The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/King, Hon. George
King, Hon. George, M.L.C., whose father was a partner in the firm of Balfour & Co., of Riga, Russia, was born in that city on Dec. 21st, 1814, and received his education and mercantile training in London and on the Continent. He emigrated to Australia in July 1839, and settled in Sydney, where he was a director of the Australian Trust Company, of the Commercial Banking Company, and of the London Chartered Bank. He was for fifteen years chairman of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, for some time a member of the Board of Advice of the Australian Agricultural Company, and has acted as a director of the Clarence and Richmond River Steam Navigation Company, and Chairman of the Melbourne Marine Insurance Company. He was elected M.L.A. for East Sydney in 1869, and sat till the dissolution. Mr. King visited England in 1874, but returned and settled permanently in Queensland in the following year, being created a Knight of the Crown of Italy on his retirement from the Sydney consulship for Italy. In 1880 Mr. King accepted the Executive Commissionership for Queensland at the Melbourne International Exhibition, and represented the colony on the steel rails inquiry held in London in 1881. He was called to the Legislative Council of Queensland in 1882.