Obituaries Australia

Mr. William Andrew McClure Smith, a director in London and formerly manager in Australia of the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company Limited, died suddenly in Edinburgh on the 24th September last.

Mr. McClure Smith was born at Hawthorn, Victoria, his father being the late Hugh Smith, a merchant of Melbourne, who died in 1876. From its inception, Mr. McClure Smith was manager of the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company Limited, his commercial career having commenced in the service of that company's predecessors, Messrs. Wm. Sloane and Co. In 1920 ill-health compelled him to retire from the active management of the company and seek recuperation abroad.

Mr. McClure Smith was an earnest student of economies, and was widely known in business and pastoral circles as a man of sound knowledge, marked ability and tenacity of purpose. Although one of his most prominent characteristics was a strong desire to shun public life, he was from 1900 to 1906 a member of the joint council of the Victorian Pastoralists' Association and the Pastoralists' Union of Southern Riverina, and when this joint council disbanded, he remained in office on the council of the Pastoralists' Union of Southern Riverina until 1913.

Since 1920 he had enjoyed but indifferent health, and although a few months ago he had so far recovered as to permit his acceptance of a seat on the London board of the Australian Estates and Mortgage Company Limited, about five weeks ago he was called upon to undergo a serious operation, which he survived, a subsequent relapse, however, culminating in his death, which occurred very suddenly in a nursing home in Edinburgh. He was then in his sixtieth year, and leaves a widow (a daughter of the late James Walker, of Edinburgh), a son and two daughters, all of whom are in Europe; an only brother, Mr. Hugh Wilson Smith, is in the service of Messrs. Dalgety and Co., Melbourne.