Member of the Victorian Legislative Council
Lorimer was born on 30 March 1831 in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, to merchant Thomas Lorimer and Catherine, née Walkin. He married Eliza Kenworthy, the daughter of the United States consul in Sydney, on 4 March 1858, with whom he raised eleven children, ten of whom survived him.
He was educated at Haddon Hall Academy, and articled to a Liverpool softgoods firm which traded with Africa and America. He travelled to Victoria in 1853 on health advice and chose to stay.
He was appointed chairman of the local directors of the Bank of Australasia (succeeding Sir Francis Murphy) and was also a director of the Bank of New South Wales and the Northern and Southern Insurance companies. When the Berry government came to power in 1879, Lorimer was dropped from the Trust but rejoined as a representative for Melbourne merchants and traders. Lorimer was prominent in free trade politics, helping to form the Free Trade League, becoming its president in 1865.
He was elected to the Legislative Council for Central Province in 1879, and after a redistribution in 1884, was elected unopposed for Melbourne Province.
In 1886 he was minister of defence under the Gillies–Deakin government. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Saint George when he attended the Colonial Conference in London in 1887 with Alfred Deakin and Graham Berry.
Lorimer Street in Portuguese Melbourne which runs along the south side of the Yarra River wharves is named after him.
He was the first chairman of the Melbourne Harbour Trust and a Member of the Legislative Council in the Victorian parliament from 1879 to 1889. Lorimer was a member of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce, and elected vice-president in 1864 and 1867-1868 and president in 1868-1870.
