The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-03-17 00:00:00

The Daily News has a brief obituary notice of Mr
A. Dilke, from which we make the following ex-
tracts :

Mr. Ashton Dilke was born in 1850, and was there-
fore only in his thirty-third year at the time of his
death. He was the second son of Sir Charles Went-
worth Duke, the first baronet, whose eminent ser-
vices in connection with the National Exhibitions
of 1851 and 1862 are well known to the public.
He was descended from an old Warwickshire family,
many of whose members long ago played an important
part in the local history of England. Mr. Ashton
Dilke was educated at Cambridge and became a
scholar of Trinity Hall. While here he occupied
himself chiefly in classical studies, but was compelled,
by the weakness of his eyesight, to give up the
pursuit. He subsequently devoted much time to
Russian, of which he acquired a good literary and
colloquial knowledge. . Although Mr. Dilke was
a strong antagonist of the policy of the Cabinet of St.
Petersburg, and perhaps in part for that reason, Russia
end her people always keenly interested him. . . .
His travels in Siberia and Turkestan made him
an authority on those remotiftountries, and his ex-
plorations of the little-frequbtifed mountain range of
Thian Shian were considered by competent authorities
to have been a remarkable achievement. Although
Mr. Dilke did not publish any detailed narrative of his
travels, he nevertheless contributed to the Fcrtnightly
Review two valuable articles on "Siberia " and " Trans-
Caucasia," both of which excited a good deal of
attention at the time of their appearance. It was the
hardehips he experienced during one of his
journeys in Russia, wnen he travelled without
stopping for many days in succession, which are
believed to have first seriously weakened his health
and to have developed an inherited tendency to con-
sumption. He was elected member for Newcastle-on-
Tyne at the general election of 1880. He presented
himself to the constituency as an advanced Liberal,
and was one of the most trusted and active members
of the Radical party either in or out of Parliament.
Shortly after his election he introduced a Bill, in the
interest of the artisan class, to extend the hours of
polling at parliamentary elections; and his maiden
speech was delivered on the motion for the second
reading of that measure. He made no attempt to be
eloquent; he never spoke except on subjects which he
had carefully studied, and his aim was always to be
clear and accurate in the statement of his case.
For several years before his death, Mr. Dilke was
intimately connected with periodical literature. When
he became the proprietor of a well-known weekly
newspaper he mastered every practical detail of its
management and working, BO that he was able at a
moment's notice to meet any emergency which might
arise in any of its departments.
In 1876 Mr. Dilke married Margaret Mary, eldest
daughter of Mr. Eustace Smith, M.P. and her de-
votion comforted and sustained him during his last
illness. He has left three children.

The news of the death of Mr. Ashton Mike created
a feeling of profound regret amongst his late consti-
tuents at Newcastle. During his three years' political
association with the borough he made hosts of friends
in all grades of society. At a meeting of the Parlia-
mentary Debating Society, which is composed of
young men of all shades of political faith, a resolution
expressive of regret at Mr. Dilke's untimely decease
and condolen .;(3 with Mrs. Dilke was carried in deep
silenca.