OBITUARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20892, 5 December 1929, Page 10

OBITUARY.

MR SAMUEL WILSON. Mr Samuel Wilson, whose death took place yesterday, has been a well-known figure on the waterfront at Fort Chalmers for many years. He was born near Rugby, England, and as a boy he attended one of the meetings held there in a country lane for the purpose of forming a farm labourers’ union. The labourers were afraid to meet even in a hall for the purpose of forming a union and consequently they met in an unfrequented lane on a summer’s evenin" in order that their employers would °not know. Mr Wilson was a growing lad when, in driving a wagon through a squire’s gateway, he marked the gatepost with the hub of the wheel. The squire, who was riding by and saw the occurrence, cut the lad across the face with a riding whip. The lad retaliated by laying the squire out with a waddy That night he left home for Liverpool and went to sea. Mr Wilson worked at the construction work of the railway northward from Port Chalmers, and for many years past he had been a waterside worker, driving winches on hulks and steamers, mostly for the Union Steam Ship Company. On Tuesday he collapsed while driving a winch on a steamer at Port Chalmers and was taken to the hospital, but did not recover.