Arthur Alexander Walton Onslow (2 August 1833 – 30 January 1882) was born at

Trichinopoly Tiruchirappalli (), also known as Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with being the best livable and the cleanest city of T ...

in India to surveyor Arthur Pooley Onslow and Rosa Roberta Macleay. In 1838 was sent to

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, where he lived with his grandfather

Alexander Macleay Alexander Macleay (also spelt McLeay) MLC FLS FRS (24 June 1767 – 18 July 1848) was a Scottish-Australian leading member of the Linnean Society, a fellow of the Royal Society and member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Life Mac ...

at Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney. He returned to England to live with his family in 1841 and was educated in Surrey and Nottingham. He entered the navy in May 1847 as a midshipman on HMS Howe and by 1847 he was a navy midshipman. From 1850 until 1854 he served in various vessels on the West Coast of Africa and in 1851 he was present at the British attacks on Lagos, in the Bight of Biafra, then a stronghold of the slave trade carried on by the Portuguese. He served during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

and was in the Baltic Squadron at the Battle of Suomenlinna. He was one of the crew sent to Australia in 1857 to recommission the surveying ship HMS Herald under Captain Henry Mangles Denham From 1857 to 1861, when the Herald returned to England, he worked on surveying voyages to

King George Sound King George Sound (Mineng ) is a sound (geography), sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Named King George the Third's Sound in 1791, it was referred to as King George's Sound from 1805. The name "King George Sound" gradually came in ...

Shark Bay Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage S ...

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

and the

Torres Strait The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...

. During this period Onslow was an active amateur photographer and produced photographs on his voyages and also during his stopovers in Sydney. Beacon erected on Mellish Cay by H

After returning to England he studied steam navigation at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, before he joined the frigate HMS Phaeton, and was at Vera Cruz during the French operations at Mexico. In 1863 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and was appointed to HMS Meeanee (1848), 81 guns, then stationed in the Mediterranean. Soon after his health failed and he was compelled to seek leave of absence. Having obtained two years' sick leave he came to New South Wales, where he resided up to the time of his death. On 31 January 1867 he married Elizabeth Macarthur, with whom he had eight children, including James Macarthur-Onslow and Rosa Sibella Macarthur Onslow. In 1871 he retired with the rank of

post captain Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith". The term served to di ...

. In 1869 he was elected to the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...

for Camden, serving until his elevation to the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

in 1880. He died in 1882.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Onslow, Arthur 1833 births 1882 deaths British people in colonial India Colony of New South Wales politicians Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 19th-century Australian politicians

Arthur Arthur is a masculine given name of uncertain etymology. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Ital ...