Sir Richard Davies Hanson

A forgotten hero in Adelaide- South Australia

The Institute Building on Adelaide’s Cultural Boulevard

‘When he arrived in the colony Richard Davies Hanson had much to prove. His strident and some would say idiosyncratic views about religion were given immediate voice in the South Australian League for the Maintenance of Religious Freedom but he had other pastures to forage. He was a strong supporter of the South Australian Institute on North Terrace and Mechanics Institutes in general. Secular education, Lending Libraries and later the Philosophical Society all captured his attention. In his early years in Adelaide he was relentless in his pursuit of the separation of powers between Church and State and with his incisive legal mind took to Bishop Short’s proposal for the Anglican Cathedral to be built in Victoria Square with the tenacity of a bulldog. With a deep and comprehensive understanding of the original principles of the South Australian Commission, when the Bishop tried to take the City Corporation to Court over the matter, he successfully argued that the Anglican Church was not the State Church per say and there was no right in law for any religious body to build and own property on any part of the people’s parklands.’

If you wish to know more then please go to torrenspress.com where you can purchase this beautifully illustrated three volume set of books containing nearly sixty biographies of the men and women named on Adelaide’s main streets and boulevards.