# Notable South Australians/E. L. Grundy

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E. L. Grundy.
ON Jan. 21, 1875, death garnered home from the Modern Athens, at the ripe age of eighty, the last of a choice few who lived and spent a great portion of time in Gawler; and with his demise passed away the ablest Athenian once residing in that picturesque little town. He was a polished scholar, and might aptly have been termed the local Socrates, as his knowledge of the departed heroes of Grecian history was extensive and profound. But with all his information he was no pedant; his bonhomie and good nature made him accessible to all, whilst sufferers of every grade found in him a ready champion for any just cause, and no knight errant of olden time ever entered the lists with greater ardour and more determination to see the wrong righted than he. His geniality as a speaker was proverbial, and his speeches were ​noted for conciseness and polish. No matter when and where the speech was made, either in the House of Assembly or in furtherance of some charitable movement, none received more attention than Edward Lindley Grundy. His face and form betokened a man endowed with uncommon gifts. An English gentleman of the good old school, with a deep-rooted faith in the supremacy of the Church, and the strong insular vanity that he was an Englishman. The local Bunyip thus mentions him:—"His knowledge of the world was deep and varied, gained in a chequered life. He was blessed with keen perception of affairs, such as is seldom found; full of kindly courtesy, always ready to aid by his help and advocacy the widow, the orphan, the wronged and oppressed. Few will be more missed from innumerable homes, and lamented with the honest and hearty tribute of general regret than is accorded his memory. The pleasant, genial, gentlemanly old man; the friend of the little child and of the most scholarly in the land; alas! we shall see him, hear him, meet him no more! The hand that long wielded the pen with such peculiar force and ability is now powerless in the chill hand of death. We give this humble and imperfect tribute to the memory of the gifted dead; but no words of ours can render more sacred the memory of Edward Lindley Grundy in the minds and hearts of his townsmen." He was born in Nottingham in 1795, of which town he was a burgess. Entering the collegiate institute there, he exhibited an aptitude for classics and antiquarian lore, which he retained to the close of his life. At twenty-three he entered into mercantile pursuits at Manchester as a shipper and broker, and carried on an extensive and successful business with South America and the Brazils, but relinquished this for literary pursuits more congenial to his views. Mr. Grundy married a daughter of Dr. Charles Mason, of Carlisle, a lady of cultivated tastes and accomplishments, and an able linguist. The union was exceedingly happy and felicitous, the only shadow crossing their fair ​horizon being the parting on his leaving for Australia. His marriage brought him additional wealth through the family relations of Mrs. Grundy, that lady being connected with some of the best circles in Carlisle. like many prosperous Manchester men, he was induced by the railway mania to invest a considerable portion of his fortune in that stock, and was one of the victims of the 1846 panic. During his residence in Manchester he was identified with many philanthropic movements for the benefit of that town, and, in conjunction with others, was instrumental in getting Peel Park opened on the Sabbath by the Corporation for the purpose of recreation for the poor Lancashire operatives, which step brought him into collision with several strict Sabbatarians; and to those who remember the drudgery and hardships of factory life of forty years ago, they will conceive what an inestimable boon was conferred on the working classes. He was intimately connected with various public works and political movements, and had for a coadjutor the late Richard Cobden. Mr. Grundy was the originator of infant schools in Manchester; and also the Christian Institute, and he took a prominent part in the Agricultural Drainage Association. As an authority and essayist on agriculture he was awarded a silver medal with this inscription:—"Institute, Manchester, 1767. Society for the Improvement of Agriculture. To Mr. E. L. Grundy, for an essay upon Destructive Insects, 1829." The activity of Mr. Grundy was of unostentatious simplicity, and no one was more desirous of realizing the maxim of doing good by stealth and blushing to find it fame than he; but any man might nurture a pardonable degree of pride in feeling he had done the State service, and that he was likely to leave behind him in the hearts of some a kindly feeling for his honest endeavours. Misfortunes in railway speculations induced him to turn his attention to the colonies, and South Australia was selected as his future home. He thought it advisable not to bring Mrs. Grundy with him, but ​intended to send for her as soon as he saw what the colony was like. His youngest son—F. E. Grundy—was taken from college to accompany him, and they arrived here safely. He had completed his arrangements for Mrs. Grundy to join him, but they were not carried out as she succumbed to an attack of bronchitis. He remained a widower, mourning in silence to the end of his days the loss of a worthy and affectionate partner. He began business here as a broker, and subsequently started the Standard newspaper, which had a tolerably prosperous career, but the difficulty experienced in getting in his subscriptions determined him on relinquishing this venture. He next took a house at Brighton, which he ultimately gave up and went to Crawler, where in 1859 he established himself as an auctioneer, accountant, and commission agent. He eventually resumed his literary pursuits, and became associated with the Bunyip, which under his able management enjoyed a high reputation. He could turn a pathetic sentence that did not fail to arrest attention, or verses, "to point a moral and adorn a tale." His readiness to investigate any question of oppression and imposition secured for him the good-will of the passengers of one of the emigrant vessels. They had been badly treated during the voyage, and he was instrumental in having the conduct of the captain inquired into. The passengers gave him a handsome silver snuff-box, bearing this inscription:—"Presented to E. L. Grundy, Esq., by the immigrants per "Indian," in grateful acknowledgment of his humane efforts on behalf of the emigrant stranger. Adelaide, October 3, 1849." Having long advocated the interests of the colony, he had the honour conferred upon him by the constituency of Barossa of being returned to Parliament. The illness preceding his death was of short duration, and three days after an attack of erysipelas it proved fatal. Nothing serious was anticipated at the outset, but the inhabitants were shocked to hear of his decease at the mellow age to which he had arrived. He was ​a diligent worker in many capacities, and a man of many parts, all of which were well played. His remains rest in the family vault at West Terrace Cemetery, and the grief of those he left might be well expressed in the lines on the cenotaph of Euripides at Pella—
"To Hellas' bard all Hellas gives a tomb; On Macedon*8 far shores his relics sleep; Athens, the pride of Greece, was erst his home, Whom now all praise and all in common weep."