Akademik

brother of David Syme (q.v.), was born at North Berwick, Scotland, in 1826. He went to the university of St Andrews to be educated for the ministry but finding difficulties in accepting the creeds of the day became an unattached evangelist, working mostly in the north of England . He also began to write for the reviews and succeeded George Eliot as assistant editor of the Westminster Review. In 1852 he sailed for Melbourne and immediately found occupation as a journalist. When the Age was founded in 1854 Syme joined the staff and two years later, the paper being in difficulties, it was sold to him and his brother, David. He was elected member for Mandurang in the first legislative assembly of Victoria, but as this conflicted with his journalistic work he did not stand again when his term expired. in 1857 he took sole control of the Age and joined in the struggle for the opening up of the lands. His health, however, began to suffer and he died after a lingering illness on 13 March 1860. His son, Joseph Cowen Syme, was for many years part proprietor and manager of the Age.

P. Mennell, The Dictionary of Australasian Biography; Ambrose Pratt, David Syme, the Father of Protection in Australia.