William Dawson Grubb

Grubb was born on 16 October 1817, in London, England. He first came to Van Diemen's Land in 1832, but returned to England to complete his legal qualifications. While in England, he married Marianne Beaumont.

After he returned to Tasmania in 1842, he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

In December 1877, he was one of the buyers of the land, plant and mining lease of the Tamar Hematite Iron Company. The buyers, four wealthy Tasmanian politicians and a Launceston merchant, were then able to obtain a valuable gold mining lease adjacent to the Tasmania lease, for a small outlay. They did that under the provisions of new mining legislation, upon which the politicians had just voted. Certainly a conflict of interest, today it would be seen as corruption.

William Grubb died at Launceston, Tasmania, on 8 February 1879.

His name was given to a colonial-era timber tramway in which he was involved, Grubb's Tramway (Mowbray). Another later colonial-era tramway, Grubb's Tramway (Zeehan), was named after his eldest son.