Syme, David, 1827-1908

David Syme was born on October 2nd,1827 at North Berwick, Scotland. He later obtained a position as reader at a Glasgow newspaper but early in 1852 took ship for Australia. He had small success on the goldfields at Bendigo, Wangaratta and other diggings and towards the end of 1855 he returned to Melbourne and joined his brother, Ebenezer, who was editing the Age newspaper. The paper was then threatened with failure, and Syme who had saved some money while on the diggings joined his brother in buying it for the sum of £2000. During his 50 years of ownership of the Age, Syme did comparatively little writing for it himself, though he read nearly everything that appeared. He died in 1937.