Obituaries

Abstract

IN my recollection Sir Frank will remain always as a man possessing the qualities of sympathy, patience and understanding in rare degree. To the Colonial Development Corporation he was many things besides. His good name in the Colonies was a great asset. Doors opened to him readily. Of knowledge on Colonial agriculture, horticulture and topography he was an encyclopædia. Whenever new schemes were under consideration his mind rapidly surveyed the initial, often daunting, obstacles of preliminary experiment and investigation. If a new crop were mooted, on new ground, his advice as a starting point was often something like this: “Yes, it should be all right if the rainfall is not higher than 70 in. ; but if, as I suspect, it is 100 in. or more, the crop will suffer from such-and-such disease.’ There was no consciousness of superior merit in his voice as he imparted his quiet advice, the distilled essence of his own knowledge and life's experience. As an agricultural expert alone, his value to the Corporation was beyond compute ; but he was not content to limit his duties even to this broad sphere. As deputy chairman he played a routine part in nearly every scheme which was undertaken. More than that, he served as chairman of the Corporation's subsidiary in East Africa, and the effort of travel in that region in no way discouraged him from fulfilling his obligations there. To the end he remained eager for work—and it is by his work that he will still be remembered long after those who knew him as a sterling colleague and a kind friend have themselves passed away.