Frank Farnell
- Born: 10 Sep 1861, Kissing Point, Ryde, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia 2 3
- Married: 12 Aug 1889, St. Andrew's Cathedral, Macquarie St., Sydney, N.S.W., Australia 1
- Died: 16 Jul 1929, North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 4 5
 Research Notes:
"FARNELL—July 16 1929 at a private hospital, Frank, second son of the late Hon James Squire Farnell, aged 67 years."
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FRANK FARNELL, late of Mosman, Gentleman
16th February, 1943. On this date, ADMINISTRATION of the Estate of the abovenamed deceased was granted to Frank Leslie Farnell and Reginald Cox Farnell sons of the said deceased.... INTESTATE died on the 16th day of July in the year One thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine. ESTATE SWORN at the sum of £3000/0/0d nett. 11
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Frank Farnell... politician and public administrator, was born on 10 September 1861 at Ryde, New South Wales, second son of James Squire Farnell and his wife Margaret, née O'Donnell, both native-born. Educated at Newington College, Farnell worked as clerk for William Wolfen & Co., commission merchants, and in 1880 with the Railway Department where he advanced to pay clerk in 1883-85. Business ventures with the tea, wine and spirits firm, Allen, Bowden & Farnell, resulted in bankruptcy, first in 1889 (discharged 1891) and again in 1899 (discharged 1899).
Unsuccessful in the election of 1885, Farnell was returned to the Legislative Assembly for Central Cumberland in 1887 as a supporter of (Sir) Henry Parkes. He represented this electorate until 1894 and Ryde in 1894-98 and 1901-03. Party whip in the ministries of Parkes (1890) and (Sir) George Reid (1894), he was deputy chairman of committees in 1894-96, and a member of the Public Works Committee in 1896-98. He was on thirty-two committees of inquiry in 1887-97, and his public appointments included those of justice of the peace, commissioner to the International exhibitions at Melbourne (1888) and Chicago (1891), and honorary visiting magistrate to Lord Howe Island (1900-13).
As a political figure he was a solid, pragmatic local man, successfully avoiding the clashing loyalties of rival faction politics. One could view him as an archetypal fence-sitter, as when he kept silent during the divisive censure motion in 1894 by Parkes on his party leader Reid; whilst supporting Reid he privately assured Parkes of his wish for him 'to continue nobly to discharge those duties which have made you prominent … throughout Australia'. Though he professed a liberal disposition, his conservative instincts appeared on issues involving social change; he counselled caution in the women's suffrage debate of 1894 and warned of women 'losing the arts of washing and dressing a baby'. However, as a practical-minded man preferring to avoid party conflict in favour of compromise, he may well have represented the solidifying component in colonial politics during a period of impermanent and futile fiscal alignments.
From this perspective Farnell had a special commitment to two practical areas of politics-the reform and administration of the Fisheries Act (1881) and the development of the (Royal) National Park. Chairman of a select committee (1889) and a royal commission on fisheries (1894-95), he was also chairman of the Fisheries Board (1903-10), resigning from parliament in December 1903 in order to carry out his duties. His support of fishermen in netting, trawling and oyster farming in coastal estuary and river catchment areas would now be unpopular with conservationists, but at the time did advance the interests of coastal fisheries.
A member of the Intelligence and Tourist Bureau in 1904-10 he was a trustee of the National Park from 1888 and chairman in 1907-29. To Farnell the park was a reserve for the recreation and enjoyment of a growing city population, a policy promoted by the State's tourist publicity in agreements with private interests, and helped by the extension of the railway to the park. Though Farnell's dedication to the park and its welfare is undoubted, recent evaluation by historians presents him as 'a man with few ideas and an easy mark for those who wished to put sections of the park to their own personal or financial use'.
Captain of St George's Rifles in 1896, Farnell was president of the Sailors and Soldiers' Fathers' Association, a member of the Proportional Representation Society and of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales. He unsuccessfully contested the elections of 1913 (Bondi) and 1916 (Drummoyne) as an Independent Liberal, and 1920 (North Shore) as a Progressive. 6
Marriage Information:
Frank married Amy Briscoe Cox, daughter of Henry Robert Cox and Elizabeth, on 12 Aug 1889 in St. Andrew's Cathedral, Macquarie St., Sydney, N.S.W., Australia 1. (Amy Briscoe Cox was born in 1870 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 7 and died on 27 Oct 1942 in Leura, Blue Mountain, N.S.W., Australia 8 9.
Marriage Notes:
"On Monday afternoon in St. Andrew's (Anglican) Cathedral, Sydney, Miss Amy Briscoe Cox, daughter of the late H. E. Cox, of Pyrmont, was married to Mr. Frank Farnell, M.L.A. The service was accompanied by appropriate organ selections; and the marriage was solemnised by Dean Cowper. A large number of guests, the relations and friends of the contracting parties, occupied rows of seats on either side near the altar ; and the vergers were kept busily engaged in preventing too great a crush of spectators. Mr. Farnell, accompaned by his best man, and his groomsmen Messrs. James Cox and Percy K.Bowden, arrived at the church at 2.30 p.m., and were escorted to the vestry. About ten minutes later the bride, attended by six bridesmaids, was escorted to the altar. The bride's costume was of cream moiré, made with a long elegant train and a nicely fitting plainly made high bodice. An incroyable wreath of bridal flowers and long tulle veil, with a magnificent bouquet, completed a tasteful and rich, though simple toilette. The two chief bridesmaids (sisters of the bride) wore pure white plainly made but very elegant dresses of liberty silk, adorned with empire sashes of heliotrope surah ; millinery hats of white tulle trimmed with sprays of purple lilac and streamers of white ribbon, and carried lovely bouquets composed of purple violets, white camellias, hyacinths (white and purple), and maiden hair fern. Four little girls in attendance wore white liberty silk frocks, primrose sashes, and millinery hats of white net trimmed with sprays of yellow laburnam ; and all carried pretty baskets of blossoms and foliage At the conclusion of the ceremony the wedding party, numbering some 120, adjourned to Needs's Rooms, where an elegant dejeuner had been laid by an efficient staff of waiters from the catering establishment of Baumann, of Pitt-street. The tables (four in number) were artistically arranged ; the floral decorations being very pretty, and the combination of crystal, emerald, and ruby glass, white and pink camellias and fern fronds which was presented to the gaze, was very pleasing. The bride and bridegroom, with their nearest relatives, sat at the cross table, and immediately in front of them was placed an exquisitely-formed bridal cake upon a superb silver stand, at either side of which was a lovely bed of white and pink camellia blooms. Tho customary toasts having been honored the party broke up, but only to prepare for the ball which followed in tho evening, when the number of guests was increased to nearly 200. A merry evening was spent. The bridal bouquets and baskets of flowers used at the wedding were supplied by Searl, of King-street." 10
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