William Congreve

Sir William Augustus Congreve, 3rd Baronet (1825 – 9 December 1887), was a British baronet who inherited his title at the age of three following the death of his father, the rocket inventor Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet. He emigrated to the colonies in 1847 and lived the remainder of his life in Australia under the alias "Captain William Edward Brougham Gurnett". The baronetcy was presumed extinct in 1882, five years before his actual death in Sydney.

Early life William Augustus Congreve was baptized on 27 August 1825 at St Clement Danes church in Middlesex. He was the eldest legitimate son of Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet and Isabella Charlotte Carvalho. His father, renowned for developing the Congreve rocket, served as Equerry to George IV and Member of Parliament for Plymouth. His mother, of Portuguese descent, had been widowed from her first marriage to Irish surgeon Henry Nisbett McEvoy before marrying Congreve in late 1824. A Parliamentary select committee in April 1827 found that Congreve's conduct amounted to either "a not unwilling suppression of scruples" or "an insensibility to evident obligation".

Emigration and colonial life In 1847, Congreve emigrated to New Zealand, later moving to Australia.

His mother, Isabella, died in Brighton on 5 November 1872, aged 72.