Stafford Bird

Bolton Stafford Bird CMG (30 January 1840 – 15 December 1924[1]) was an English-born Australian Congregationalist clergyman, farmer and politician.

Bird was born in Hazlerigg, Northumberland, the son of the local schoolmaster.

In 1874 he took over the church in Davey Street, Hobart, Tasmania, but resigned in 1877 due to ill-health and bought a farm near Geeveston in the Huon district.

In August 1891, however, the Bank of Van Diemen's Land, with whom Bird held a mortgage, collapsed and he lost the farm, moving to a much smaller property at Lunawanna on Bruny Island.

He then served as Leader of the Opposition until 1894 and then Speaker of the House of Assembly until December 1896.