William Soltau Davidson (1846 - 1924)

Born 15 Jun 1846 in Ile de Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Jane Emily Davidson — married 10 Oct 1873 in Edinburgh, Scotland

Husband of Caroline Elizabeth (Thierens) Davidson — married 21 Aug 1889 in St Marys Church, Timaru

Died 17 Jul 1924 at age 78 in Leuchie, North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Keith Davidson [send private message]

Biography

William Davidson is Notable.

Born in Montreal, Canada, and was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, Scotland. After a chance conversation on a train, he elected to emigrate to New Zealand to commence sheep farming, arriving in Dunedin in 1865 on the ship Celaeno. He initially worked as a shepherd on the "Levels" estate for the Canterbury and Otago Association, soon promoted to supervise 15 Scottish shepherds on the 60,000 acres of high country on this property. After some skilled negotiations in freeholding some 75,000 acres for the Levels around 1875, he was promoted to Superintendent of the entire operation. Following the amalgamation of the Canterbury and Otago Association with the New Zealand and Australian Land Company he became Manager of the expanded operation covering some 3 million acres of South Island NZ, Victoria, NSW and Queensland, Australia,

On a trip back to Edinburgh, Davidson married Jane Emily Davidson, daughter of the sheriff of Midlothian, in October 1873.

By 1880 he and colleague Thomas Brydone were exploring meat preserving, dairying and the potential of refrigerated transport, after wool prices had dropped by over 33%.

On February 15 1882 the "Dunedin" sailed for London with what was to be the first commercially successful refrigerated shipping voyage. This was the foundation of NZ's revenue and export earnings.

He increasingly spent time in the UK as the Manager for the company, and while in UK his wife died in 1884, leaving care of their daughter Jane to William.

In 1887 he married Caroline Elizabeth Thomas Thierens. No children resulted.

He served on the boards of the National Bank of Scotland and the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company. He retired from the Managers position in 1916.

He died at Leuchie in North Berwick on 17 July 1924. He is buried in Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh.

In 2006 he was finally recognised and became a Laureate of the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. The invention of refrigerated shipping continues to have significant positive cash flow for New Zealand and Australia today, and the overall impact on the Antipodean economies utterly staggering.

Sources

• Family archives
• Wikidata: Item Q8018603, en:Wikipedia
• William Davidson_(agribusinessman)