Andrew Garran

Andrew Garran (19 November 1825 – 6 June 1901), English-Australian journalist and politician, was the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald from 1873 to 1885.

Biography Garran was born in London in 1825, surnamed "Gammon" according to historian A. T. Saunders. He was educated at Hackney Grammar School in the Hackney borough of London, and at Spring Hill College, Birmingham. He also attended a theological college in Norfolk, where he trained to be a Congregationalist minister. He later studied at the University of London, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1848. Due to poor health, he spent eighteen months as a private tutor in the Madeira Islands seeking a better climate, returning to London the following year. In 1850 he moved to Australia, where he settled in Adelaide, South Australia.

On arrival in Adelaide he worked briefly as a minister, and from 1851 to 1852 he wrote for the short-lived weekly newspaper Austral Examiner, before it closed due to the Victorian Gold Rush, which saw many people migrate to the Victorian goldfields. Garran himself travelled to Victoria, where he was a tutor in the town of Ballan. He returned to South Australia in 1854, where he became the editor of the South Australian Register. On 1 December that same year, he married Mary Isham Sabine (18 October 1829 – 30 July 1923), with whom he had one son and seven daughters. According to Saunders, Sabine was a niece of Mrs T. Q. Stow (née Eppes). While working for the Herald, Garran studied at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1868 and a Doctorate of Laws in 1870. When the editor of the Herald, John West, died in December 1873, Garran was promptly promoted. Garran was one of the earliest supporters of the federation of Australia, and used his position in the media to advocate the cause, writing many editorials in favour of federation.

Throughout his career Garran held a number of other positions. He was a director of the Newcastle Wallsend Coal Company from 1869, and the chairman from 1874 to 1879. He was a member of the New South Wales Board of Technical Education, and was a trustee of Sydney Grammar School. He was the correspondent for London's The Times for many years, continuing up until his death. He was survived by his wife and six of his eight children. His son Robert Garran also studied law, and went on to become a leading expert in Australian constitutional law, together with John Quick writing The Annotated Constitution of the Australian Commonwealth.