Talk:Robert Richard Torrens

Untitled
Sir Robert Torrens was born in 1812, not in 1814 (see the Wakefield Companion to South Australian History. A man born in Ireland is a nIrishman, though the articles calls him an Australia. The River Torrens was named after Colonel Torrens, his father, not Sir Robert.
 * I don't have that book. Please add it as an external reference, and fix the dates if required. The article says he was born in Ireland, but was an Australian politician (ie a politician in Australia). It seems he was also an English politician, in the British House of Commons. --ScottDavis 04:46, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Robert Torrens' father (also Robert Torrens) at least was a member of the House of Commons. He's referred to as Colonel Robert Torrens in the article (John Stuart Mill writes of him as "Colonel Torrens"). The Germans have an article on the father: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Torrens EnSamulili 17:52, 16 July 2005 (UTC)

Supposed date of birth: 31 May 1814
This was added on 30 September 2009, over three years ago, by this edit. The anonymous editor provided no edit summary and no citation. All of their 6 edits to Wikipedia were made on that day.

I can find no independent corroboration of the date. It has no authority, and the edit was clearly vandalistic.

I have now edited it out. Better late than never. --  Jack of Oz   [Talk]  04:13, 11 October 2012 (UTC)

Year of Birth
Support for 1814 as his year of birth may be found in the (Adelaide) Express and Telegraph obituary, which says (in 1884) he had reached the age of 70 years. Weak perhaps, however its competitor, the South Australian Advertiser gives a number of milestones in his life, including 1814 as his YOB. The third Adelaide daily, the Register, gives no date, but its weekly, the Observer is adamant: 1814.

I have been unable to find any controversy in the newspapers, even from A. T. Saunders, who delighted in contradicting accepted wisdom, especially such articles as this by Fred Johns in the PS Review. Coming to the 20th century, the Encyclopedia Britannica; Australian Dictionary of Biography; Dictionary of National Biography (1885-1900); Heaton's Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time; Webster's Biographical Dictionary (two quite different editions); and Dictionary of Australian Biography; all give 1814, nem con, not to mention modern, and clearly derivative, collections such as What Happened When and Macquarie People and Places. None gives a day or month.

This does not make them right of course — they copy from each other — but that date stood for a long time before the Oxford DNB, Wakefield History and the SA Historical Society. Doug butler (talk) 00:29, 1 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Assuming 1812 is correct, I wonder if the "70 years" published by the Express and Telegraph only meant as an indication, but taken as precise, leading to an ineradicable and self-reinforcing furphy ? Doug butler (talk) 03:14, 1 May 2020 (UTC)

External links modified
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Real Property Act, etc.
In case anyone is wondering, I'm still working on this article (in between other distractions), and am intending to hive off Real Property Act 1858 into a new article once I have finished adding and tidying a few bits I have. Then will update related articles (Torrens Title, etc.) and come back to review and finish RR Torrens. Any suggestions and copyedits welcome in the meantime, but just putting this there in case it looks a bit lopsided or untidy along the way. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 08:05, 12 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Okay, I have now finished with this one for now (and updating a whole series of related articles as per info found for this one). Seems to match up to B class, although I see that UK politics seems to revert to C anyway. Laterthanyouthink (talk) 06:14, 16 November 2019 (UTC)