Private Bank Issues

Lot 2986    Session 10 (7.30pm Thursday)    Private Bank Issues

Estimate $125,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au
SOLD $156,000

QUEENSLAND, Government of, one pound Treasury note, Hugh Nelson, Colonial Treasurer Brisbane 2nd June 1893 A007001 superscribed over Queensland National Bank Limited form 1st January 1892 C331001. Quarter folds otherwise crisp good extremely fine and of the greatest rarity and historical interest.

Provenance: Sold on behalf of a direct descendent of Colonel Drury and with the handwritten envelope 'First Treatury Note issued 7th June 1893 by QNB Brisbane' in five lines. Edward Robert Drury (1832-1896) was a banker and soldier. Born in Brussels, Belgium, he migrated to Australia and settled in Melbourne in 1852, becoming a clerk with the Bank of Australasia. Further bank appointments took Drury to Brisbane, Queensland, Bendigo, Victoria then bank to Brisbane again - as general manager of the new Queensland National Bank. Under his autocratic administration the bank was phenomenally successful. Drury made powerful friends and from 1879 to the 1890s Queensland National Bank transacted all the Queensland Government's business. Although hard times damaged the bank in the early 1890s, Drury maintained control. From 1894-95 he was president of the Australian Association of Bankers. From his early days in Australia, Drury involved himself in military life, joining the New South Wales Volunteer Rifles in 1854 and later strongly supporting an effort by Queensland Governor Bowen to establish a colonial defence force. Eventually, as a colonel, Drury acted several times as commander of the Queensland Defence Forces. He was appointed C.M.G. in 1885 and was Belgium's Queensland Consul, being created a chevalier of the Belgian order of Leopold.