Webster, Charles Ernest (1861 - 1936) and Webster, Edwin Herbert (1864 - 1947)

Charles Ernest Webster (1861-1936), merchant and businessman, and Edwin Herbert (1864-1947), businessman and yachtsman, were born on 21 October 1861 and 20 June 1864 in Hobart Town, second and fourth sons of Alexander George Webster, merchant, and his wife Louisa Harriett, née Turnley. Educated at The Hutchins School, in 1879 Charles joined the family's wool and grain store on Hobart's Old Wharf. The firm became known as A. G. Webster & Son Ltd. He enthusiastically promoted the import of agricultural implements and machinery, including fan winnowing mills, the Reid and Grey double-furrow plough, the Hornsby steam plough and the Wolseley sheep-shearing machine. By 1889 the business had opened machinery branches at Launceston, Devonport and Burnie, and had published Webster's Tasmanian Agriculturalist and Machinery Gazette which provided information on scientific farming. In its capacity as a general agent, the firm also imported the first motor car to Tasmania—a Reo—which it assembled locally. In 1916 it organized the introduction of the Boving turbines for the hydro-electric station at Waddamana.