319 



OBITUARY NOTICE. 



Mr Robert Middlemas. 



Op the nine gentlemen who founded the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club on the 22nd of September, 1831, two were 

 churchmen and seven were drawn from medicine and surgery. 

 In the following year, however, a representative of the law 

 was elected to be a member, and from that time to the 

 present the three learned professions Divinity, Medicine, Law, 

 have contributed largely to the membership of the Club. 



On the 20th of April, 1912, the Club lost one of its oldest 

 and most respected members by the death of Mr Robert 

 Middlemas of Alnwick, who having been elected on the 

 25th of June, 1863, was, at the time of his death, ninth on 

 the roll of membership. 



Mr Robert Middlemas was born on the 11th of July, 1831, 

 at Spittal in the parish of Tweedmouth, and educated at 

 Alnwick, in which town he served his articles with Mr 

 John Atkinson Wilson, solicitor. He was admitted a solicitor 

 in 1857, subsequently becoming partner with Mr Wilson, and 

 spent the remainder of his useful life in Alnwick. 



Having gained the friendship of his fellow townsman, 

 Mr George Tate, sometime Honorary Secretary of the Club, 

 he contributed to the second volume of Mr Tate's admirable 

 History of Alnwick, published in 1869, a list of Mud and 

 Hepaticm to be found in the parish and neighbourhood ; and 

 on Mr Tate's death in 1872, he undertook the office of 

 Treasurer of the Club, Mr James Hardy becoming Secretary. 

 On his retirement from the treasureship in 1896, a piece of 

 plate was presented to him in recognition of his valued 

 services. 



