Frederick Derham

{{Short description|Australian politician and businessman (1844–1922)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2015}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Honourable | name = Frederick Derham | honorific_suffix = | image = | caption = | office = 18th Postmaster-General of Victoria | premier = Duncan Gillies | term_start = 20 February 1886 | term_end = 18 August 1890 | predecessor = James Campbell | successor = Sir James Patterson | constituency_AM1 = Port Melbourne | assembly1 = Victorian Legislative | majority1 = | term_start1 = 1889 | term_end1 = 1892 | predecessor1 = ''Electorate created'' | successor1 = Philip Salmon | constituency_AM2 = Sandridge | assembly2 = Victorian Legislative | majority2 = | term_start2 = February 1883 | term_end2 = March 1889 | predecessor2 = Sir John Madden | successor2 = ''Electorate disbanded'' | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1844|01|08}} | birth_place = Bristol, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1922|03|12|1844|01|08}} | death_place = Kew, Victoria, Australia | birth_name = Frederick Thomas Derham | party = Non-Party Conservatism | spouse = Ada Anderson {{marriage || 1864 | |end=d.}}<br />Francis Swallow {{marriage || 1878 | |end=d.}} | relatives = John Derham (grandson)<br />Sir Peter Derham (great-grandson) | alma_mater = | profession = {{hlist|Businessman|Legislator}} }}

'''Frederick Thomas Derham''' (8 January 1844 – 12 March 1922) was an Australian politician and businessman.<ref name="Derham"/>

Born in Bristol, he grew up in Somerset to auctioneer Thomas Plumley Derham and Sarah Ann Watts, he arrived in Melbourne in 1856 and entered the business world. In 1864 he married Ada Maria Anderson in Melbourne, with whom he had four children; he later married Frances Dodd Swallow in 1878, with whom he had five children.<ref name="Derham"/><ref name="Parliament"/>

In the early 1850s, he co-founded and worked with Thomas Swallow in a biscuits manufacturing business in 1856. Derham also invested in sugar plantations in which fruit canneries and preserving works were developed near Cairns, Queensland in the 1870s.<ref name="Derham"/>

Derham began his political career as the Mayor of Sandridge Municipal Council in the early 1880s. In 1883 he was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as the member for Sandridge, shifting to Port Melbourne in 1889; he served as Postmaster-General from 1886 to 1890.<ref name="Parliament"/> In that role, he introduced the penny post into Victoria and also parcel post and country telephone services. During his time in politics, Derham had a close working relationship with 2nd Prime Minister, Alfred Deakin and was a passionate anti-socialist in his policies and political views.<ref name="Derham"/> Subsequently, he was president of the Chamber of Manufacturers from 1897 to 1903 and of the Employers' Federation from 1901 to 1904.<ref name="Derham"/>

Derham was a passionate Anglican and supporter of the Holy Trinity Church in Kew. Derham later died at Kew in 1922.<ref name="Parliament">{{cite web|title=Derham, Frederick Thomas|publisher=Parliament of Victoria|year=1985|url=http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/re-member/bioregfull.cfm?mid=332|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060823094848/http://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/re-member/bioregfull.cfm?mid=332|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 August 2006|accessdate=15 October 2011}}</ref><ref name="Derham">{{cite web| url = https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/derham-frederick-thomas-3398 | title = Frederick Thomas Derham (1844–1922) | first = David | last = Derham | date = 1972 | website = Australian Dictionary of Biography | access-date = 13 January 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Derham, Frederick}} Category:1844 births Category:1922 deaths Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia Category:Politicians from Somerset Category:Australian postmasters Category:British emigrants to the Colony of Victoria Category:Postmasters-general of Victoria Category:Politicians from the Colony of Victoria