OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 13

OBITUARY

Captain F. Ashworth The death occurred last week of Captain Frank Ashworth, a shipmaster well known on the New Zealand coast through bis association with the ships of the Federal Steam Navigation Company. He died at his home in Dewsbury, England. His last command was the line’s newest motor-ship, the Sussex, in which he visited New Zealand in September, 1937. Because of his illness he left the ship at Melbourne in December, and later returned to England by a passenger liner. Captain Ashworth had been in the service of the Federal Company since 1911, hig commands including the Wiltshire, Northumberland, Suffolk, Paparoa, Remuera, Huntingdon, Turakina, Orari, Dorset, and Sussex. In 1915 he had command of the Wiltshire and was in the first convoy to leave Australia during the war. Captain Ashworth, who was 59 years of age, is survived by his widow, a son, and a daughter. Mrs. Agnes Benson One who had seen the progress of West Coast towns near Wellington for more than half a century, Mrs. Agnes Benson, Porirua, died recently. She arrived with her first husband, Mr. Walter Robertson, and their three young children in the ship Gairlough from Glasgow about 1881 and they immediately settled in the Pahautanul district. About 15 months after their arrival Mr. Robertson was accidentally killed in the Ngahauranga Gorge, and Mrs. Robertson took up a small farm at .Johnsonville which she worked for ten years with the help of her young family. She then married Mr. ■William Benson,'a farmer, of Takapu, Tawa Flat, Mr. Benson being an 1841 arrival in Wellington, .but again she suffered it sudden loss, her husband dying as a result of an accident after they had been married eight years. A few years later Mrs. Benson moved to Porirua, where she entered the storekeeping business. This she continued fpr 28 years, also conducting a store at. Titahi Bay for a while. Mrs. Benson had not enjoyed good health during the past six years. . She is survived by her family of three , Mr. T. Robertson, Bainesse, Palmerston North, Mrs. T. Hook, Mirharahara, and Mrs. Windley, Porirua. There are 13 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. The funeral service, conducted by the Rev. W. L. Long in the Porirua Methodist Church, was attended by a large number of relatives and friends.