Obituaries Australia

Robert Lethbridge, n.d.

from Pastoral Review, 16 December 1919

There died recently at Forest Vale Station, Mitchell, Q., one of Queensland's oldest pioneers in the person of Mr. Robert Copland Lethbridge, at the old age of 81 years. He came of a good old Devonshire family, and was closely connected with the King family, of New South Wales, the late Honourable Phillip Gidley King, Governor of New South Wales, who died in 1808, being his maternal grandfather.

He was educated at the King's School, Parramatta. He died at his homestead, where he had lived almost continuously since 1870. In his early days he managed Ridges Station, Gippsland, Victoria, for Messrs. John King and Co. Later he did a large amount of droving in the eastern States of Australia, and finally settled at Forest Vale, a cattle station of that time of 525 square miles, which at times ran up to 15,000 head, but which recently, being largely resumed, carried about 6000 head. He took an active part in local government, and was a member of all the district bodies, and for a long time was chairman of the Leichhardt Rabbit Board. He was a popular and highly respected man, and his homestead was noted far and wide for its abundant hospitality. He had six sons and four daughters, three of the former having done well on active service during the war.