OBITUARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 242, 12 October 1937, Page 6

OBITUARY

MR. G. W. DOWNS. A large cortege followed the hearse . at the funeral of the late Mr. George 1 William Downs at Stratford. Mr. < Downs, who was born at Wanganui in ■ 1857, was a son of the late Mr. Aaron and Mary Ann Downs. As a young I man he took up bush sections in the i Hawera and Manaia districts. He married Miss Panderson, Palmerston : North, and later farmed in the I Hawera, Toko and Wharehuia dis- > tricts until retiring to Stratford eight I years ago. Mr. Downs leaves a widow I and a family of four boys and three girls— l George (Wharehuia), Herbert (Tuna), Alt. (Inglewood), Alton (Stratford), Mrs. H. Kemp (Stratford), Mrs. F. Vickers (Inglewood), and Miss Una Downs (Stratford). A son, Norman, died eight months ago. He also has one brother living at Marton Mr. Charles Downs, and two sisters at Wanganui, Mrs. R. Beaumont and Mrs. D. Anderson. MR. F. G. A. STUCKEY. The death took place suddenly on Friday at his residence at St. Clair, Dunedin, of Mr. Frederick George Albert Stuckey, late senior inspector of schools in the Otago district. Mr Stuckey was born in England, and was the son of the owner of Stuckey’s Bank, Bristol. He was educated at Brecon, one of the well-known public schools, and while there won a mathematical scholarship which entitled him to go to Cambridge. Mr. Stuckey, however, was unable to avail himself of this opportunity, as, at the age of 19, he accompanied his parents to New Zealand, where they took up farming near Levin. Mr. Stuckey unfortunately met with an accident there, and was forced to turn his attention to some less strenuous form of occupation, so he studied with a view to taking up teaching. In later life he was appointed to the position of inspector, occupying that of senior inspector in the Wanganui educational district before going to Dunedin where he completed four and a-haif years of service before retiring m 1930. During his term of office Mr. Stuckey was able to realise one of his ' greatest ambitions—the reorganisation ‘ of the Port Chalmers School with a ' staff of specialist teachers. He was a man of engaging personality, and ! successfully combined, his intellectual gifts with ability as an organiser and ’ administrator. He was a tireless ' worker in the cause of education, and his intimate knowledge of educational movements made his career a distinguished one.