Robert Andrew Wauch (1786-1866)

Biography
Robert Andrew Wauch (1786, Edinburgh, Scotland - 1866), Wauch emigrated to Australia in 1836, at the age of 50, where the town of Wauchope, New South Wales, was named after him.

Robert Wauch is sometimes referred to as Robert Wauchope. The confusion occurred because of a family dispute. When his paternal grandfather died, his heirs disputed the division of the family estate in Edinburgh, ending in a legal battle. After the court case, Robert Wauchope, Robert Wauch's father, dropped the "ope" from his name and retired to his property named Foxall.

Like his father, Wauch joined the armed services. He retired from service in 28th Regiment of Foot in 1836 and sailed to Sydney, Australia, with his wife and three children. They settled on a 2297 acre property at King Creek in the Hastings Valley. In the next four years he added 1168 acre to his property and built Wauch House.

Robert Wauch died in the Macleay area in 1866, and the Government Gazette published the deeds of his properties, specifying that they should be called Wauchope. When the post office opened in a nearby settlement in 1881, it was named Wauchope, although the Government Gazette misprinted the name Wanghope, an error that was not corrected for until 1889.

Obituary
Last week there died at East Kempsey an old Peninsula officer - Captain Wauch. He was present with his regiment, the 48th Foot, at most of the engagements, during the French invasion of Spain. He retired from the service at the close of the war, and shortly after came to New South Wales, and settled in the district of Port Macquarie, where he discharged with intelligence and activity the duties of a civil magistrate for many years. Captain Wauch was a scientific botanist, and an accomplished linguist. He was seventy-nine years old.