Photographic portrait of Hugh Childers, colonial civil servant and politician, circa 1885.

Albumen print photograph, carte de visite format, 104 x 63 mm (mount), recto and verso with imprint of Elliott & Fry, Photographers, London; both the print and mount are in fine condition.

Oxford-educated civil servant Hugh Culling Eardley Childers (1827-1896) arrived in Melbourne with his wife in 1850. In 1851 he was appointed inspector of Denominational schools, commissioner of National schools, and immigration agent. The following year he became a director of the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company, was appointed auditor-general, and nominated to the Legislative Council, playing a key part in drafting the constitution bill for the Colony of Victoria. In 1856 Childers won the seat of Portland in the Legislative Assembly. Between 1853 and 1857 he also served as the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne. In 1858 he returned to England permanently, where he entered politics. He represented Pontefract in the House of Commons from 1860-1885 and Edinburgh South from 1886-1892. Throughout his political career he continued to promote Australian interests and ideas, campaigning against transportation to Western Australia, lobbying for the adoption of the Australian ballot system, persuading the British Government to provide the Colony of Victoria with a warship in 1866, and representing Victoria as agent-general and as a commissioner at the London International Exhibition of 1872.