Sir Walter Watson Hughes

(1803-1887) Ship’s Captain, mine owner

Walter Hughes was born 22/8/1803 in Pittenweem, son of Thomas Hughes and Eliza Anderson. His father crewed aboard Anstruther’s Customhouse pinnace which was stationed at Crail, where Walter attended school. Later the boat was based at Anstruther and the family moved to Cellardyke. Walter then apprenticed as cooper with George Sharp, fishcurer, who had then just begun in business.

In 1825 Walter signed up for a whaling voyage to Davis Straits with Captain William Smith, of Cellardyke, on board the “North Pole”. At twenty-three years of age, he was seen to be a very good seaman,

In 1829 he voyaged to Calcutta and soon rose to command a vessel with which he successfully traded for several years in Oriental waters. He subsequently bought the brig “Hero” and traded in opium in the pirate-infested Indian and China seas.

After a few years he took residence in Adelaide, exchanging the adventures of the mariner’s life for that of an affluent and independent settler. However, through bad investments and partnerships he was stripped of his fortune. Not to be defeated by this disaster he set up as a sheep farmer.

In 1860 a shepherd made a discovery of copper on the Wallaroo property. Hughes became the largest shareholder in the Wallaroo Mine Co. erecting furnaces for smelting and preparing the copper ore for export. Soon afterwards copper was found on Hughes’s Moonta property. The Moonta mine had phenomenal success and was the first in Australia to pay over £1,000,000 in dividends.

Captain Hughes came back to Fife in 1864 when he, concerned with the safety of the local fishermen, commissioned a local boatbuilder to build a bigger and safer design than the traditional Fifie fishing boat. The vessel was called the Pioneer and Walter Hughes gifted it to Cellardyke Skipper Thomas Ritchie who had lost his boat the year before.

Hughes’ large properties amounted to more than 33,000 acres. He made many charitable donations including gifts to the poor of Cellardyke. In 1872 his donation of £20,000 was used to found the University of Adelaide.

In 1873, he moved permanently to Surrey. In 1880 he was knighted for his services to South Australia. He died in 1887, he had no children. His vast property was left to relations.                                                  

  Research by Richard Wemyss