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Showing posts from December, 2013

New Donation of Abraham Colles Portraits

On Friday 29 th November the College was delighted to receive a donation of three Colles portraits (two of Abraham Colles, one of Sophia Colles) from Mr. Michael Brooke and family in Australia. Abraham Colles (1773-1843) Mr. Brooke’s family are descendants of Abraham’s fifth son, Richard. Richard was born in Dublin in 1818 and received his BA from Trinity College Dublin in 1841. After a decade at the English Bar he migrated to Australia taking up residence in Castlemaine, Victoria in 1852. Richard became Sheriff of Castlemaine and held that position for 35 years. He was close friends with the famous Australian explorer Robert Burke O’Hara (1820-1861). On his explorations of the Australian outback O’Hara named a mountain in the north-eastern corner of Queensland ‘Mt. Collis’ after his friend. O’Hara died in the outback near Cooper Creek in South Australia in 1861. Richard laid the foundation stone of the O’Hara memorial in Castlemaine 1862.  Sophia Colles, wife of Abrah