Bartley, Frederick Adolphus

BARTLEY, Frederick Adolphus (1862–1899) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, second son of Edward Bartley (1939-1919), a pioneering New Zealand architect, and Elizabeth Hannken. With his brothers Arthur and Alfred, Frederick trained under his father with whom the siblings later worked and were in partnership as E Bartley & Son. Among Frederick’s interests was photography, chairing a meeting to form an Auckland Photographic Society in 1883 and photographing his father’s work which included the Auckland Synagogue (1885). He married Janet Shearer in November 1890 at Parnell, Auckland but after her death early in 1893, he moved to Normanton enroute to Croydon where he was practicing as an architect by 1894. Among the many buildings erected at this time for which no architect has been identified are Croydon Town Hall and Elmslie Ltd. In July 1896 he married Kate Francis Merrigan in Croydon. Bartley was also in business as a gold miner in partnership with A MURPHIE at the Harp of Erin mine in 1897. He was in Thornborough on the Hodgkinson goldfield by 1899 when he was killed accidentally in a rock fall caused by a shot firing at the General Grant mine.