The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Arnold, Hon. William Munnings
Arnold, Hon. William Munnings, M.L.A., second son of the Rev. Richard Arnold, was born at Ellough, Suffolk, England, in 1820, and arrived in New South Wales in 1839, when he settled on the Paterson river. In 1856 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Durham and Paterson, and in 1858 was chosen Chairman of Committees. From March 1860 to Oct. 1863 he was Minister for Public Works in the Robertson and Cowper Ministries, and shared in the carrying of the Land Act of 1861. In the subsequent Cowper Ministry he held the same post from Feb. to Oct. 1865, when he was for a few days Minister of Lands, and subsequently acted as Speaker of the Assembly from Nov. 1865 to March 1st, 1875, when he was drowned in the floods at Stradbroke, his estate on the Paterson river.