OBITUARY
FREDERICK JOHN EASTHER.
The house flag of the Union Steam Ship Company was at half-mast to-day over the head office at Dunedin, as a tribute of respect to the memory of Captain Easther, who died about midnight, at his residence in Kew, after a very short attack of pneumonia and ensuing complications. The community knew Captain Easther well, and looked up to him with the greatest respect. He was born on 5th July, 1842, at Richmond, in Yorkshire, the son of Canon Easther, of Beverley Minster. He joined the Royal Navy in April of 1856 as naval cadet on HMS. Brunswick; was made midshipman in March, 1860, and put on the Mersey; afterwards serving on the steamship Ariel; served in 1865 on the Rattlesnake, and in 1866 on the Jason; was promoted to the rank of lieutenant for services in New Zealand; made senior lieutenant in July of 1871, when serving in the Invincible; and retired from the Navy, as lieutenant with the rank of commander, in October of 1873. His services in New Zealand were at the time of the Maori War in the sixties. As a senior midshipman of the Harrier he was placed in command of the gunboat flotilla on the Waikato River, his vessel being the Avon. It may he noted that, although familiarly known as “captain,” he always used his title of “commander.” As a midshipman he was a colleague of Lord Liverpool’s father, and our present Governor-General entertained Captain Easther in 1912 as a remembrance of that companionship. A few years ago he became entitled, through the death of a senior in the Navy, to an additional pension that goes to certain very old servants of the Admiralty — a fact which we noted at the time, the honor being officially recorded. After acting as Clerk of Select Committees in the New Zealand House of Representatives, Captain Easther joined the Union Company in February of 1878, and held the position of cashier until his retirement in July of 1905. In that capacity he occupied a niche all his own, this the result not of arrogance or any claims to distinction on account of his professional career, but because he had an individuality that was dignified and yet in no sense aloof. One of his characteristics was punctuality. Nobody ever knew him to be behindhand with an appointment. For some time he acted on the Benevolent Trustees, and he specially interested himself in church work, particularly in all matters that related to the Caversham parish. He was a vestryman almost if not quite continuously, and for many years was a churchwarden, also treasurer of the parish. In addition he was a lay canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral, a member of the Cathedral Board, and he sat in the Anglican Synod and on the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Dunedin. He lived at Kew for about 55 years, and was such a representative man in the locality that when the City Corporation were renaming streets they asked him to allow his street to be called Easther crescent — a request which the captain assented to in characteristic fashion on the condition that they spelled his name correctly. Two of his closest friends, apart from his own family, were Mr F. J. O’Callaghan (in the Justice Department) and Mr (now Sir Arthur) Douglas. Captain Easther was twice married. His older boy, son of the first Mrs Easther, is in the Signalling Corps, on active service in Europe. The present Mrs Easther, who was a daughter of Inspector Weldon, is the mother of another son, known as “Tom,” who went away voluntarily, and won a commission as lieutenant. There are three daughters, one of them Mrs Arthur Gardener. The burial is to be on Wednesday afternoon, at the Southern Cemetery, with the military honors due to a vice president of the Veterans’ Association. -Evening Star, 1/10/1917.
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