Family background
More research required. A William Furness was born on 14 March 1858 at Sydney, NSW, the son of Samuel Furness and Caroline Homer. He married Harriett Matilda O’Brien (1858-1923) on 17 March 1884 at St Paul’s Church of England, Sydney, and they had two sons and a daughter. William Furness and Harriett Matilda Furness were divorced in 1895. William Furness died at Newtown, Sydney on 21 April 1938, aged 80 years; he was buried at Waverley Cemetery. He left no Will. A death notice published in 1916 recorded the death of a William Furness, ex-alderman for Alexandria, aged 51 (making his birth year 1865). William Furness lived at 66 Nicholson Street, Alexandria.
Occupation & interests
William Furness, Plumber and Gasfitter was declared bankrupt in 1879. He had a plumber and ironmonger business at 246 Victoria Street, Alexandria in 1895.
Local government service
William Furness was an alderman on the Alexandria Council for two terms representing South Ward: 1893-98 and 1903-05.
References
‘Municipal Elections’, The Australian Star, 13 February 1893, p. 8, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/227169241
‘Obituary’, Australian Town and Country Journal, 27 September 1916, p. 45, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263603956