John Hodgson was a merchant who purchased large landholdings in Collingwood in the 1840s. He was the first owner of St Helier’s in Abbotsford, and was thus one of Collingwood’s earliest European inhabitants, before selling the property to Edward Curr in 1842. He was the original owner of the Studley Arms Hotel in Wellington Street, was Mayor of Melbourne from 1853 to 1854, and a member of the Legislative Council from 1853 to 1860.

W D Holgate was a driving force in the improvement of Clifton Hill in the 1880s, agitating for a railway service, a post office and a police station, building the Albert Hall, and establishing the Clifton Hill Literary Association before being elected to Collingwood council. He did not neglect his own financial welfare, making the most of the boom years for buying and selling property both as an agent and in his own right. He appears to have been a dynamic livewire with a wide range of interests, capable of switching from one career path to another without slowing pace.

George Horne was a doctor in Queens Parade Clifton Hill and a surgeon at the Women’s Hospital. As well as his busy professional life he immersed himself in studying Aboriginal life and customs, and amassed a significant collection of stone implements and weapons. His book Savage life in Central Australia was regarded as a notable addition to the scientific literature of Australia. Natural history, especially the study of birds, was another of his passions. His obituary described him as ‘a notable figure in the medical and intellectual life of the city’.

Robert Hurst was a successful bootmaker, unusual in that he not only manufactured and imported boots and shoes, but sold them in his own shops. The number one shop was in Smith Street on the corner of Peel Street (demolished) and he had shops in many other suburbs and the city as well as Ballarat and Geelong.

Captain Charles Hutton left an enduring legacy in Collingwood, as he was responsible for subdividing land northwards from Victoria Parade as well as building himself a landmark mansion, which survived until the 1920s.

Eva Ireland, born in Tasmania, taught with her father who was head of the Collegiate School in Hobart before coming to Victoria. She joined the Methodist Sisterhood, taking the name of Sister Faith, and worked with the Collingwood Methodist Mission for 12 years.

Richard Kefford was the eldest child of a fishmonger in London’s East End. From these humble beginnings the family migrated to Australia where his father became a successful farmer in Nunawading and Richard junior’s entrepreneurial spirit brought him success and led to the founding of a transport empire.

William Kidney was prominent in local business, politics, municipal and community affairs. He and his older brother Thomas ran a successful men’s clothing outfitters in Smith Street and both were honorary magistrates, William in Collingwood and Thomas in Fitzroy. William was a Collingwood councillor in the 1870s, while Thomas was active as a political agitator through his organisation known as  the Kidney Parliament. They provide an example of Britons who came to Victoria after hearing about the Gold Rush but made their money in the retail sector rather than digging for gold themselves.

Yorkshire-born Nathaniel Kinsman and his wife Lydia came to Victoria in 1849. After working as an assessor for Melbourne City Council, he set up his own business in Fitzroy. He was at first connected with St Mark’s Anglican Church in Fitzroy, and became associated with the new East Collingwood congregation, eventually known as St Philip’s. There he conducted lay services until he seceded to form the Victorian Free Church of England. He was to become known as ‘The Marrying Vicar’, reportedly officiating at more than 7000 marriages.

Harriet Watts married Maximilian Ludwig Kreitmayer, a waxworks modeller, in 1884 and moved into Home Lodge  in St Helier’s Street Abbotsford, where three children were born to the couple. Harriett was involved with various philanthropic activities in Collingwood, filled the role of Mayoress during Max’s council term, and took over management of the famous waxworks after his death in 1906.

Grandly named Maximilian Ludwig Kreitmayer was an extraordinary and talented fellow who ran a famous waxworks museum, lived in St Helier’s Street Abbotsford from 1880 until his death, and was a Collingwood councillor from 1887 (Mayor 92-93).  He was described in Our local men of the times as a convivial spirit possessing ‘never-tiring energy and fertile originality’. Among his intimate associates ‘his large-heartedness and pleasant ways made him a respected and conscientious friend’. 

Charlotte Lamb is an example of an unsung heroine, a teacher who performed her duties well and faithfully for over forty years, including a notable period of seven years at Collingwood’s Home of Hope in Easey Street, where her kindly approach would have brightened the lives of the unfortunate little inmates.

Laura Langley resided only briefly in Collingwood at the time of the 1890s recession, but she played an active role there as an agent of the Australian Church. Working with the Church’s Social Improvement Society, which had been established by the Reverend Charles Strong, her role included managing a receiving house for neglected children.  The principal object of the society was ‘by lectures, visiting among the poor and sick, care for neglected children, social meetings and every other means in its power — to improve the social condition of the poor’. 

Always formally referred to as Miss Langley throughout her employment, Violet St Clare Langley was matron of the Collingwood Crèche for nine years, from 1889 until 1898. The Crèche was established by the Reverend Dr Charles Strong and his wife Janet to provide a safe affordable place for poor working women of Collingwood to leave their children to be cared for. Matron Langley, known in family circles as Clare or Clara, lived in and had a long working day.

