William Augustus Fay: journalist

Of the seven original shareholders of the Northern Champion Printing and Publishing Company Limited registered by David Cowan in 1912, one seems an odd fit: William Augustus Fay, Taree, Journalist.¹

William was born in Hobart, Tasmania on 1 December 1855, the son of John Fay, a constable, and his wife Ellen.² A confident young man, boasting to potential employers of his “superior references”,³ he married the well-connected Frances Marie O’Donnell in Echuca in 1885.⁴

By 1903 William was living in Fitzroy, Melbourne giving his occupation as journalist.⁵ He then worked on various country newspapers including the Grafton Argus.⁶ He was unaware of the enlistment of three of his sons in WW1 as, in 1910, he had remarried – to Edith E Kritsch in Maclean – and had moved to Sydney where a daughter was born.⁷

In September 1912 William was appointed editor of the Northern Champion.⁸

In 1917 Mrs Edith Fay of Grafton sought the whereabouts of her husband claiming he had deserted her some four years earlier and noting that he was addicted to drink.⁹

In 1938 William, now involved in a mining venture in Victoria, tried to trace his son, Francis, only to discover that he had died on active service in 1918.¹⁰

William’s own death occurred at the Ballarat Benevolent Home in June 1941.¹¹

Author: Penny Teerman