sketcher, architect, mining engineer, geologist, pastoralist, politician and author, was born in Surrey, England. Wathen studied architecture, but it is doubtful if he ever practised. On completion of his studies he travelled to Egypt, attracted by its antiquities and possibly also for health reasons. One result of the visit was the publication in London in 1843 of an ambitious book, The Arts, Antiquity and Chronology of Ancient Egypt . Unfortunately, another was that during the trip he contracted ophthalmia and on returning home suffered a breakdown in health. Possibly in the hope of effecting some improvement, he sailed for Australia later in the decade, reaching Port Phillip (Victoria) before the discovery of gold. He carried out an exploration of likely auriferous areas in the colony and submitted his findings to the government; in 1853 he published the first account of the geology of the Victorian goldfields.
The years 1851-54 were spent mostly on the Victorian diggings and Wathen’s observations of goldfields’ life were recorded in his book The Golden Colony; or, Victoria in 1854 (London, 1855). This was illustrated, if somewhat sparsely, with his own sketches. As the preface makes clear, they were taken from a sketchbook of his Australian travels but the book’s present whereabouts are unknown. An apology for the sketches is being made with 'more regard to truthfulness than to pictorial effect’ is scarcely necessary; they exhibit the practised skill of the field artist of the period.
Wathen returned to England to see his book through the press and in April 1855 was elected a fellow of the Royal Geological Society, London. In 1857 he set out on his travels once more. This time he went to South Africa, where he purchased a property near Richmond in Natal, took up sheepfarming and designed himself a neo-Gothic homestead. In 1862 he entered parliament as a member of Natal’s Legislative Council. He was habitually dogged by ill health and this was seriously aggravated by a fall from a horse, leading to his retirement to England with his family in 1867. Subsequent winters were spent in the south of France and Italy, and it was while travelling in Italy in 1879 that he became ill and died at Viareggia near Pisa. He was buried in the local Protestant cemetery, leaving a wife, a daughter and two sons. A man of considerable and diverse talents, Wathen’s obituarists refer to his 'singular intelligence’, his 'superior ability’, his 'moderation, amiable qualities and reproachless reputation’.
- Writers:
- Cusack, Frank
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
