Obituaries Australia

Samuel McCaughey, n.d.

from Pastoral Review and Graziers' Record, 16 February 1955

Mr. Samuel McCaughey, a member of one of the best-known grazing families of New South Wales, died at Manly District Hospital, Sydney, on the 29th January at the age of 62. He was the elder son of the late Mr. David McCaughey, who purchased Coree Station, near Jerilderie, N.S.W., in partnership with his brothers, Sir Samuel and Mr. John McCaughey, in 1881, and when the partnership was dissolved five years later Mr. David McCaughey became sole owner. According to old records at Coree the transaction entailed 120,898 acres 2 roods, freehold at 40s. an acre, 80,000 sheep, mixed ages and sexes, at 10s., and the stud (no numbers given) for a lump sum of £10,000. After the death of Mr. David McCaughey at Coree in February 1899 the estate was carried on by Sir Samuel McCaughey, Mr. John McCaughey, and Mr. Alfred Gell (his brother-in-law) as trustees. In 1911 they disposed of about 73,000 acres of the southern portion of the station in mixed farming and grazing blocks, and the remaining portion, comprising some 65,000 acres, was purchased by Mr. Samuel McCaughey in 1919. He also purchased Tongala Estate of 9000 acres, which was originally part of Coree, as a settlement on his wife, and which he leased and worked in conjunction with Coree.

For many years Coree was noted for the high quality of its Merino clip. In the early days the sheep were chiefly Havilah blood, but Mr. David McCaughey introduced imported American Vermont sires. However, when Mr. Gell was managing trustee he culled out all the wrinkly pure-bred American sheep and purchased rams from the Peppin stud of James Richmond, of Haddon Rig, Warren, N.S.W.

In 1938 the Coree Pastoral Company Pty. Ltd. was formed, and from then on sires of other well-known studs were introduced. In 1952 the late Mr. McCaughey and his brother, Mr. Roy McCaughey, gave the station to the nation for the establishment of a pastoral research and training institute as a memorial to the late Lieutenant Samuel Michael McCaughey and the late Air Gunner Leslie McPherson, who were killed in World War II. Lieutenant McCaughey was the only son of Mr. Samuel McCaughey, and Air Gunner McPherson was his nephew.

The late Mr. McCaughey was educated at Geelong Grammar School, Vic., and Cambridge, England. He returned to Coree shortly before World War I broke out, but early in 1915 enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery, subsequently joining the 46th Battery, 1st Division, in France. He returned from active service in 1919, the year in which Sir Samuel McCaughey died. He married in London in 1917 Miss Una McKellar, daughter of the late Mr. Duncan McKellar, of Kirkella, Stawell, Vic., who predeceased him. He is survived by four daughters, Unity (Mrs. M. Pheils), Miss Patricia McCaughey, Sally (Mrs. D. Birbeck), and Anne (Mrs. Gregory). His brother, Mr. Roy McCaughey, and two sisters, Dorothy (Mrs. B. D. Grantham) and Maude (Mrs. E. G. Dermer), also survive him.