Edward William Andrews was a newspaper editor in the early days of the Colony of South Australia. He was born the eldest son of Rev. Edward Andrews, LL.D., a Congregationalist minister of Walworth, London, and started life as a merchant, eventually becoming a member of the London Stock Exchange. He and his family migrated to South Australia on the Anna Robertson, arriving in Adelaide on 20 September 1839.
Business
In December 1830 he helped found the South Australian Insurance Joint Stock Company, and early in 1840 founded the firm of Gorton & Andrews, merchants. He had a close personal and business relationship with James Frew of Frew & Co. Andrews was declared insolvent in 1843 and the company was declared insolvent in 1846. In 1841 Andrews became a Director of the Marine Fire and Life Insurance Company. In 1850 or thereabouts, Andrews joined the staff of the South Australian newspaper, then joined the staff of the Register shortly after the death of John Stephens. After having been run for some time by John Taylor, the Register and its weekly sister publication, the Adelaide Observer, were purchased in May 1853 by a consortium of Andrews, William Kyffin Thomas, Anthony Forster and Joseph Fisher. From that date to the time of his death he took an active part in the management of that journal.
Public works
In January 1840, Andrews was elected a member of the first Adelaide City Council, serving for two years.
In April 1840 was appointed a member of the Committee for the Protection of Religious Freedom, whose object was to secure the abolition of the Colonial Chaplaincy, thus putting all denominations on an equal footing free from State control.
In 1867 he was elected Mayor of Glenelg. It was as mayor that he was the first person to welcome the Duke of Edinburgh on his arrival in South Australia on 30 October 1867.
He was an active member of the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society, and in 1860 was elected President; and until his death he was one of the Vice-Presidents. He edited, gratis, the Society's short-lived journal Farm and Garden.
He was also for some time one of the Governors of the Botanic Gardens.
Mutual societies
Shortly after Andrews' arrival in the colony, he became a member of the Masonic Order. He was initiated in the Lodge of Friendship in the year 1840, and for many years was an active member and for a considerable time Master of the Lodge of Harmony, and on his retiring from the chair in 1853 he was presented with a handsome Past Master's jewel by the members of the Lodge. In 1848 he was appointed Secretary of the Provincial Grand Lodge of the English Constitution, which office he filled until 1854. On resigning he was presented with a valuable gold watch and chain by the members of the Provincial Grand Lodge in recognition of his services. He was also for many years a prominent member of the Society of Oddfellows.
Family
Andrews' brother Frederick George Andrews was an insurance broker in Melbourne who came to Adelaide in 1840 on the Countess of Durham. He married Jane Fullarton Frew on 14 February 1849. She was a sister of James Frew jun.. His sister Emily Augusta was married to Coventry Patmore, artist and author of Angel in the House. Andrews married Emily Annette Bray. He married again, to Margaret Elizabeth Hunter on 8 January 1861. He had two sons and two daughters by his first wife:
Eliza Annette
Hargrave Edward,
Helen Johnstone married Frederic Law of Penola on 22 December 1869. She remarried, to James Frew jun. on 20 July 1876. There is no record of her having married a third time.
Forester Benjamin married Janet Dickson Brown, children: Forester Edward Hargrave William, Ernest Hunter, Arthur Alexander, Percival Henry, Margaret Elizabeth, Edward William, and Edith Maude Hayes.
In the hope of recovering his failing health, he journeyed to Port Elliot, but died shortly after from a disease of the liver.
Obituary
, in the persona of "Geoffry Crabthorn" wrote a moving tribute to his friend and colleague:
