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Redgate arrived in Sydney with his parents, sister and two brothers in 1843. His father had left his employment with the squire of Nottingham parish to try his luck in Australia. He rented the land and flour mill owned by Robert Cooper on the corner of City Road and Parramatta Road and later moved to Woolloomooloo, where he manufactured Redgate's Patent Meal, the first breakfast meal manufactured in Australia. Redgate went to the Turon River diggings as a boy employed as cook for the miners. He then resumed schooling in Sydney until 16 when he worked for a draper for a short while before joining the Sydney School of Arts, the YMCA and the Sydney Literary Debating Society. At 19 he entered into partnership with Murray Brokers and General Agents in King Street, then acquired the whole business himself, eventually selling it to purchase a horse bazaar business where he kept race horses. He was a member of the volunteer First Sydney Mounted Regiment. At the age of 20, he sold up and headed for the Lambing Flats goldfields and although he found a fair amount of gold he fell down a mine shaft and returned to Sydney to recuperate. In 1859 he travelled to Kempsey where he purchased three acres of land and erected a flour and sawmill which he operated for many years. At 32 he married Martha Bradbury and they had two daughters. In 1873 left for Glen Innes with 50 head of horses. At the end of 1874 he bought the Commercial Hotel, demolished it and built the Tattersalls Hotel on the site. He was the second mayor of Glen Innes from 1875-6. [Brief Biography compiled by Robin Hammond, January/February 2004]
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