John Richards (Australian politician)
John Richards (c. 1842 – 24 January 1913) was a politician in the colony of South Australia. He was born in Helston, Cornwall and emigrated to South Australia, arriving on the "Duke of Bedford" in December 1848. He acquired a considerably knowledge of mining, particularly copper mining, and wrote on the subject for "The Register", the "London Mining Journal" and other publications, and ran a successful business in the mining districts of Yorke's Peninsula. He also wrote eloquently and forcefully in defence of Graham Berry. He represented Wallaroo in the South Australian House of Assembly from  February 1875 to April 1878. He took to drink, and was jailed in 1882 for uttering a valueless cheque. He died at the Destitute Asylum, where he had been incarcerated since 1909. Family. He married the eldest daughter of George Thomas Crutchett (c. 1825–1893), Moonta's first Town Clerk, and Susan Nichols Crutchett, née Withall (1820–1927). Their children included: Was he related to Robert Stanley Richards (1885–1967), a later member for Wallaroo?