New South Wales, eldest surviving son of Scottish parents, William Graham(e), farmer, and his wife Isabella, née Calman. His father, a Protectionist, represented Newcastle in the Legislative Assembly in 1889-94. Grahame had little formal education while working on his father's farm, and was later apprenticed in the family jewellery business at Newcastle; he was a good athlete, with an impressive physique. Describing himself as a bookmaker living at Maitland, he married Leona Angelina Blanch at Wallsend on 27 February 1884; she died childless on 21 April next year. Grahame had returned to Newcastle and was a watchmaker when he married with Wesleyan Methodist rites Emily Smith on 27 October 1886.

Encouraged by his father to enter public life, Grahame was a member of Wickham Municipal Council in 1900-07. In the 1907 Legislative Assembly elections ...

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Source:

Australian Dictionary of Biography