Robert Best (politician)

Sir Robert Wallace Best,

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood to (Northern) Irish immigrants, and raised in Kyneton, Best was educated at Templeton's School, Fitzroy. He left school at 13 and became a clerk in a printing office and then worked for a solicitor where he took articles and matriculated in 1875. He studied law at the University of Melbourne and was admitted as a solicitor in 1881. He married Jane Langridge the same year. He was elected as an alderman on Fitzroy City Council almost continuously from 1883 to 1897 and served as mayor in 1888 and 1889.^[1]

Political career

In April 1889, Best was elected to the

Best returned full-time to his legal practice, which he had never abandoned. After the death of his first wife in 1901, he married Maude Evelyn Crocker-Smith. He died in 1946 in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn survived by two sons and two daughters of his first marriage and four daughters of his second.^[1] His second daughter Phyllis Best was an actress who toured with Dame Sybil Thorndike and married fellow actor and radio personality Atholl Fleming.^[5] His third daughter, Helene Best, was a pianist who trained at the Melbourne Conservatory. She went to London in 1935.^[6] A son, Arthur Best, played for Melbourne and St Kilda in the Victorian Football League.^[7]

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