watercolourist, soldier, settler and policeman, was born on 18 August 1811 in Quebec, Canada, eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Zouch and his second wife Ann, née Ritchie. Educated at the Royal Military College in 1826-28, then commissioned ensign into the 4th (King’s Own) Regiment, he came to Sydney in the Asia on 2 December 1831. He was promoted lieutenant on 1 July 1833 and the next year placed in command of the mounted police at Bathurst. On 29 December 1836, in Holy Trinity Church, Kelso, near Bathurst, he married Maria, sixth and youngest daughter of Captain Richard Brooks and his wife Charlotte. The wedding reception was held at Alloway Bank, the home of his friend Captain John Piper.

When his regiment was posted to India, Captain Zouch sold his commission and retired to the land, living on Maria’s property, Ashby, south of Bungendore near Lake George. Locally renowned for his horsemanship and for the horses he bred and raced, Zouch also sketched. A watercolour dated 1846 (private collection) depicts the home of Hugh Gordon , Manar, near Braidwood. It shows the homestead in the distance and two Aborigines with their dogs camping in the foreground scrub. The trees and the Aborigines are peculiarly scaled but the architectural details of house and outbuildings are competently handled and informatively detailed, Zouch clearly having more expertise in architectural and surveying drawing than in view painting (the massive eucalypts framing the image are not at all conventionally picturesque in effect). This is his only identified sketch but others may remain with descendants of landed Protestant families in the district.

Zouch was appointed assistant commissioner of Crown lands on the Turon diggings in 1851-53 then returned to Goulburn as superintendent of mounted police for the southern districts. He supervised the Gundagai and Braidwood gold escorts and was in charge when the anti-Chinese riots erupted on the Lambing Flat (Young) goldfields in 1860-61. He became superintendent of all police in the south-east in 1862, a time when bushranging was rampant and Ben Hall’s gang active in his district.

On 28 October 1883 Zouch died of sunstroke at his home near Goulburn and was buried in the Church of England section of Goulburn Cemetery. He was survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters, his eldest and third sons and his second daughter all marrying into the Throsby family of Bong Bong.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011