OBITUARY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 272, 21 December 1914, Page 8

OBITUARY.

CAPTAIN W. H. MEIKLEHAM. The death occurred at Sydenham yesterday of Captain William Henderson Meikleham, at the age of 76 years. Born at Paisley, Captain Meikleham was brought up to the sea, and after serving in several ships, he arrived, in Sydney in the Queensland in 1861. He joined the Intercolonial Royal Mail Co. (which afterwards merged into the Panama Company), and visited New Zealand in the Lord Ashley as third officer at the time that vessel took up her running on the east coast. In 1865 Captain Meikleham took charge of the Airedale, which he commanded till the breaking up of the company. He later went to England, where he supervised the construction of the John Penn, specially built for the West Coast trade for Captain Johnson. Whilst in Adelaide, on his way to England, he was persuaded to take command of the Government steamer, and he had charge of that ves-sel-for three years before he was transferred to the Telegraph Department and took part in the overland expedition to Port Darwin. On the completion of that line he took service iii the Black Diamond Line, and two years afterwards returned to New Zealand in the Dallam Towers as coasting pilot: In 1874 Captain Meikleham. took command of the brig Omaha, in which he traded to the Chatham Islands for about six years. In 1885 he settled in Christchurch and entered into business as an advertising agent. He was married in 1864 to a daughter of th.e late Mr J. Johnson, one of the early Canterbury settlers, and had a family.of six daughters and one son. - MR F. WiA. FRANKS. Mr Francis William. Anthony Franks, an old resident of Leithfield, died yesterday at the age of 70 years. The deceased, who conducted the Leithfield bakery, learne r d his business with his father in London, and arrived in Lyttelton in the ship Zealandia in 1858. For six years he employed in Christ-, church and spent,two years on the Thames goldfields. On his return to Christchurch he went into business for two years before settling in Leithfield, where he has conducted his business since 1889. In the early days Mr Franks took a keen interest in volunteering. . He was married in 1866 to-a daughter of tire late Mr G. Winskill, of Amberley, and had a family of ten daughters and four sons.