Obituaries Australia

The death is announced of Dr. James Charles Cox, one of the oldest Sydney practitioners, and first president of the Australasian Pioneers' Club, at the age of 78. Dr. Cox was a Fellow of tho Royal College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was president of the first N.S.W. Board of Fisheries, and well-known as an eminent conchologist. Until quite recently he was chief medical officer of the A.M.P. Society, and for many years was recognised as one of Sydney's leading practitioners.

Among other things the late doctor took great interest in the Australian Historical Society, which he presented from time to time with interesting relics of the early days. Not long ago he handed to the society £100 of scrip of the defunct Bank of Australia. He also presented the society with one of the first Commonwealth notes issued, and with several Commonwealth coins.

Deceased, who was one of the trustees of the Sydney Museum, wrote several standard works on conchology. One of his daughters, Millicent, was married to Lord Bertie, now Earl of Lindsey. Another daughter, Eleanor Mary, married William, the elder son of Colonel Wm. le Poer Trench. Dr. A. B. Cox, a well-known Sydney dentist, is one of his sons.

The late Doctor's father was Mr. Edward Cox, of Fern Hill, Mulgoa, and a member of the Legislative Council, who died in 1868. His grandfather was Captain Wm. Cox, of Clarendon, N.S.W., a man who has a place in Australian history.

In mentioning the name of Captain Wm. Cox one is impelled to glance back to the early days of the colony. As a fact, the history of the Cox family, if written at length, would, in many respects, be the history of New South Wales. Captain Cox came to the colony in the first year of the last century. He occupied both a military and an official position with credit to himself and the community. As a magistrate he was a just man, and an efficient officer. He undertook contracts in the time of Governor Macquarie, and later became a pastoralist. He was specially interested in the breeding of fine-woolled sheep, and spared neither time nor expense to improve the staple of the wool until he placed the name of his station-Clarendon at the head of the list.

In 1814, when Wentworth, Blaxland, and Lawson discovered the track across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst Plains, Captain Cox was chosen by Governor Macquarie to construct the road. The road, 130 miles in length, crossed the Blue Mountains from Sydney, and bridged Cox's River, thereby connecting Bathurst with the coast.