Image above:
George David Langridge
(1829 - 1891)
Grandfather of Gordon David Langridge. Grand master of the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a Freemason and a member of the United Ancient Order of Druids. Actively associated with various international trade exhibitions. Member of the Melbourne Water Supply Board and in 1891 treasurer of the Working Men's College. His unassuming ways and common sense in politics enabled him to retain the warm allegiance of working-class electors who were becoming dissatisfied with other Liberal representatives. His Collingwood public meetings at were gala occasions: he never lost the common touch, and artisans and labourers mourned his death in impressive numbers. Significantly, an early Labor politician, John Hancock, followed Langridge at Collingwood.
Player— 1st Australian Ice Hockey Team, 1906, Melbourne
Most probably the son of George Thomas Langridge and Ellen Ann Darling [1]; Grandson of George David Langridge (pictured left), Mayor of Collingwood 1867 and 1872; MLA for Collingwood, 1874-91 and Premier of Victoria in 1891 when he died suddenly at his home in Clifton Hill on March 24, aged 62. Langridge St Collingwood is named after him [3].
Gordon Langridge was age 6 when his prominent Grandfather died. Before he was age 20, he had traveled to Britain, returning to Melbourne in November 1905 on 'Omrah'. [4] The next year, at about age 21, he played the first game of ice hockey in Australia against the Baltimore team. He married Jackleen Eileen Elizabeth Dodds in 1914, aged 29. [5] Their son James Gordon, was born in 1920 at Armadale [6]. Gordon continued to play National hockey for many years. In 1921, when interstate games were resumed, the few pre-war players alive and capable were drafted into a team. It included Gordon, aged 36, and Ted Molony, for the first time. Others were C Webster, M Harris, R. Marks, V. Langsford, W. Rochex, and John Goodall. [9] Gordon's National competition games spanned 15 years; longest known of the original six. He died in Toorak in 1955, aged 70. [7]
His Grandfather was born at Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, son of John Langridge. Early left fatherless, he went to Banbury, Oxfordshire, where he became apprenticed to a carpenter and then went into partnership with his brother, a builder in London. In 1851 he married Maria Elizabeth, daughter of William Meade of Tunbridge Wells; they had nine sons and two daughters. The gold rushes brought Langridge to New South Wales where he spent three months before moving to Victoria in 1853. He was unsuccessful as a digger at Ballarat and Bendigo for six months but later recalled that he had been hunted for his licence.
Gordon's father, George Thomas Langridge, was born in 1854 and raised in Collingwood. An aunt, Jane Caroline, married Sir Robert Wallace Best (1854-1946) at St Phillips, Collingwood. Best was twice acting Premier. Said to have been a singer, elocutionist and an athlete in his youth, he was sometime president of the Fitzroy Football Club, the Victorian Cricket Association, the League of Victorian Wheelmen and the Victorian Football Association; he built much of his political popularity on his sporting links.[8]
The family settled at Collingwood and for two years George Snr worked as a carpenter on the building of Melbourne's military barracks before establishing his own contracting business. In 1869, he opened an auctioneering and estate agency firm which became G. D. Langridge & Son. By 1881, he had established three building societies, the most important being the Langridge Mutual Permanent Building Society. On 18 February 1874 his wife died; on 13 December 1877 at the Wesleyan Chapel, Glebe, Sydney, he married Emily Judson, widowed daughter of John Holt, grocer, and his wife Betty, née Greenwood. [3]
Sources:
[1] Gordon David Langridge b. 1885, Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Victoria Reg. No. 9002.
[2] George Thomas Langridge b. 1854 to George David Langridge and Maria Elizabeth Mead. Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Victoria Reg. No. 3156.
[3] S. M. Ingham, 'Langridge, George David (1829 - 1891)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp 61-62.
[4] Index of Inward Passenger Lists for British Foreign and New Zealand Ports, Public Record Office Victoria, Fiche 732 Page 005.
[5] Marriages in Victoria, State Library of Victoria database & Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, Reg 1925.
[6] Births in Victoria, State Library of Victoria database, Reg 17695.
[7] Deaths in Victoria, State Library of Victoria database, Reg 6679.
[8] Norma Marshall, 'Best, Sir Robert Wallace (1856 - 1946)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 7, Melbourne University Press, 1979, pp 280-281.
[9] "The History of the Goodall Cup", author not stated, IHA, IHA website.
© 2007 Ross Carpenter. All Rights Reserved. Original Research Nov 07. Reproduction prohibited without prior written permission of the author except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.