Randal MacDonnell
1830 — 1877
Randal MacDonnell (7‑20‑10)
MacDonnell was born in 1830 in Dublin, son of Thomas MacDonnell, an army officer, and his wife Frances Corry. He arrived in Sydney 1853 on the Telegraph. He was a teacher at National Schools in Sydney before establishing his own school at Paddington, Sydney in 1854.
He moved to Queensland in 1860 and was appointed Inspector of National Schools and General Inspector of Primary Schools. He served as Secretary of the Board of Education 1870—1876 and supported the separation of religious and secular education and advocated the Irish System. Randal married Mary Sheehan in 1861 and had four sons and a daughter. He died of consumption in 1877.