William Ievers Memorial Drinking Fountain
Public Art : William Ievers Memorial Drinking Fountain
Sculptor: © Charles Douglas Richardson
Description:
Date Unveiled: 1915
Location: The Ievers Drinking Fountain can be found in Argyle Square on Lygon Steet, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
Inscriptions:
Erected by
Councillor George Hawkins Ievers
in memory of his father.
COUNCILLOR WILLIAM IEVERS J.P.
A resident of Carlton from 1855-1901
and a representative of Smith Ward in the
Melb. City Council from 1895-1901
A good father and citizen
1819-1901
Who were the Ievers? : The Ievers Family may not be well remembered today but their three drinking fountains around Melbourne honouring their achievements are a reminder of the community work they did.
William Ievers (1818-1901) was an estate agent, born in 1818 in Limerick, Ireland. In 1836, during the wars of the Spanish succession, Ievers fought in Constantinople. After spending many years sailing the seas with the mercantile marine, William, his wife and six children set sail for Melbourne, Australia in 1855. Taking odd jobs to get established it wasn’t long before he had started his own real estate business.
William built up his business to be the largest in Melbourne and flourished during the 1870s and 1880s. Surprisingly, William’s firm came out of the great Depression pretty much unscathed by avoiding speculative buying during the land boom.
William was founder and director of the Colonial Permanent Building Society and supported many charities.
William had three sons, William Jr.(1839-1895), George (1845-1921) and Robert (1854-1910), none of the which had any children. This may explain why the Ievers legacy ceased to continue. In 1895 William was elected councillor for Smith ward in place of William Jr who had died earlier that year from a rowing acccident.
Following William’s passing his son George erected a memorial statue to him over a drinking fountain in Argyle Place, Carlton in 1915. The following year a memorial drinking fountain to William Ievers Jr was erected.
Ievers Trivia : The three Ievers brothers and friends founded the Beefsteak Club in 1886. It was a social club based on the old club in London.
William Jr’s funeral procession in 1895 included members of the Carlton Football Club of which he had been a vice-president.