George William Hannaford was born on 4 January 1852, the son of farmer George Williams Hannaford and his wife Ann (née Cornish) of ‘Hatchlands’ in Hartley Vale, near Gumeracha, South Australia.
South Australia was unique among the Australian colonies in that the South Australian Literary and Scientific Association assembled a subscription library before the settlers left Britain.
Robert Barr Smith had a genius for business. He was also a generous philanthropist, though his modesty dictated that much of the funding was dispensed anonymously.
Best known as a governor of South Australia, Sir Mark Oliphant was also a pioneering nuclear physicist, who became an outspoken anti-nuclear campaigner.