George Fife Angas

George Fife Angas (1 May 178915 May 1879) was an English businessman and banker who, while residing in England, played a significant part in the formation and establishment of the Province of South Australia. He established the South Australian Company and was its founding chairman of the board of directors.

In later life he migrated to the colony and served as a member of the first South Australian Legislative Council. His financial contribution of some £40,000 was instrumental to the creation of South Australia.

Early life Angas was born at Newcastle upon Tyne, England, fifth son of coachbuilder and ship owner Caleb Angas of Newcastle (1743–1831) and his second wife Sarah Angas Lindsay (1749–1802). After his mother's death, Angas continued his education at a boarding school and at age 15, became an apprentice coachbuilder under his father's direction. He started the Benevolent Society of Coachbuilders in Newcastle in 1807 "to provide for sick members and others requiring relief, and promote habits of economy and temperance".

On 8 April 1812, in Hutton, Essex, he married Rosetta French (1793–1867), daughter of John French (1761–1829), "Gentleman of Hutton, Essex", and Rosetta French Rayner (1756–1836). They had three sons and four daughters.

Rosetta French Angas (1813–1898) Sarah Lindsay Angas (1816–1898), Australian temperance worker Emma Angas (1818–1885), caught smallpox and died while nursing refugees in Beirut George French Angas (1822–1886), artist John Howard Angas (1823–1904), Australian pioneer, politician and philanthropist Mary Ann Angas (1826–1831) William Henry Angas (1832–1870)

Career

Over the next 20 years Angas took a large role in the family business in Newcastle, which also had branches in British ports, the West Indies and Spanish America, and steadily developed his own shipping business in London. By 1831, his business owned three ships, commercial business in British Honduras, Buenos Aires and London, coach factories in Durham and Newcastle, with mahogany trade and copperas works. McQueen, as well as Clinton Fernandes and journalists Paul Daley and Peter Goers went further than others, incorrectly arguing or implying that Angas was an actual slave owner who was compensated by the British government.

Angas is not recorded by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database as having held slaves himself, nor of having obtained any meaningful benefit from them. As was typical for the period, his business associates in British Honduras included people who owned slaves. He collected compensatory claims on behalf of four former slave owners, totalling £6,942 after abolition, with a total of 121 slaves.

The claims he collected were: 5 October 1835, Honduras 231, 40 enslaved, £2176 17/3d, equivalent to in 26 October 1835, Honduras 51, 12 enslaved, £685 15/1d, equivalent to in 26 October 1835, Honduras 199, 35 enslaved, £1642 17/2d, equivalent to in 9 November 1835, Honduras 244, 34 enslaved, £2439 17/3d, equivalent to in

On 12 June 1840 , he was delegate number 196, one of eight representing Newcastle upon Tyne, at the World Anti-Slavery Convention.

A commemorative newspaper article in The Advertiser (an Adelaide daily) in 1909 described how Angas sought to protect the poorer classes from oppression and endeavoured to help slaves who, he argued, were held in illegal bondage. In 1824, over 200 Indians were set free as a result of his efforts. His son E. Angas Johnson (1873–1951), was City Health Officer of Adelaide, and a defender of his father's reputation.

Angas' financial contribution of some £40,000 was instrumental to the creation of South Australia.