Background
Born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 15 October 1858, Frederic Whitcombe was the son of civil engineer Henry Whitcombe and Maria née N.
Born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 15 October 1858, Frederic Whitcombe was the son of civil engineer Henry Whitcombe and Maria née N.
Henry Whitcombe, after whom Whitcombe Pass in the Southern Alps is named, drowned in 1863 in the Taramakau River on one of his many West Coast exploration trips. Edward Cephas John Stevens was put in charge of the fund which allowed the Whitcombe boys to attend Christ’s College. They had two further sons, one of whom died in infancy.
Nothing is known of Frederic Whitcombe"s life until 1890, by which time he was practising as a solicitor at Geraldton, Western Australia.
By 1897 he was living at Mount Magnet. On 11 May 1898, Whitcombe was elected to a North Province seat in the Western Australian Legislative Council.
However, on 30 November 1900 the Barrister Board struck him off their roll for misappropriation of funds. Three days later he resigned his seat.
Nothing further is known of his life, but it is likely that he left Western Australia.