Robert Gouger

Robert Gouger ( ; 26 June 1802 – 4 August 1846) was an English promoter of colonisation and public servant, one of the founders of South Australia and the first Colonial Secretary of South Australia. He spent a decade in London as secretary to a succession of societies that campaigned for the new province, culminating in the South Australia Association and the passage of the South Australia Act 1834.

Early life Gouger was the fifth son of nine children of George Gouger (1763–1802), a London merchant, and his wife Anne Sibley. His childhood was spent at Stamford, Lincolnshire, attended school in Nottingham, and was then taken into his father's London office.

Brought up a Dissenter, Gouger travelled widely, writing poems for the magazines, and took a keen interest in natural history.

Colonisation movement In 1829 Gouger was weighing up an offer to manage Thomas Potter Macqueen's Swan River Colony venture when a visit to Edward Gibbon Wakefield, then confined to Newgate Prison, won him over to Wakefield's systematic colonisation scheme. The scheme involved funding free emigration by selling colonially seized lands at a fixed price rather than granting it away. Gouger relinquished the position of Secretary for the less strenuous position of Colonial Treasurer in 1841 and returned to England in 1844 due to continuing poor health.

Gouger's second wife was Sarah Whittem, a cousin, the daughter of Thomas Whittem, whom he married at Kenilworth, on 18 October 1838.

For many years after the death of his first wife and son, he had suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety which had impacted on his health.

Works

Gouger, Robert (1833). Emigration for the relief of parishes practically considered . London : Ridgway and E. Wilson. ISBN 978-0-665-21425-7. Gouger, Robert. (1838). South Australia in 1837 : in a series of letters, with a postscript as to 1838. London: Harvey and Darton.

Legacy Gouger Street in Adelaide was named in his honour.