Death Of Mr. C. W. Thomas
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
Prom Our Own Correspondent
Suva, Mav 30.
AMONG the last (if not actually the last) of the people who saw the signing of the Deed of Cession and the hoisting of the Union Jack at Levuka in 1874, was Mr. Charles Wimbledon Thomas, who died at the Lautoka Hos pital on Mav 23. in his 86th year.
In the 1870’s, Mr. Thomas’s father was a lawyer at Levuka and he himself was an articled clerk for several years before going to Yaqara, in north-western Viti Levu, to raise cattle and horses on an estate owned by his father. Here he was later joined by his brother. Willie and in 1900, when the Colonial Sugar Refining Company started operations at Lautoka the Thomas brothers ooened butcher’s shops at Lautoka and Ba, supplying meat from Yaqara.
In 1911, Mr. Thomas was elected a member of the Legislative Council for the North-Western Division and held the seat for several terms. He spent a good deal of time at Levuka and in the 1920’s was made a life-member of the Ovalau Club. In recent years failing health had prevented his leaving Lautoka.
The funeral took nlace at the Lautoka Cemetery after a combined Church of England and Methodist service conducted bv the Rev. B. Oxenbridge and the Rev.
W. S. Pidgeon. at the house of Mr.
Thomas’s son, Mr. H. W. Thomas. A Masonic ceremonv was conducted by Mr, C. V. H. Thomas. The District Com missioner. Northern (Mr. C. Harley Nott) represented the Government.