George Vause Birks
Dr. George Vause Birks ( 1815 – 31 January 1858) was a medical doctor who with his family emigrated to South Australia in 1853, and died there less than four years later. Their family was significant in the commercial life of the young city of Adelaide. Many of the Birks family were involved in William Lane's New Australia colony in Paraguay and others in the irrigation settlement at Murtho initiated by the Government on the River Murray, losing substantial sums in the failures of these Utopian ventures. History. Dr. George Vause Birks, his wife Hannah Napier Birks (6  May 1807 – 13 August 1883) and their family lived in Knutsford, near Manchester, England, and emigrated to South Australia on the "Leonidas", arriving at Glenelg, South Australia in December 1853. They settled in Angaston, where he began practicing. He died four years later, as a result of being thrown from his horse. Mrs Birks then ran a store in Angaston, assisted by her sons William and George, who as W. H & G. N. Birks later opened a stationery shop and Birks Chemists in Rundle Street, Adelaide. Another son, Charles, opened a drapery store which became a major Adelaide department store . Family. This list is not exhaustive but is intended to show the relationship of all members of the family likely to be encountered in Wikipedia and local histories. Dr. George Vause Birks (7 December 1815 – 31 January 1858) and Hannah Napier Birks (6 May 1807 – 13 August 1883) arrived in South Australia in December 1853 with their seven children: