Obituaries Australia

By the death of Mr. George Skelton Yuill, which occurred in Sydney last month, Australia loses one of her most prominent commercial men.

He was connected very closely with that big firm in China, Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, and in company with the writer, visited their works five years ago. He came to Australia in 1880, and was general manager of the Orient line of steamers.

The Australian Agency Company was formed by Mr. Yuill in 1890, and he devoted himself to its affairs on his retirement from the management of the Orient Company. In 1896 the name of the company was changed to that which it now bears. Its branches extend to London and the East. The firm, who are Sydney agents for the Adelaide Steamship Company, recently bought the steamers of the China Navigation Company engaged in the Eastern-Australian trade, from Butterfield and Swire, and the service has been continued by the purchasers. Mr. Yuill was keenly interested in the development of Eastern commerce and the export of frozen meat and frozen butter. His energies were also active in the matter of the supply of beef to Britain and the East, and the Queensland Meat Export and Agency Company Limited, in which he acquired a large interest, he helped to bring to the position of one of the principal meat companies of the Commonwealth.

Mr. Yuill was an owner of racehorses in China and Australia, and latterly won many races with the well-known horses Gallipoli, Clydeside, Gadabout, Rushford, Malkin, and Harvestress.

He was born in Aberdeenshire, and was the youngest son of the Rev. James Yuill, and was 67 years of age at the time of his death. His only daughter married the Earl of Portarlington in 1907.