William Henry Traill (7 May 1842 â 21 May 1902) was an Australian journalist and politician, commonly referred to as W. H. Traill. He was an early editor and for a period the principal proprietor of The Bulletin in Sydney.
Traill, only son of John Traill of Westove, Orkney Islands, and his wife Eliza Dunbar (née Heddle) was born in London. The Westove Estate had been held by Traill descendants for more than 300 years.
Traill started his career with a regular column headed Passing Thoughts to the Express, while a special commissioner investigating the land dummying being carried on in connection with the opening up of the Darling Downs. In 1871 he married Agnes Lewis, half-sister of his first wife. He returned to the Couriers literary staff in late 1873 when Gresley Lukin became part proprietor and managing editor. Traill served as editor of The Queenslander from late 1873 until late 1878 when he moved with his family to Sydney to take up the editorship of The Sydney Mail. He continued to contribute to The Sydney Mail, Echo and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Traill elected a member of the Legislative Assembly for South Sydney in 1889. He was committed to protectionism, but otherwise was an independent and was not offered a ministry. He held a position as chairman of the commission to enquire into the working of the New South Wales Lands Office. He was defeated in 1895 and afterwards was engaged unsuccessfully in pastoral and mining pursuits in New South Wales and Queensland and declared bankrupt in 1896.
He wrote for the historical and mining portion of the Queensland Year Book 1902. He died of heart disease at his residence at Yeerongpilly in Brisbane in 1902 at the age of 58. He married twice; at the time of his death he had four sons and three daughters.
On 23 April 1866 Traill married singer Jessie Lewis (20 December 1846 â 19 February 1869), daughter of James (31 March 1816 â 11 June 1862) and Mary Ann Lewis (21 March 1819 â 23 August 1894 at "Cliffside", Watsons Bay, NSW), of Escrick, near York, England. She died of consumption at her home, Armagh cottage, Kangaroo Point, Queensland. They had one daughter. The journalist Pattie Lewis, aka Mrs James Fotheringhame ("Mab" of the Bulletin), was JessieâÂÂs sister.
Traill married again, to his wife's sister, Agnes Lewis (February 1851 â 17 May 1930) on 11 March 1871. They had nine children, including