OBITUARY

ME, B. H. A. P. GERARD LONG AND VARIED CAREER A PROMINENT FREEMASON The death occurred yesterday at his homo, Beauregard, Norwood Jload, Bayswater, of Mr. Ernest Henri Adolphe Francois Gerard, aged well known in Auckland Masonic circles. He was a descendant of the French aristocracy and a prominent figure in early Auckland business life. His grandfather was a. high official in the court of Louis XVI., at the time of the French Revolution. Soon after, the execution of Marie Antoinette he was forced to flee across the bolder to Germany with his family, barely cscapin K death at the hands of the revoluj tionists. The family settled in Hamburg, where Mr. Gerard's father was born. He later became a colonel, in Napoleon's army which took part in the famous retreat from Moscow. Born in Hamburg on June 7, 1862, Mr; Gerard married the daughter of an English army officer in his early twenties and soon after travelled to Australia. They fived there for several years before arriving in Wellington, where Mr. Gerard engaged in private business before joining the Government service. He was later transferred to Auckland as official assignee.

Mr. Gerard resigned this position later to become first manager of the Guardian Trust and Executors Company of New Zealand, and was subsequently managing-director of Wilsons New Zealand Portland Cement, Limited. He retired in 1915. A few years after the Great War Mr. Gerard loft for Europe, eventually settling in Guernsey, Channel Islands, and in later years lived in Somerset, England. He returned to the Dominion in 1930. Mr. Gerard was very prominent in Freemasonry in Auckland. Ho was a member of the Lodge Ara, No. 348, 1.C., and also chaplain of United Masters Lodge, N.Z.C. While living in Guernsey, he became master of an English constituted lodge of the order. He is survived by Mrs. Gerard and one daughter, who are in I' ranee.