Philip King

Philip Gidley King (31 October 1817 – 5 August 1904) was a pastoralist and politician in New South Wales, Australia. He was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council.

Philip Gidley King was born in Parramatta to Philip Parker King and Harriett Lethbridge; his grandfather, Philip Gidley King, was Governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1806. He was educated at Deptford in England from 1824 to 1825, and in 1831 became a midshipman; during this time he became a friend of Charles Darwin. In 1836 he returned to Parramatta, and subsequently he worked on pastoral stations on the Murrumbidgee River and around Port Phillip. In 1842 he took charge of horse and cattle studs at Stroud for the Australian Agricultural Company. He married Elizabeth Macarthur in 1843; they had four children. From 1854 King managed a property near Tamworth.

King was the inaugural mayor of the town of Tamworth from 1876 to 1880. In 1880 he was appointed by Sir Henry Parkes, the Premier, to the New South Wales Legislative Council, where he was generally associated with the Free Trade Party.

King died at Double Bay in Sydney in 1904.