Vernon Redwood

Redwood was born at Riverlands near Blenheim, Marlborough, New Zealand,[2] one of 15 siblings to parents Charles Redwood (1836–1915) and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Grimstone, 1843–1912).[1][3] Henry Redwood (1823–1907) and Francis Redwood (1839–1935) were his uncles.[3][4] The Redwood family members were all staunch Catholics[4] and his uncle Francis was the first Archbishop of Wellington.[5]

Vernon Redwood was educated by the Christian Brothers in New Zealand[1] before coming to Australia in 1893 where he found work on Westbrook Station where one of his duties was the cutting of prickly pear.[6]

In 1895 he became a maltster at the Perkins & Co brewery in Toowoomba[1] and many of his brothers joined him as maltsters. In 1897, his parents also emigrated to Queensland, with his father joining his sons in the malting business.[7] In the end, only four of his siblings remained in New Zealand.[3] In 1902, he established his own maltings business.[1] In 1904 the business was sold to William Jones & Son,[6] and he was its general manager until 1913. In 1913 he established the Redwood Toowoomba Grain Exchange but the business quickly failed and was liquidated later the same year.[1]

After being awarded £500 in a libel action against the Darling Downs Gazette, he moved to Europe and settled in London where he became a member of an anti-prohibitionist group, the Fellowship of Freedom and Reform.[1] In 1896 he married Mary Werkin Wakefield and together had 3 sons and four daughters.[8] He died in London in 1954.[1]

Redwood was a member of the Gowrie Shire Council and for some time was an Alderman on the Toowoomba City Council including its mayor in 1910.[1]

At the 1904 Queensland state elections he stood for the two-member seat of Drayton and Toowoomba but was beaten by fellow Ministerialists James Tolmie and John Fogarty.[9] When Fogarty died later that same year Redwood stood at the by-election but was once again beaten, this time by the Labour candidate, Edward Smart.[10]

He finally won the seat at the 1907 state election but held it for only two years before his defeat in 1909.[1]