Background
He was born in Dumfriesshire to Simon and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick and educated in Glasgow.
He was born in Dumfriesshire to Simon and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick and educated in Glasgow.
He met little success planting cotton in Fiji, and around 1871 moved to New South Wales, first at Gulgong and then at Coonabarabran, where he established a store and was twice mayor. He then moved to Gunnedah, where he also served on council and was a director of a co-operative butchery. In 1891 Kirkpatrick was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Gunnedah, as one of the first group of Labor Party members.
Re-elected in 1894, he did not contest the 1895 election, although he did contest the 1898 election as a Free Trade candidate.
Kirkpatrick died in 1904 at Gunnedah.