Robert Travers Atkin was an Irish-born newspaper editor and politician in colonial Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Robert Travers Atkin (29 November 1841 – 25 May 1872) was an Irish-born newspaper editor and politician in colonial Queensland, Australia. He was a Member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly.
Early life
Atkin was born in Fernhill, County Cork, Ireland, the son of William Francis Atkin and his wife Alice Hungerford (née Stewart). In 1864 he married Mary Elizabeth née Ruck (1842–1920) and soon emigrated to Australia intending to take up sheep farming. However, little more than a year into their enterprise Robert was badly injured in a fall from a horse and the couple moved to Brisbane where Atkin became a journalist and politician. He always thought of himself as a Queenslander, and was President of the London Welsh Trust from 1938 to 1944. He had three sons in Brisbane, but in 1871, Mary took the children back to her own mother's house, "Pantlludw" on the River Dovey in Wales.
Newspaper editor
Atkin became editor of the Brisbane Guardian but resigned over policy disagreements. In partnership with W. C. Belbridge, Atkin started the Queensland Express in August 1868, but the paper lasted less than three years.
