William Sandford

Who was William Sandford?

William Sandford was an English-Australian ironmaster.

Sandford was born at Torrington in Devon and became an accountant, eventually becoming manager of Ashton Gate Iron Rolling Mills. In 1883 he moved to Sydney, employed to organise a wire-netting plant at Five Dock. He had left two children by a previous marriage in England, but he married Caroline Newey on 3 May 1884 at Goulburn, working in Lithgow and Mittagong. In 1892 he purchased the Eskbank ironworks at Lithgow, and was given a government contract in railway parts. Around this time he became a vigorous protectionist, leading the Lithgow National Protection Association and running unsuccessfully for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Hartley on a protectionist platform.

Sandford began to face financial difficulties due to rising costs, uncertain markets and scarcity of material. He contested the first federal election as a Protectionist candidate for Parramatta, but was defeated by Joseph Cook. After trying unsuccessfully to sell his iron works, his formation of William Sandford Ltd did little to ease his fears of bankruptcy. In 1903 he again ran for the federal parliament, this time against Free Trader Sydney Smith in Macquarie, but he was again unsuccessful. Premier Joseph Carruthers persuaded him to agree to a contract supplying all of New South Wales's iron and steel, but again he encountered financial ruin. Exhausted by his repeated business failures, Sandford retired to Darling Point in 1908, later moving to an orchard in Castle Hill and then Eastwood. He died in 1932.