John Douglas (6 March 1828 â 23 July 1904) was an Anglo-Australian politician and Premier of Queensland.
Douglas was born in London, the seventh son of Henry Alexander Douglas and his wife Elizabeth Dalzell, daughter of the Earl of Carnwath. His father, the third son of Sir William Douglas, 4th Baronet of Kelhead, was a brother of the sixth and seventh Marquesses of Queensberry. Douglas' father died in 1837 and his mother in 1833 (burial records of the church of St Mary-Le-Bone, London), he was educated at Edinburgh Academy, Rugby 1843âÂÂ47 and Durham University where he graduated B.A. in 1850.
He was elected for the Darling Downs and for Camden in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly until resigning on 17 July 1861. He moved to Queensland in 1863.
On 12 May 1863 he was elected as member for Port Curtis in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. He resigned on 1 February 1866, in order to be appointed on to the Queensland Legislative Council, which occurred on 22 February 1866.
In 1871 Douglas returned to Queensland and became insolvent on 23 February 1872. Lewis Adolphus Bernays claimed Douglas had more success as a clever political wire-puller behind the scenes than he had in parliament.
In 1865 Augustus Charles Gregory, Maurice Charles O'Connell and Douglas applied for a special grant of land to erect a Masonic Hall in Brisbane. This was granted on 15 January 1865.
In 1882 he was elected president of Brisbane's Johnsonian Club.
In 1888 Douglas returned to his old position on Thursday Island. In 1890 he was one of the organisers of the rescue of survivors from . He also proposed that Torres Strait Islanders be given citizenship in 1900.
Port Douglas is named in his honour.
Douglas was married twice, first on 22 January 1861 to Mary Ann, daughter of the Rev. William West Simpson. She was killed in a carriage accident 23 November 1876 and, in 1877, he married for the second time, to Sarah, daughter of Michael Hickey, with whom he had four sons:
Douglas died on Thursday Island on 23 July 1904.
Through his son Henry, he was a grandfather of Alexander Michael Douglas (b. 1926), and a great-grandfather of Alexander Rodney Douglas, formerly a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly, representing the seat of Gaven.