Family background
George Frederick Williamson was born on 26 June 1865 at Chippendale, son of John Williamson and Agnes Laing Millar. On 2 November 1893 he married Florence Beatrice Woolfe at St Patricks Church Hill Sydney. There were two daughters from the marriage. He died at North Sydney on 11 June 1919, aged 54 years. Florence Williamson died in childbirth on 18 February 1900, aged 28 years.George Williamson was the grandson of Redfern alderman Michael Williamson.
Occupation & interests
Educated at Royston College and Sydney Grammar, Williamson was admitted as a solicitor at Sydney on 7 June 1890, and became a partner of John Williamson & Son, King Street Sydney.
Community activity
Williamson resigned as mayor and an alderman on 1 November 1904 due to friction with aldermen over the electricity lighting scheme. The acrimony this issue created was reflected at the 1905 municipal elections when the nearly formed Glebe Ratepayers & Property Owners Association targeted particular aldermen who lost their seat on Council.Williamson was on the committee of the Glebe Benevolent Society, patron of Glebe District Lacrosse Club and a vice-president of Glebe District Football Club. He was also a consul for Ecuador.
Local government service
George Williamson was an alderman on Glebe Council in 1897-1904. He wrote to the Health Board in 1899 about the state of Rozelle Bay and Blackwattle Bay and their present condition represented a danger to public health. In 1901, when the Sydney Harbour Trust was formed, they sent in their dredges to clean up these bays. In 1903 he gave evidence to the abattoir at Glebe Island that living at the lower end of Glebe Road ‘the smells from the Abattoir were very bad, so bad that on some occasions we had to lock the doors and windows to keep the smell out’. He was the acting mayor in 1904 for Thomas Nosworthy.
References
Select Committee on the Abattoir, Glebe Island, V & P NSWLA 1903, 3, pp. 805-807
Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 1897, p. 16
Sydney Morning Herald, 8 March 1899, p. 5
Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June 1904, p. 5
Sydney Morning Herald, 2 November 1904, p. 5
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 June 1919, p. 7