Richard William Mackie Waddy

 

Richard William Mackie Waddy (1848–1933) was Deputy Post-Master-General and Superintendent of Telegraphs in South Australia.

He was born in Kapunda on 26 April 1858. The first child of Dr Edward Waddy and Jane Waddy (nee Russell).

Edward Waddy was the first Kapunda Mines doctor. The family left Kapunda and moved to Kooringa, then Mount Barker, and later Strathalbyn. Waddy was educated the Strathalbyn Public School, where he finished top of his class. In 1860, at the age of 12, he was offered a position at the local Telegraph Office, which he took.

 Waddy worked his way up through the ranks of the telegraph office, which later merged with the postal office. He held many important positions including; Operator, Cashier, Clerk in charge of Foreign Accounts, Corresponding Clerk, Secretary of the State Postal and Telegraph Service, Chief Clerk of the Commonwealth Postal and Telegraph Service, and from 1905 until 1913 as Deputy Postmaster-General and Superintendent of Telegraphs in South Australia.

Waddy married Alice Mary Simpson Vercoe on 4 December 1870. Together they had seven children;

Mary Ruth Waddy (1871–1908)

Francis Edward Waddy (1873–1964)

Ernest Winthrop Waddy (1875–1952)

Richard Edgar Waddy (1878–1880)

Egbert Harold Waddy 91882–1945)

Ethel Alice Waddy (1885–?)

Theodore Milroy Waddy (1888–1958)

 

Alice Waddy died on 21 October 1933 at Glenelg, South Australia.

Richard Waddy died on 3 November 1933 at Glenelg, South Australia.

 

 

1933, Chronicle, 9 November, p. 18., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page8668039

1913 'TOO OLD AT 65.', The Advertiser, 11 January, p. 6., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5362492

SLSA: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+422

 

Researched by Allen Tiller 2021.