Labour Australia

Mr John Apthorp, of Katoomba, a prodigious writer of letters to the Herald, died on Monday. He was 88.

A friend of Eleanor (The Timeless Land) Dark's family, John Victor Apthorp battled for funds to have the author's house at Katoomba, Varuna, turned into a writers' centre.

His last fully published letter was a month ago, when he commented on the Chamberlain family's compensation payment: "Ten times that amount ($1.3 million) would not recompense them for the hurt done them."

On June 8, he was quoted in Postscript: "Counting mentions in Postscript, I've had 99 letters printed in the Herald. I'm a non-entity and know no-one at the Herald."

The Herald has received many phone calls from readers saddened by Mr Apthorp's death.

However, the words he wrote about another prolific Herald letter writer, Peter MacKenzie (Postscript, June 16, 1990), with the name and suburb altered to fit him, would apply to Mr Apthorp.

"I was saddened to read in Postscript about the death of John Apthorp. John always wrote a sensible letter and was an inspiration to the rest of us Letters to the Editor 'nuts'. The page will not seem the same without the man from Katoomba."