MALTBY, RICHARD LEIGHTON (1856-1915)

MALTBY, RICHARD LEIGHTON, undertaker, household appliance vendor, plumbing and heating business proprietor, militia officer, and police magistrate; b. Newcastle, 8 Sep 1856, s/o Thomas Maltby and Margaret Anderson Keymes; m. 1880, Margaret Weston, adopted d/o Alexander Williston and Phoebe Wathen, of Bay du Vin; d. Newcastle, 27 May 1915.

Richard L. Maltby worked in the undertaking business with his father, and in 1888 the two became partners, not only in that line of work but as dealers in mill and steamship apparatus and plumbing and heating supplies. After his father's death he continued in business in partnership with his son Hiram K. Maltby, at least until 1907, when he was appointed police magistrate for Newcastle.

Maltby joined the Newcastle Field Battery around 1872 as a gunner. He was a bombardier when he went to Bathurst with the battery in 1875 to guard the jail in which the Caraquet rioters were incarcerated. He was promoted to corporal in 1876, sergeant in 1880, lieutenant in 1892, captain, in 1894, and major and commanding officer in 1897, as successor to Lieut. Col. Robert R. Call. He relinquished command in 1905.

In 1899 Maltby supervised the construction of a new almshouse in Chatham, after the original structure was destroyed by fire. In 1900 he was elected to the Newcastle Town Council. He did not reoffer in 1901, but he was a member of the County Council for several years and warden in 1908. In 1900 he was appointed chairman of the Board of Health for Newcastle, and he was reappointed in 1904. He was named chairman of the County Health Board in 1911 but resigned after nine months. He was a warden of St Andrew's Anglican Church and a leading Mason. Between 1889 and 1907 he was worshipful master of Northumberland Lodge during four one-year terms.

In 1883 Maltby was the first descendant of his grandfather, Thomas B. Maltby, to visit the family's former place of residence in Durham, England. Sixty-six years had elapsed since their emigration. He was survived in 1915 by his wife, Margaret Weston, a son, and a daughter.