Redwood, Vernon Charles

Vernon Redwood is believed to have been the only New Zealander elected to the office of Mayor of Toowoomba.

He was the youngest member of council when elected to the position in 1910 at the age of 35. He was a council alderman from 1907 to 1909 and in 1911.

Vernon Charles Redwood was born at Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand, on April 14, 1874.

He came to Queensland in 1893 and was first employed on Westbrook Station where he remained for 18 months. One of his duties while working on the station was to cut prickly pear.

In 1895 he moved to Toowoomba and worked in his profession as a maltster. He developed his own business and sold it to William Jones and Son in 1904. He then established Redwood’s Grain Exchange in Mort Street.

In 1907, he sold all his business interests to William Jones and Son and accepted the position of Australian manager of the firm.

He stood for parliamentary representation of Toowoomba and Drayton in 1904 but was unsuccessful and again failed to be elected at a by-election later that year. He won the seat in 1907 and in 1908 but failed to retain it the following year.

Mr Nick Simmons, a New Zealander writing a book on Vernon Redwood’s uncle, Archbishop Francis Redwood, of Wellington, believes the former Mayor led a “mixed” life after he retired from council in 1911.

He said the former Mayor and his sister left Australia just prior to outbreak of World War 1 for operatic training in Italy. However, he said it appeared they were unsuccessful in Italy and Vernon moved on to England.

There, be became a member of an anti-prohibitionist group call the “Fellowship of Freedom and Reform”. “The former Mayor is believed to have often preached the group’s views on a soapbox in London’s Hyde Park,” Mr Simmons said.

Vernon Redwood is believed to have died in England in 1935 or 1936.

A park on the eastern side of Toowoomba has been named in honour of him.