Edward H. LascellesPrint Page

The memorial laboratory commemorates Edward Harewood Lascelles who was a pastoralist and businessman. Public subscription paid for the 1921 Lascelles Memorial Chemistry Building to commemorate the father of Geelong's wool trade.

At the age of 14 years E. H. Lascelles entered the office, then situated in the Public Library Buildings in Moorabool Street, Geelong, of his uncle, the late Mr. C. J. Dennys, a splendid type of pioneer, who did much to further the Commercial development of the district. Upon his attaining his majority in the year 1868, Mr. Lascelles was admitted into partnership, and the firm became Messrs. Dennys, Lascelles and Co. Subsequent partners of what soon became — thanks largely to the energy and ability of the young partner — the largest wool and produce business in the Western District of Victoria, were the late David Strachan and Sidney Austin, Mr. Marcel Conran, and Mr. George Young, but one by one they died or retired from the firm, leaving Mr. Lascelles as the sole proprietor until the flourishing business was founded into a limited company, under the name of Dennys, Lascelles Limited. 

E. H. Lascelles was largely responsible for the building up on a sound foundation of the wool-selling trade of Australia, and Geelong in particular. In this and other matters his foresight was remarkable. The fact that he saw so far ahead was responsible for the many uphill fights, which he so resolutely won, and the results of which are benefiting, and will continue to benefit, those who follow him for generations to come.

Great and successful as Mr. Lascelles' labours in the interests of his firm and all phases of the wool industry undoubtedly were, it is as the lion-hearted developer of that once barren tract of Victoria, known as the Mallee, that he is even more worthy of recognition. 

Lascelles was for several years a commissioner of the Geelong Harbor Trust and was prominent in local rowing, tennis and golf clubs. 

Yesterday morning the Mayor of Geelong, Ald. Hitchcock, and Messrs R Purnell, M.L.A., and G. R. King, waited on the Minister, for Education with a request that the State Government should assist the Gordon Technical College in establishing a chemical laboratory in conjunction with the proposed Lascelles memorial, on a £1 for £1 basis. The deputation pointed out to the Minister that it was proposed to found a Lascelles Memorial, to which the residents of Geelong and others had already subscribed £2500. This memorial, it is suggested, should take the form of an extra wing to be erected to the Gordon Technical College, and it is with the object of establishing a chemical laboratory in that wing that the deputation sought Government assistance. The Minister promised to arrange an interview between the members of the deputation and the Chief Inspector of Technical Schools and the Chief Architect of the Public Works Department for Saturday morning next. It is understood that the plans will be immediately prepared, so that the work may be commenced without delay.
Geelong Advertiser (Vic), 5 February 1920.

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