Obituaries Australia

The death occurred suddenly in the golf clubhouse, Cottesloe, yesterday afternoon, of Mr. Frederic Dudley North, C.M.G., of Catlidge, Forrest-street, Cottesloe, and who retired recently from the position of Under-Secretary and permanent head of the Colonial Secretary's Department. Mr. North had been playing golf all the afternoon, and had just finished a game when, walking into the clubhouse, he sat down and collapsed. Medical attention was obtained immediately but it was unavailing. He had been warned previously by his medical adviser to cease playing golf, as the physical strain might prove fatal.

The late Mr. North was born at Earle's Court Kensington, London, on November 9, 1866 and he was a son of Mr. Charles Augustus North and Rachel Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Grant, P.R.A. He was educated at Rugby, and when at that college he was for two seasons a member of the Rugby eleven. He arrived in Western Australia in 1886, in which year he joined the public service as a clerk in the Lands Department. After an interval of five years, he became Clerk of the Legislative Council. While occupying that office he came favourably under the notice of the late Lord Forrest and, shortly afterwards he was installed as secretary to the Premier. Mr. North acted as secretary from 1891 to 1901, and in 1902 became the Under-Secretary and Permanent Head of the Colonial Secretary's Department from which post he retired because of heart trouble, a few months ago. He acted as aide-de-camp to Sir W. C. Robinson in 1894, and accompanied Lord Forrest to England in 1897, to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. At the opening of the First Federal Parliament by the Duke of York, he represented Western Australia in Melbourne as a member of the Royal Reception Committee. In 1902 deceased had conferred upon him the honour of C.M.G., and in 1912 became Comptroller-General of Prisons. He was Mayor of Cottesloe for four successive years, and was elected president of the Civil Service Association four years in succession. He was the first permanent head to identify himself actively with that body, and during his leadership, which he resigned at the beginning of 1912, the association made great progress. The late Mr. North was keenly interested in sport, and it is recorded that he organised the first Western Australian cricket eleven that visited the Eastern States in 1893. He was an enthusiastic golfer, and the Cottesloe golf links, where his death occurred, owed their origin to him. Deceased was married in 1887 to Flora Frances, a daughter of the late Mr. Edward Hamersley, and leaves a widow and a grown-up family of two sons and two daughters.