John Macarthur (colonial officer)

John Macarthur (1767 – 11 April 1834) was a British Army officer, landowner, and politician, best remembered as a key organiser of the 1808 Rum Rebellion and a pioneer of the Australian Merino wool industry. Born in England, Macarthur joined the nascent New South Wales Corps in 1789; he quickly established himself as a particularly unscrupulous, volatile, and entrepreneurial member of the so-called 'Rum Corps'.

Macarthur imported the first Merino Sheep to New South Wales in 1797. His time in the colony was marked by frequent quarrels with other settlers, one of which resulted in his brief expulsion from the colony, but his wool cultivation became the cornerstone of a commercial empire. After disputes with Governor William Bligh, Macarthur orchestrated a coup against Bligh's rule. Despite serving in the military junta which arose from the Rum Rebellion, Macarthur avoided prosecution for mutiny in England, and returned to his profitable colonial landholdings in 1817. In commemoration of his contributions to the Australian wool industry, Macarthur was featured on the Australian two-dollar note from 1966 to 1988.