Labour Australia

Mr. Ardagh, of Piccadilly-street, received a telegram from Bayswater (Perth) yesterday that his brother, Mr. Richard George Ardagh, had passed away that morning.

The late Mr. Richard George Ardagh was one of the most prominent figures in the political, industrial and athletic life of the fields for very many years. He was born in the Woods' Point district of Victoria, 60 years ago. After his school days he followed up mining for a livelihood in the same district. He qualified also for engine-driving. As a comparatively young man he went to Charters Towers, in Queensland, where he worked in different mines. Coming to Western Australia some time after the gold discoveries at Coolgardie, he underwent the common chequered experience of a prospector's lot. He worked on the mines of the Golden Mile, both as a miner and an engine-driver. He was a trade unionist by principle, and he came associated with the Labour movement of the early days. He was appointed secretary of the Eastern Goldfields Trades and Labour Council that afterwards became part and parcel of the Eastern Goldfields District Council of the Australian Labour Party. He was also secretary of different individual unions. The late Mr. Ardagh, who always had a predilection for public life, served for some years as a member of the Kalgoorlie Municipal Council. He resigned his councillorship when he was elected as a Labour representative for the North-East Province in the Legislative Council, a position he held for several years. When the Labour split came, the late Mr. Ardagh ranged himself behind the banner of the Nationalist Party. He retained his Parliamentary seat until he was succeeded by the late Mr. Brown. Afterwards Mr. Ardagh continued to supervise the milk vending industry he had established in Bayswater, in which place he became a member, and ultimately chairman, of the local roads board. Later he managed mining properties at Comet Vale, Goongrarrie and Lawlers. Failing health caused his retirement from active work a couple of years or so ago. He survived an operation a few months ago for an internal injury behind an ear, the result of an accident he had met with in a Charters Towers mine three decades ago. The late Mr. Ardagh was in his youth and early manhood a noted sprint runner in Gippsland amd other parts of Victoria, as well as in this State, He was associated with pedestrian enterprises in Kalgoorlie in the palmy days of footrunning. He was a keen lover and follower of athletic sports as well.

The late Mr. Ardagh had many friends in all sections of the gold-fields community. He was quiet and unobtrusive in his disposition and habits and was generally popular.