William ARNOTT

ARNOTT, William (b. Pathead, near Kirkaldy, Scotland, 6 Dec 1827; d. Strathfield, NSW, 22 July 1901). Biscuit-maker, Wesleyan Methodist layman and philanthropist.

After serving an apprenticeship as a baker/confectioner, Arnott migrated to Australia, arriving in Sydney on 17 February 1848. He moved immediately to West Maitland where he pursued his trade for 17 years (apart from a brief period on the Turon goldfield). He married Monica Sinclair in 1850, and after her death, Margaret McLean (née Fleming) in Oct 1865. After substantial damage to his premises in four successive floods between 1857 and 1865, he moved to Newcastle in mid-1865 and re-established his business successfully, first in Union Street and later (1888) in Mayfield, making bread by night and biscuits by day. From 1882, he established an agency in Sydney and this expanded rapidly and became his main centre of business. His business success was built on hard work, integrity and unswerving insistence on quality.

A radiant evangelical Christian, Arnott was a loyal Wesleyan, a devoted adherent of the class meeting, a Sunday school teacher for 24 years and superintendent for 20 of those, a street corner preacher and a liberal supporter of the Church. He was Newcastle president of the YMCA for 9 years (to 1897), treasurer of the Newcastle Benevolent Society from its foundation in 1885 and president from 1897. He retired to Strathfield in 1899 and died there two years later.

ADB 3; NMH, 23 July 1901; J W Turner, Manufacturing in Newcastle, 1801-1900 (Newcastle, 1980)

DON WRIGHT