Joseph Symes grew up in a Methodist household and trained for the ministry, but changed his religious views prior to ordination and became a secularist. Symes gained a reputation in England as a fine speaker and was highly regarded as an astronomer and geologist.
Symes migrated to Australia in 1884 at the invitation of the Victorian secularists. He soon bought a printing press and began publishing the Liberator. He continued to be outspoken on matters of free speech and was prosecuted on several occasions (and gaoled once). ‘His radicalism, probably the most extreme to be announced in nineteenth-century Australia, was too thorough for the Democratic Club, which thrice black-balled him.’
Symes ‘died of chronic heart disease in London on 28 December 1906 while visiting England ... His death passed apparently without comment in the colonies; yet he contributed much to the distinctive sharpness of argument and combative righteousness of radicalism in Victoria.'
Source: F. B. Smith, 'Symes, Joseph (1841–1906).' Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
Sighted: 18 September 2013
