George Frederick Claridge (24 October 1852 – 27 April 1931) was a South Australian businessman and philanthropist, longtime chairman of the Home for Incurables.
Claridge was born in Bicester, Oxfordshire, the second son of Samuel Frederick Claridge and Annie Claridge, née Chinner. Her parents were early colonists of South Australia who had prospered and were on a return visit to England when the couple married. They too settled in the new colony, arriving at Adelaide in 1854, and had a home in William Street, Norwood.Claridge was educated at Thomas Caterer's Commercial College in Beaumont.[1] After leaving school he served four years' apprenticeship with Palmer & Tolley's drapery shop at 55 Rundle Street, then his father's business, Claridge & Sons, a general store in Auburn.
S. F. Claridge was partner with Charles Wylde as Wylde & Claridge, which took over the drapery business of Parkin & Chinner at 30 Rundle Street in August 1859. They sold that business to John Winnall in December 1865 and moved to 46A Rundle Street. In October 1868 the partnership broke up and Wylde took over the business.[2] S. F. Claridge and his family then moved to Auburn and took over the local general store as Claridge & Sons. The business prospered and they opened branches in Redhill and Crystal Brook.
Claridge moved from Redhill to Auburn in 1884,[3] then in 1890 took charge of the Port Pirie store. He became one of the town's leading citizens, serving as mayor for two years and founding a local branch of the District Trained Nursing Society.
In those years Claridge was involved in politics as a Liberal, in which cause he contested elections for the districts of Stanley and Wooroora, but without success. He was mayor of Port Pirie 1898-1899.
In 1900 they sold the Port Pirie business and Claridge moved to the city, residing in Burnside, later at Kent Town, and for the last nine or ten years in Gilberton.
He became involved in several charitable and benevolent organisations:
He was a member of the
He was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church, notably during his Port Pirie years and at the Kent Town church for the next thirty years.
He was also a director of Claridge House Ltd.[4]
Samuel Frederick Claridge (c. 1823 – 23 June 1893) married Annie Chinner (– 12 April 1903), daughter of John Chinner of Angaston, in London. Their children were;
They had a home in Gilberton.