Obituaries Australia

The memory of Queenslanders of the past generation will be stirred by the announcement of the death last week at his home, in Corinda, Brisbane, at the age of 82 years, of Alfred Midgley.

A man of the most kindly and charming personality, and endowed with rare qualities of the mind, the late Alfred Midgley was conspicuous for many years in the political, literary, religious, and industrial activities of the community. An engineer by profession, he came to Queensland from his native Yorkshire, some 60 years ago, landing first in Rockhampton. Strongly, attracted to the Church, he studied for the pulpit while following his profession, and in due course was ordained a Wesleyan minister, serving in that capacity in several centres, including Brisbane and the Darling Downs. For reasons that in no way reflected upon his convictions or the high code of honor that marked all his actions through life, he left the Church, and interested himself in public affairs, displaying, in pre-Labor days, the most advanced Liberal tendencies. He was elected member of Parliament for Fassifern, as a supporter of the Griffith Government at the time when its leader was strongly espousing the democratic cause, and Alfred Midgley showed himself well abreast of the times in those and the stirring days that followed. Losing his seat in Parliament, largely because of his advanced views, he watched and aided to the best of his powers the growing Labor Movement, although not seeking further Parliamentary honors. Decided literary gifts, which his activities in other directions had somewhat curbed, found expression in time in the publication of two books of poems— 'Helen Young and Other 'Verses' and 'The Collected Works of Alfred Midgley.' In these efforts the writer struck a high note, so much so that a well-known critic in the South, in a recent survey of Queensland authors, accorded Alfred Midgley pride of place as the foremost among Queensland poets.

Some 28 years ago, however, the clouds began to gather over Alfred Midgley's life, and shortly after he was stricken down by a disease that rendered him paralysed and entirely helpless for 20 years preceding his death. A touching feature of this long illness was the intense devotion of wife and family to the sufferer, who was watched and tended night and day right to the end.

Besides his widow he leaves five daughters — Mrs. Robinson, Corinda; Mrs Burnett, Townsville, Mrs. Gibson, Sydney, Mrs. O'Leary, Adelaide, and Miss Dorothy Midgley, of 'Hansard' staff, Brisbane; and two sons — Will, Oxley; and Fred, Brookfield.