Langridge will be a name familiar to Collingwood residents, if for no other reason than the existence of the street named after him. Many others will have admired his mansion in North Terrace,  Clifton Hill, probably without knowing for whom it was built. They may also have noticed the large building at 64 Smith Street known as Foresters Hall and wondered what the words on the pediment – Court Perseverance - signify. To nineteenth century Collingwoodians, on the other hand, he would have been a household name in his role as councillor, politician, auctioneer, proprietor of the  Langridge Mutual Permanent Building Society, and Freemason, not to mention his involvement with local cricketing and football teams. And as he entered the Victorian Government Ministry, eventually acting briefly as Premier, he was known far more widely.

Ralph Laver was the youngest of a family of seven talented brothers who made their mark on the world in medicine, music, sport and manufacturing. He established himself in Collingwood in 1893, first as a greengrocer and then as a fruit and vegetable canner with his brother, developing a large trade throughout Australia as well as England and China. Laver Brothers also supplied tinned vegetables and fruit for Mawson’s Antarctic Expedition.

Levens ran a drapery in Wellington Street for many years and was active in the Collingwood community, being appointed an honorary magistrate in 1877 and acting as a member of the Collingwood School Board of Advice in the 1870s and 1880s. At the time of his death he was the oldest justice of the peace in Collingwood.

Dr A C Livingston was a medical practitioner who also served as the Honorary Officer of Health for the Collingwood municipality from October 1856 until his death in 1884. He was a member of a family whose destiny has been shaped by medicine until the present day. The many generations of doctors and nurses range from his grandfather Dr Alexander Livingston, regimental surgeon in the 73rd Regiment of Foot, to the distinguished Brenan descendants of his brother James Cooper Livingston. 

Harriet Longdill spent less than a decade in Collingwood, but held a significant post as a deaconess of the Australian Church. She worked with the Church’s Social Improvement, Friendly Help and Children’s Aid Society, which had been established by the Reverend Charles Strong. A major component of her role was managing a receiving house for neglected children, so she became a well-known face in local courthouses in the 1890s before returning to New Zealand in 1896.  

The Lynch family lived in Abbotsford for around seventy years. George arrived in Victoria in the 1850s and was an accountant in the Sheriff's department before being appointed deputy sheriff of Victoria, a position he kept until his retirement at the age of 60. Anne Morton came to Australia in 1855, following her brother George Morton whose letters home about life in the colony must have proved enticing. Some of Anne’s letters to England have also been preserved. She was living in Richmond when she met and married George Lynch and bore their first child. The young couple soon moved into a wooden cottage in Victoria Street, Abbotsford and later added a brick villa on their large block. 

John Forbes Mackenzie was an eminent physician and surgeon who practised in Clifton Hill and Collins Street for many years and was also consulting surgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital in Fitzroy. In 1940 a portrait of him painted by Max Meldrum won the Archibald Prize.

Carlington George Edmund Marston came from Dublin. He started business as a chemist in 1858 or 1860, renting a shop in Smith Street somewhere between Otter and Stanley streets (numbered 192 at the time). Marston married in 1860 and promptly started a family. Around 1862 he moved to what was then numbered 152 Smith Street (south of Stanley Street). A photograph from this era shows a fine pair of brick two-storeyed shops with residences above, contrasting with what were then the more typical single storey timber shops of Smith Street in its early years. 

Anna Julia Josephine McCormick lived with her widowed mother and sister Ellen Maria (Ella) in St Heliers Street Abbotsford from the 1880s until her death in 1924. She became joint principal, with Harriet Elphinstone Dick, of the Ladies Gymnasium in the city. She specialised in medical gymnastics and massage for spinal and other deformities. According to her obituary in The Advocate: 

The whole of Miss McCormick’s career was taken up in alleviating the bodily suffering of other people, and these included a great number of children whose spinal and similar complaints necessitated special treatment scientifically administered. [her] exceptional gifts had brought her into well-deserved prominence.

Georgiana was born in London, the natural daughter of George, marquis of Huntly, (afterwards fifth Duke of Gordon), and Jane Graham. She was well educated and a very talented artist, especially noted for her portraits and miniatures.  Following her husband Andrew McCrae, she and her four sons arrived in Melbourne in March 1841. They leased land from Charles Nicholson, who had bought land in the first Collingwood land sales of 1838-39, and had a house built to Georgiana’s design. Her diary, although now known to be not either as forthright or original as once believed, gives us a marvellous insight into Melbourne life in the early years of settlement. In the few years that they resided at Mayfield, we hear of the children’s activities on their nine-acre block, the Aboriginals, the local flora, and riverbank neighbours, such as the Campbells who lived in Campbellfield, the Currs at St Helier’s, and James Simpson at Yarra Grange. The boys had an excellent tutor who interested his young charges in nature study as well as the academic pursuits. Agnes La Trobe, the governor’s daughter, joined the boys for lessons in 1843.

Andrew McCutcheon, a Methodist minister, architect and social activist, played a central role in the politics and development of the City of Collingwood in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a local councillor and mayor in Collingwood before becoming a prominent member of John Cain’s Victorian Labor government in the 1980s.