{{Short description|Australian politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}} thumb| '''Alexander Kethel''' (2 November 1832 – 23 June 1916) was a Scottish-born Australian politician and timber merchant. From 1895 to 1889 he served as member for the Electoral district of West Sydney in the Parliament of New South Wales. In his first period he was unaffiliated and after his re-election in 1887 he represented the Free Trade Party. In 1895 he was appointed a member to the upper house of the parliament, the Legislative Council where he remained until his death.
==Early life== He was born in Perth, Scotland, to carpenter William Kethel and Mary Watson. After a limited education, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker and then went to sea, traveling in the North Sea and the Mediterranean before jumping ship in Sydney in 1853. After working on coastal vessels and in the Victorian goldfields, he returned to Sydney to work at John Booth's sawmill, promoted to foreman and one of three partners leasing the business from 1870. In 1861 he married Mary Ann Yeates; they had seven children. He faced a number of set backs, having been shipwrecked 3 times, then the sawmill burnt down in 1874.<ref name="Kethel ADB">{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=kethel-alexander-6943 |title=Kethel, Alexander (1832–1916) |first=Mark |last=Lyons |year=1983 |access-date=19 May 2021}}</ref>
It was as a wholesale timber merchant that he prospered, becoming a wharfinger, leasing the market wharf in Sydney.<ref>{{cite web |title=Market Wharf |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/structure/market_wharf |website=The Dictionary of Sydney |access-date=19 May 2021}}</ref> moving into coastal shipping, including as a ship owner.<ref name="Kethel ADB"/> In 1888 he had a Grand Victorian mansion built on the corner of Glebe Point and Wigram Roads in Glebe which he named Ben Ledi, after the mountain near his birthplace in Scotland.<ref>{{cite web |title=Benledi |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/benledi |website=The Dictionary of Sydney |access-date=19 May 2021}}</ref>
==Political career== He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1885 for West Sydney. Re-elected as a Free Trader in 1887, he did not re-contest in 1889.<ref name="Green West Sydney">{{cite NSW election|title=Elections for the District of West Sydney|year=DistrictIndexes|district=WestSydney|access-date=2020-11-06}}</ref> In 1892 he was appointed to a Royal Commission, along with William Owen and John Young, to inquire into charges made by William Schey against Edward Eddy, the Chief Commissioner of Railways.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ebnd1l/ADLIB_RNSW112417198 |title=Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the charges against Mr. E.M.G. Eddy, the Chief Commissioner of Railways |work=State Records |publisher=Government of New South Wales |date=25 July 1892 |access-date=22 January 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13873820 |title=The Royal Commission on railways |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 August 1892 |access-date=19 May 2021 |page=7 |via=Trove}}</ref> In 1895 he was appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220962166 |title=Summons to the Legislative Council |newspaper=New South Wales Government Gazette |issue=528 |date=8 August 1895 |access-date=19 May 2021 |page=5075 |via=Trove}}</ref> where he remained until his death. He did not hold ministerial or parliamentary office.<ref name=nsw/>
==Death== His son was the architect Joseph Alexander Kethel. He died at Castle Hill on {{death date and age|23 June 1916|2 November 1832|df=y}},<ref name=nsw>{{cite NSW Parliament |title=Mr Alexander Kethel (1832-1916) |id=657 |former=Yes |access-date=13 May 2019}}</ref> survived by two sons and three daughters.<ref name="Kethel ADB"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|au-nsw-la}} {{s-bef|before=Angus Cameron |before2=George Merriman}} {{s-ttl|title=Member for West Sydney | years=1885{{spaced ndash}}1889 |with=Francis Abigail |with2=Daniel O'Connor |with3=John Young / George Merriman}} {{s-aft|after=Alfred Lamb |after2=Thomas Playfair}} {{s-end}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kethel, Alexander}} Category:1832 births Category:1916 deaths Category:Colony of New South Wales politicians Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Category:Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council Category:Free Trade Party politicians