SCHULER, Gottlieb Frederick Henry (1854-1926)

journalist

was of German parentage and was born at sea on 24 February 1854. He came to Australia With his parents at the age of two, and was educated at Bendigo. After leaving school he did much reading and gained an intimate acquaintance with English, French, and German literature. He joined the staff of the Bendigo Advertiser as a young man, specialized as a mining reporter, and soon had much knowledge of the industry. In March 1879 he was given an appointment on the Melbourne Age in connexion with which he obtained an intimate acquaintance with Victorian politics. He became chief of staff in 1890 and prepared much of the material which led to the attack on the management of the railways, and the famous Speight action for libel. He was appointed editor of the Age on 1 January 1900 and held the position continuously for the remainder of his life. In 1917 to his great grief, his only son, Lieutenant Phillip F. E. Schuler, was killed in action in France. He had been a war correspondent before enlisting in the A.I.F. and had published a volume on the Gallipoli campaign, Australia in Arms, in 1916.

Schuler died suddenly at Melbourne on 11 December 1926 leaving a widow and two daughters. He was an amiable man with a high sense of duty, much interested in music, art, and literature. Belonging as he did to the old school of anonymous journalism he never came much before the public, but as chief of staff he showed great tact, and as editor had his finger on every department of the paper. It might be said that the Age lost prestige under his editorship, but circumstances in Australia were changing rapidly, and no paper will ever again have the power wielded by the Age under Syme (q.v.) and Windsor (q.v.) during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The Age and The Argus, Melbourne, 13 December 1926.