Francis Rawdon Chesney Hopkins

sketcher, writer and grazier, was born in Colaba, Bombay, India, eldest son of Francis William Hopkins RN and Margaret, née McNeil. Educated in England for the Indian Civil Service, he migrated to Victoria instead at the age of 16 and worked for his uncle, John Wilson, at Woodlands, Crowlands, on the Wimmera River. From this address he sent four 'Rough Sketches in Water-Colours, showing the use of body-colour (painted by candle-light)' to the 1866-67 Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition: The Malvern Hills, from Southam Gloucestershire, An Autumn Sunset in the Country (near Cheltenham, England), Mount Langi-ghiran, Victoria and A Country Cottage (Prestbury England). All were for sale, priced from three to seven pounds. Two larger, unframed, watercolours of scenes in the bush offered to the commissioners may also have been shown.

Hopkins remained at Woodlands until 1871 then managed properties in Victoria and New South Wales until 1885, when he and Alexander Wilson purchased Errowanbang, near Carcoar, NSW. He acquired other property and was a founder and executive member of the NSW Pastoralists' Union. His hobby was writing plays for his actor-manager friend Alfred Dampier, who produced five in 1876-82 (with no great success); all derived from stock European melodramatic models. Hopkins also published short stories, essays, the Australian Ladies' Annual (Melbourne, 1878) and reviewed books for the Australasian Pastoralists' Review. Rickard notes: 'He also dabbled in water colours and pen-and-ink drawings but his approach to the arts was that of the competent amateur'.

Hopkins died at Errowanbang on 20 July 1916 after a mining accident, survived by his wife, Sarah Jane, née Kennedy, whom he had married at Hawthorn, Melbourne, on 8 January 1884, and their only son. He was buried at Carcoar.

Staff Writer.