Obituaries Australia

Herbert Cuningham, n.d.

from Australasian Pastoralists' Review, 15 June 1900

As we go to press we learn that a cablegram has been received from London announcing the death, on the 10th inst., of Mr. Herbert Norfolk Cuningham, manager of the Australasian Mortgage and Agency Company in Sydney, and one of the leading members—for a long time the treasurer and more recently one of the trustees—of the executive of the Pastoralists' Union of New South Wales. Mr. Cuningham was one of the most highly respected and best-liked men in pastoral and commercial circles in Sydney, and the regret felt at his decease is widespread and sincere. A son of Mr. Hastings Cuningham, one of the earliest and best-known settlers in Victoria, he was born at Mount Mercer, in that colony, and educated at the Scotch College in Melbourne and the Geelong College. On leaving school he went on to his father's station to get pastoral experience, and subsequently to England, where, under the guidance of Messrs. Willans and Overbury, he learnt the wool trade, attending the London sales for three years, and employing the time between the series in working at the sorting tables at large factories in Wiltshire, Yorkshire, and at Reims. He returned to Australia in 1878, and joined the company which had just purchased the business of Messrs. Hastings Cuningham and Co., and which two years later developed into the Australasian Mortgage and Agency Company. In 1881 the company opened a branch in Sydney, and sent the deceased to manage the wool department. In 1883, on the death of his colleague, Mr. Alexander, he was appointed manager of the Sydney branch, a position he has held ever since.

Mr. Cuningham, as mentioned above, took a prominent part in the management of the Pastoralists' Union of New South Wales from its inception, and also in that of the Sydney Woolselling Brokers' Association, of which he was for some time president. On his departure to England last March, that body paid him the unusual compliment of a "send off," which was attended by every member of the association, so unanimous was the esteem in which he was held, and the officers of his company also presented him with an address. The proprietors of this Review lose in him one of their best friends and supporters, and an occasional contributor.

Mr. Cuningham has been in ill-health for some years past, gradually getting worse, and left for England via the Cape early in March, hoping to re-establish his strength.