Charles Cruickshank’s life had been proving elusive. His career is detailed from 1852 to at least 1869 in the relevant Victorian Government Blue Books and the Victoria Government Gazette, though he appears in the Blue Books as Charles Cruickshank, C Cruickshank, A C Cruickshank (possibly), Charles Edward Cruickshank, and C O Cruickshank. The dates and jobs strongly suggest that are all the same person, though with a couple of caveats.

This Research Note uses Blue Book 1852 [01], Blue Book 1853 [02], Blue Book 1854 [03], Blue Book 1855 [04], Blue Book 1856 [05], Blue Book 1857 [06], Blue Book 1858 [07], Blue Book 1859 [08], Blue Book 1860 [09], Blue Book 1861 [10], Blue Book 1862 [11], Blue Book 1863 [12], Blue Book 1864 [13], Blue Book 1865 [14], Blue Book 1866 [15], Blue Book 1867 [16], and Blue Book 1879 [17], as well as the Victoria Government Gazette .

We find in Blue Book 1852 that C Cruickshank was appointed an Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Fields [Assistant Gold Commissioner] on 1 November 1852. Blue Book 1852 confirms that this date was the “date of First Appointment under the Colonial Government.”

Blue Book 1853 has him as a Junior Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Gold Fields – the department having split the Assistant Commissioner position into Senior and Junior ranks – and that he resigned on 7 May 1853.

Blue Book 1853 also has A C Cruickshank, appointed a Clerk in the Gold Commissioner’s Department on 18 May 1853 and “removed to the goldfields” on 11 July 1853 (meaning that he was transferred from the Melbourne office to one of the gold field offices).

Let’s unpack this. C Cruckshank resigned on 7 May 1853. That doesn’t necessarily mean that he departed from the Civil Service. A person is often reported to have resigned before taking up a position in another department or another role, though sometimes the phrase “removed to another department” was used. In this case, however, C Cruickshank and A C Cruickshank were in the same department – the Gold Commissioner’s.

Only 11 days after C Cruickshank resigned, A C Cruickshank is a Clerk in the Gold Commissioner’s office. Each department supplies information to the Registrar-General’s office for publication in the Blue Book and sometimes errors or corrections take a year or two to appear (if the person is still employed).

However, Blue Book 1853 notes that A C Cruickshank’s first Victorian Civil Service appointment was on 17 May 1853, suggesting that A C Cruickshank was not the same person as C Cruickshank and so it was a coincidence that the former started the same month that the latter resigned. I doubt that the Gold Commissioner’s Department would have confused the two if they were the same man, but it’s also quite a coincidence.

The simplest explanation is that A C Cruickshank and C Cruickshank were the same person, even if the dates suggest they were not.

Blue Book 1853 also lists Charles Cruickshank as a Clerk in the Audit Office under the Auditor-General. He was appointed on 1 September 1853 and his first appointment is 27 October 1852. Based on the first appointment date, this is almost certainly the C Cruickshank who had been a Gold Commissioner. There are a couple of examples of men who had been gold commissioners or police magistrates being “demoted” to clerk. Over time the dates in the Blue Books represented the date from which length of service was calculated. This C Cruickshank was probably appointed a Gold Commissioner on 27 October 1852 and began on 1 November 1852, or vice versa.

Blue Book 1854 repeats this information. In Blue Book 1855, Blue Book 1856, and Blue Book 1857, the man working in the Audit office is listed as Charles Edward Cruickshank, Charles E Cruickshank, or just C E Cruickshank. The dates are the same as the 1853 and 1854 listings, though the 1857 listing changes the first appointment date to 1 September 1853. This could be an error by the compiler of the 1857 edition or it took them five years to realise that this Cruickshank is not the guy who started in 1852. I doubt the latter.

The Cruickshank who was the Clerk in the Audit Office is not in Blue Book 1858.

Blue Book 1858 does see the listing of C Cruickshank (or C O Cruickshank in 1866, which I suspect is an error). This C Cruickshank was appointed 2nd Clerk of the County Court at Sandhurst (Bendigo) on 12 April 1858. His first appointment date was on 20 October 1852. This information is repeated in the 1859 to 1866 Blue Books.

This is undoubtedly “our” Charles Cruickshank. The change of the first appointment date by a week is not uncommon. By the 1860s this was the date of being appointed to the permanent staff of the Civil/Public Service. Through the late 1850s and into the 1860s – and particularly with the Civil Service Act of 1862 – the organisation of the Victorian Public Service was being restructured and many dates were revised to better signify the start of a person’s service, and, ultimately, their seniority, retirement age, and pension.

The Victoria Government Gazette adds that Charles Cruickshank was appointed Clerk of Petty Sessions at Epsom on 7 January 1858 [18], before being appointed 2nd Clerk of the County Court at Sandhurst on 12 April 1858 [19] – as in Blue Book 1858. I have not found the Gazette notice of his appointment to Castlemaine, but on 4 June 1866, he (as “C Cruickshank“) was confirmed as also being the Clerk of Petty Sessions at Chewton, a role he had been filling since 4 April 1866 [20]. Next, he was assigned as Clerk of Petty Sessions at Ballarat East on 18 February 1867 [21].

After Blue Book 1867, the next I have is Blue Book 1879 and there is no Cruickshank, so he left the Public Service between 1869 and 1879.

The Victoria Government Gazette has him appointed Acting 2nd Clerk of Petty Sessions at Castlemaine and Clerk of Petty Sessions at Chewton (again) on 8 February 1869 [22]. What happens next is not in the Victoria Government Gazette index, so will have to wait until I can go through the Gazette issues one by one.

So, to summarise, I believe Charles (Edward) Cruickshank served in the Victorian Civil Service from 1852 until at least 1869. He was an Assistant/Junior Commissioner of Crown Lands, Clerk in the Audit Office of the Auditor-General, then a Clerk of the County Court and of Petty Sessions.

The A C Cruickshank who was a Clerk in the Gold Commissioner’s office in 1853 may or may not be him. But then again, why was a middle name of Edward used in the Blue Books if not to differentiate him from another Charles Cruickshank? It is worth noting that in later years a full name was given in the Blue Books and the later Public Service Lists.

The story continues in the next Research Note: Charles Cruickshank Found!.