Family background
George Wood Tate was born at Jamberoo in 1846, son of John Kell Tate and Sarah Ann nee Wood. He married Edith Isabel Westgarth on 25 January 1873 at Pitt street Congregational Church Sydney. He died at Glebe on 20 September 1896, aged 50 years. Edith Tate died at Chatswood in 1930.
Occupation & interests
Tate worked as an auctioneer in Forest Lodge, and later as a Sussex Street produce merchant. He was a founding member of Glebe Masonic Lodge in 1881.
Community activity
Tate was very much the archetypal Glebe alderman of his era: male, self employed, Protestant and freemason, firmly attached to notions of respectability and supporting conservative politics.
Local government service
George Tate was an alderman on Glebe Council in 1878. He was declared insolvent in the same year. At a public meeting in Glebe in 1883, Tate supported the movement seeking removal of Glebe Island abattoir because of its affect on the health of inhabitants living in the vicinity. He noted the very act of driving cattle from Homebush to Glebe Island deteriorated the quality of the meat.
References
Sydney Morning Herald, 11 February 1878, p. 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107944196
‘Advertising’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 1878, p. 1, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28393758
‘Insolvency Court – Wednesday’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 1879, p. 6, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article28392391
Sydney Morning Herald, 5 February 1880, p. 9
Sydney Morning Herald, 27 February 1883, p. 5
Sydney Morning Herald, 21 September 1896, p. 1