sketcher, editor and businessman, was born on 3 June 1815 in Montrose, Scotland, where he was educated. After a short period in business in London he migrated to Van Diemen’s Land, arriving at Hobart Town in the barque Janet on 2 December 1834. The Janet continued on to Launceston a month later with Aikenhead as a passenger, arriving on 20 January 1835. The journal he kept of the entire voyage is interspersed with pen-and-ink sketches of places visited, including his impressions of Hobart Town and Launceston; its present location is unknown.
In 1841 Aikenhead helped establish the Cornwall Fire and Marine Insurance Company at Launceston, of which he was secretary until 1884. In 1842 he founded the Launceston Examiner with Rev. J. West and J.S. Waddell, and he remained its editor until 1869. He was one of the founders of the Launceston Savings Bank in 1835 and its manager up to his death. He assisted in establishing the Launceston Chamber of Commerce and the Mechanics Institute (where his portrait used to hang) and was co-founder and president of the Launceston Public Library. His many commercial and public interests included mining. A religious man, Aikenhead was for some time superintendent of the Tamar Street Congregational Sunday School, at which church he worshipped. Unwilling to accept public office while editing the Examiner , he became Conservative member for Tamar in the Legislative Council only in June 1870, a few months after handing the paper over to his son William, then continued to represent it until retiring in 1885.
Aikenhead married Jane Priscilla, daughter of Rev. William Judson of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, on 26 February 1840. They had 12 children, but only William and three daughters survived him. No further drawings are recorded.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
