Henry Richard Nicholls

Henry Richard Nicholls (1830 – 13 August 1912) was an Australian journalist and newspaper editor. He was born in England and was active in the Chartist movement before arriving in Australia during the Victorian gold rush, where he was associated with the Eureka rebellion. He was editor of The Star in Ballarat before moving to Hobart in 1883, where he edited The Mercury until his death in 1912. The conservative H. R. Nicholls Society was named in his honour.

Early life Nicholls was born in London in 1830, the son of Ann Elizabeth (née Bright) and Henry Nicholls. His father was "a socialist and friend of many continental revolutionaries" who wrote for left-wing publications, including the Christian Socialist and The Leader, and briefly edited The Examiner.

Nicholls was educated in London and at the village of Binfield in Berkshire. He later studied French, Latin and English literature at the Westminster Mechanics' Institute. He and his older brother Charles were "ardent Chartists" and he joined his father in writing for The Leader.

Views and legacy In the early 1850s Nicholls published several works of poetry in Thomas Cooper's Chartist publication Cooper's Journal. His poetry advocated "republicanism and secularism mixed with anti-authoritarianism", with support for "egalitarian socialism and a rejection of modernity and industrialism". Nicholls brought his Chartist views from England to Australia, but on the Victorian goldfields found his "doctrinaire internationalism was out of touch with the inchoate local protest".

Personal life Nicholls married Ellen Minchin in 1863. The couple had eight children, including Herbert Nicholls who became chief justice of Tasmania. and died of pneumonia at his home in Battery Point on 13 August 1912.