John Primrose (brewer)

Did You Know?

• Primrose married Elizabeth Paton Reid on 10 April 1845.
• His daughter Elizabeth Margaret Adelaide Primrose married Arthur Rait Malcom in 1872.
• Arthur Rait Malcom was a prominent member of the Adelaide Hunt Club.

Early life

Primrose was the son of a distiller in Carsebridge, near Alloa, Scotland, and was said to have linked his ancestry to the Earl of Rosebery. He was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, then joined his father's establishment, gaining practical and scientific knowledge of brewing and distilling. He later managed distilleries for Messrs. Shea of Belfast and Beamish in Cork, then established his own brewery on the Isle of Man. Attracted to Australia by the prospect of managing a large distillery in Sydney, he arrived in Adelaide aboard Ariadne in August 1839 and decided to travel no further.

Businesses in Adelaide

Shortly after arriving, Primrose set up a distillery in partnership with John Richmond. After about two years, he ceased operation because the Government demanded duty on colonial spirit at the same rate as imported spirit. He then turned to brewing, and in 1841 he and Richmond took over the Union Brewery on Rundle Street, founded by Daniel Cudmore in 1838. The brewery was referred to as 'Primrose's Brewery' in an 1861 newspaper article. Primrose ran the business until November 1875, when he transferred management to his nephew William Ross Sawers and son-in-law Arthur Rait Malcom. Richmond sold his share to Primrose at some point, and the brewery continued into the 1890s.