VOL. xvii. (2) OBITUARY 277 



d^bituartj jSotia 



Right Hon. SIR JOHN DORIXGTON, Bart. 



The death of Sir John Dorington, which occurred on April 5, 191 1, has 

 removed from our midst one who has undoubtedly been the most prominent 

 figure in the County for more than a quarter of a century^ The space accorded 

 to personal notices in the Proceedings of the Club will allow me to do little more 

 than enumerate his many spheres of activity, and glance at the characteris- 

 tics by which he attained a position so distinguished. 



He was born on July 6, 1832. In 1859, he married, and in the same 

 year his connection with County affairs commenced, when he was placed on 

 the Commission of the Peace. Nineteen years later he was elected Chairman 

 of the Court of Quarter Sessions, which in those days carried on the work now 

 done by County Councils (or rather some of it), and to this branch of its work 

 Sir John devoted himself, leaving the presidency of the Court, when transac- 

 ting judicial business, to colleagues who had had a legal training. When, 

 by the Local Government Act of 1888, County Councils were established, he 

 was, owing to the consummate ability which he had displayed as Chairman 

 of Quarter Sessions during the past ten years, as a matter of course, elected 

 Chairman of the Gloucestershire Council — a position which he held uninter- 

 ruptedly till constrained by failing health to resign it in 1909. Thus from 

 1878 till 1909, he was at the head of county affairs — a leader not only in 

 name, but in fact. The power which he wielded arose in part from the pos- 

 session of qualities not in themselves uncommon, but seldom possessed in so 

 transcendant a degree. He was a master of detail, he had a very clear head 

 and a retentive memory. Though not eloquent, his power of lucid ex- 

 position made him an impressive speaker. Like Strafford, his motto was 

 " Thorough," and whatever his hand found to do, he did it with his might. 

 The lasting confidence which he inspired throughout his public career arose 

 from the consciousness of those whom he was addressing that he generally 

 knew more of the subject on which he was speaking than anyone else present, 

 and also from the scrupulous fairness with which he always treated his op- 

 ponents. But all these qualities would perhaps hardly have given him the 

 commanding position which he occupied had he not also been largely endowed 

 with that subtle personal influence which more than anything else separates 

 the avrip avSpwi' from his fellows. The affairs of the County of Gloucester 

 have for generations been conducted by men of singular ability, who have 

 devoted time and energy ungrudgingly to the public service, but if a roll of 

 local administrators whose work is worthy of record were made up, with 

 their names in order of merit, that of Sir John Dorington would assuredly 

 be at the head. 



It is as County Chairman that we in Gloucestershire think of him, but 

 his services to the country at large are well deserving of mention. In 1874. 

 for two brief intervals he represented the old Borough of Stroud in Parlia- 

 ment, and from 1886 till 1906 he sat for the Tewkesbury Division of the 

 County. He seldom spoke in Parliament, but whenever he did, he was lis- 



