The Times/1927/Obituary/Arthur Aikin Brodribb

"The Times" Reports of Parliament.

We record with great regret that Mr. A. A. Brodribb, an old and valued member of The Times staff, who since the death of Mr. William Stebbing last year had been the sole survivor of those who served under Delane, died yesterday at his home at Yattendon, Berkshire, at the age of 76. He had been seriously ill form some time past.

Arthur Aikin Brodribb, the elder son by his second marriage of William Perrin Brodribb, M.R.C.S., a Wiltshireman and pupil of Abernethy, who practised in Bloomsbury-square, was born there on July 27, 1850. His grandmother, Susan Aikin, was a granddaughter of John Aikin, M.D., a well-known writer in his day and the brother of Mrs. Barbauld. W. J. Brodribb, the translator of Tacitus, was his elder half-brother. He was educated at King's College School and King's College, where he always acknowledged the merits of the teaching of J. S. Brewer and J. G. Lonsdale. From King's he went to Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1873. A taste of scholarship gave form and finish to everything he wrote and supplied through life a never-failing source of enjoyment.

He join The Times in April, 1877, as a member of the Parliamentary staff, and was just in time to see Delane at the extreme end of his editorship. As a boy he had know Crabb Robinson, the first of all war correspondents, who was in the Peninsular for The Times. When he entered the Gallery of the House of Commons, The Times corps was under the command of Charles Ross, a striking and venerable personality, who was born in 1800 and remember with profound admiration the speeches of Canning.

From July, 1883, to February, 1884, he edited the Summary, published at Printing House-square, and in February 1884, when Mr. G. E. Buckle became Editor, he was made second assistant editor, and continued in that position until November, 1893, when, on the death of Mr. Ross's successor, he returned to the Gallery as chief of The Times Parliamentary staff. He retired in August, 1913.

At one time he did a good deal of art criticism for this journal, and other miscellaneous critical work. He was, however, at his happiest in the Gallery, where, he as a daily observer of Parliamentary manners and procedure, he felt as acutely for the dignity of the House of Commons as he did in his official capacity for the accuracy and fairness of The Times reports. By his staff he was regarded, not only with confidence and respect for his able leadership, but also with real affection for his constant consideration and his understanding friendliness. By the Gallery as a while he was held in high esteem.

On his retirement he went to live at Yattendon, in Berkshire. He was always a reader in Latin literature, especially the Latin poets, having been a part author of a volume of translations from them—"Lays from Latin Lyres," published in 1876; and he also published in 1903, a translation of the "Octavius" of Minucius Felix, one of the earliest Christian apologists. He had an easy knack of writing English verse of a light sort, as well as Latin verse, and had in recent years won a number of newspaper competitions for both these kinds of composition. One of his favourite amusements was chess. Chess problems of his have appeared from time to time in our chess columns. He married in 1877, and is survived by his wife and two sons.

The funeral will be at Woking Crematorium on Tuesday.