Obituary

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30769, 5 June 1965, Page 25

Obituary

MR R. E. CAIRNS Mr Robert Ernest Cairns, | the first worker on the Lyt-' telton wharves to hold a seat! on the Lyttelton Harbour! Board. died suddenly in I Christchurch on Wednesday, i Mr Cairns was also a mem-I ber of the Lyttelton Borough ■ Council for several terms. He was a stalwart of the Labour Party’s Lyttelton! branch during his life in! Lyttelton, and held office as ■ secretary for 18 years. Mr Cairns was born in Scotland in the village of, Alva, in Clackmannanshire.' and spent a good deal of his . early life in Stirling. He first came to Lyttelton as a seaman in 1913, and after voy-i ages out of Lyttelton in the i Merchant Navy in World War I. settled in Lyttelton in 1918. where he worked on the' wharves.

Mr Cairns was prominent. in the affairs of the Lyttelton ' Watersiders’ Union, and an. active student at the old W.E.A. Sunday-night classes i in Lyttelton in the earlv' 1930 s.

“Bob Cairns was one of the t stalwart and sound-thinking members of the Lyttelton' Labour Party, and a keen I W.E.A. student,” said the [ Mayor of Christchurch (Mr I G. Manning) last evening. Mr Cairns subsequently became a Government appointee on the Lyttelton Harbour Board—the first waterside worker to take a seat on the board —and he was also a member of the old Lyttelton District Licensing Committee, for many years. Mr Cairns is survived by j his three step-sons, Messrs S„I G.. and P. Miller, his wife j having predeceased him. :