Frederick Thomas Wimble was an ink manufacturer, printers' furnisher, politician, and newspaper proprietor. Born in London, he arrived in Australia on 29 June 1867 and the following year established an ink manufacturing business, F. T. Wimble & Co. In 1878 he shifted the company to Sydney, before moving to Cairns in 1883 where he planned to become a 'sugar baron'.
While in Cairns, Wimble launched The Cairns Post with his brother-in-law Tim Wall (q.v.). He used the newspaper as a springboard to launch into politics, campaigning for Cairns district interests and lobbying for Cairns to become a terminus. Although defeated when he ran for Musgrove in 1886, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly as the Liberal member for Cairns in May 1888.
When his printers' furnishing firm opened a branch in Brisbane, Wimble resigned from politics in 1893 and returned to the company. From 1895 he promoted its wares in Wimble's Reminder, a periodical-cum-catalogue which ran from 1906 to 1957. He published his autobiography Climbing the Ladder in in 1924.
Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography online http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/AS10493b.htm
