James McCulloch

Sir James McCulloch, (18 March 1819 – 31 January 1893) was a British colonial politician and statesman who served as the fifth premier of Victoria over four non-consecutive terms from 1863 to 1868, 1868 to 1869, 1870 to 1871 and 1875 to 1877. He is the third longest-serving premier in Victorian history.

Early life McCulloch was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the son of George McCulloch, a quarry master and contractor, and Jane Thomson, a farmer's daughter. He had only a primary education and as a young man worked in shops, eventually becoming a junior partner in a softgoods firm. On 11 May 1853 McCulloch arrived in Melbourne aboard the Adelaide (John Everard being a fellow passenger) to manage the mercantile firm of Dennistoun Brothers in Melbourne. Following closure of the Dennistoun office in 1861, James McCulloch started his own business McCulloch, Sellar and Company in partnership with fellow Scot Robert Sellar. In the boom conditions following the Victorian Gold Rush, he soon became a wealthy man and a director of several banks and other companies. He was President of the Chamber of Commerce 1856–1857 and 1862–1863. When Victoria gained responsible government in 1856, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Wimmera, which he represented from November 1856 to around August 1859, when he shifted to East Melbourne from October 1859. He later represented Mornington from March 1862 to around March 1872 and Warrnambool from May 1874 to around May 1878. McCulloch was knighted in 1870 and made KCMG in 1874. In 1886, he retired to England, and died in Epsom, Surrey on 31 January 1893; he is buried in the Glasgow Necropolis. He married first Susan Renwick and second Margaret Boak Inglis, but had no children.