In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 28

In the Public Eye

Baron Davidson. Pew people will recognise under tho jiauie of Baron Davidson, tho well'__.no wn and deservedly. popular churchman, 'Dr. Randall Thomas Davidson, Archbishop of. Canterbury and Primate tot' England, who has been raised, to a peerage by the King, and was introduced to the House of Lords by Lord Harris and Lord Stamfordliani on Wednesday last. On 20th July official notification was published in the English papers stating that the King had re- ■'. ■ ceived with regret an intimation from tho Archbishop that he was desirous of resigning his high'office. Tlio King, ontho recommendation of tho Prime Minister, appointed a Commission consisting of the Archbishop of York (who has since been raised to the See of Canterbury); the Bishop of London, the. Bishop of Durham, and the Bishop of Winchester, for.the purpose of receiving the resignation, which was an almost unprecedented occurrence. They reported their acceptance of the Archbishop's resignation, which was approved by the King, and took effect as from midnight last Monday. Baron Davidson celebrated his 80th birthday on 7th April this year. His father, Henry Davidson, of Muirhouse, Edinburgh, a landowner of Scotland, was a Presbyterian. It was in March, 187-i, that the future Primate was ordained at St. Mark's, Kennington, and his first curacy was at Dartford, Kent. On 21st, February, 1575, he- was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Tait, and from 1877 to 1882 he was chaplain and private secretary to his Grace. On 12th November, 1878, in Lambeth .Palace Chapel' Mr. Davidson was married •to Archbishop Tait's daughter, Edith, then barely 20 years of age. In -1882 he became chaplain and private secretary to Archbishop Benson, and in the same year he was appointed sub-almoner to Queen Victoria; In 1883 he was appointed/Dean of Windsor and Domestic Chaplain to Queen Victoria. Consecrated to the See of Rochester in 1891, he four years later became. Bishop, of Winchester. Following the death of Archbishop Temple in 1902, Dr. Davidson was, on the nomination of the Prime Minister (Mr. Balfour), offered the Archbishopric of Canterbury, and on 12th February, 1903, he was enthroned. Tho Primate arranged that after his resignation had taken effect that he would reside permanently in London, and with that idea in view ho purchased No. 10, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, the house that Mr. Lloyd George took when he left No. 10, Downing street. Archbishops and bishops are entitled to pensions payable by tho Ecclesiastical Commissioners from their common fund to which each archbishop and bishop has to contribute a portion of his income.- The Primate's pension will amount to £1500 a year. General Bramwcll Booth. Another great churchman, though not in the same sense as the Archbishop of Canterbury, has found it necessary to retire' from his activities owing to ill-health., -General Bramwcll Booth, at the head of'the', church militant, is almost as wellknown in England as.the Archbishop, and, one might .. almost say, as popular, though both in different directions. One man has been at the head of the Stato . church, with all its ritual and service ordered by generations of custom, while the'other has successfully led a religious organisation whose methods aro frequently bizarre, and always strident. Born in the very centre of Salvation Army activities, General Booth has always been closely associated with social work in the world's largest cities. His father, the late General William Booth, was founder of the "Army," which ho first started in 1878 in the East End of London with tlio idea of helping to alleviate some of the "suffering so common in the slum areas of London. His son succeeded to the leadership in 1912, and, with his wife, has visited many parts of tho world inspecting the many branches of tho organisation which ho has so carefully and faithfully controlled. He is by no means unknown iv New Zealand, having visited the Dominion during the course of one such inspectorial' tour. General Bramwcll Booth is now 72 years old, aud his life generally has been a strenuous one. •To .him must bo laid a great deal of credit for the progress .which has been made by the Salvation Army, as he has brought modern methods to bear on the business side of the undertaking where his father was more prone to trust to Providence for the assistance he needed. Great organiser as'the original General Booth proved himself to be, his son has shown himself to be even greater, coupled with a natural intuition capnble of grasping a situation at a glance. General Booth' was accorded an audience.by the King in June, 1914, just prior to the outbreak of the Great War, find when that disaster did actually occur the organisation took A very prominent part in relief works of various kinds, which included valuable assistance to the men actually in the frontline trenches. In 1882 lie was married to Miss Florence Soper, a daughter of the late Dr. Soper; and there aro two sons and four daughters pf the union. Mrs. Bramwcll Booth has done niueh 4o help her husband in his work, especially on the evangelistic side of Army endeavour. She was a member of the British Birthrate Commission, which sat from 1913 to 191S, and is a Justice of the Peace for the City of London.'- . Eir f Edward Grigg. A cabled message from London this track-announced that Sir Edward Grigg, Governor of Kenya Colony, together with Sir Donald Cameron, another African Governor, had been recalled to England to consult with the Secretary of Stato for the Dominions and Colonies, Mr. Leopold .-Vinery, in regard to the Hilton Young Commission's report dealing with East. Africa. Of these two governors of "farflung" portions of the British Empire, Sir Edward Grigg is by far tho most, important rind best known. A journalist by profession ami inclination, he has iill.-d innnv important olii.es on the stall's of 'JTlie Times" and ''The Outlook." H.o was appointed Governor of Kenya Colony on 'JStli' May, 192-., iv succession to the late Sir Robert C'orvndon, who had died suddenly and had

been buried three months before the appointment was made. Sir Edward has a splendid war record to his credit, and a wide experience in dealing with men and affairs in ninny spheres. In 191-1 he joined the Grenadier Guards, ultimately rising to the staff of the Guards Division, and afterwards he became military secretary, to the. Prince of Wales during his tours'of-Now Zealand, Australia, and Canada.. Having retired froui tho Army in 1321 with the rank' of lieu-tenant-colonel, -ho was for a time private secretary to Mr. Lloyd George. In 1922 he was returned for Oldham as a Liberal, and he was again returned in 1924, this time with a thirteen thousand majority over Labour. Sir Edward received the honour of D.S.O. in 191S, the C.M.G. in 1919, and the K.C.V.O. in' 1920. In 1923 he was married to the Hon. Joan Poynder, only child of Lord Islington, at ono time Governor of New Zealand, in the days when his daughter was quite a littlo girl, and used to play in, the grounds of Government House at Wellington. Sir Edward Grigg will, in the days to come, be numbered among the "Empire Builders" with such" men as Cecil Rhodes, Sir George Goldie, Richard Seddon, Sir George Grey,- and the host of others who have paved the way of Empire. He has a wide knowledge of the native mind, nor does he allow- it to become confused- with his own line of action. A little while ago, during the course lof.ii speech, he declared that Britain was the guardian of the child-races of tho world, and it has been this attitude towards his task which has made^ him so successful, as Governor of Kenya^ Colony, where the native population is both large and varied. Ho has among his people''niore than .13,000 Asiatics, 11,000 Arabs, and,2,750,000 Africans, to-o-ether with a mixed European population exceeding 13,000. There is in this polyglot crowd the ingredients of considerable trouble, and but for the careful and diplomatic manner in which Sir Edward had.handled all with whom he has come in contact, trouble might have eventuated ere this. Sir H. J. de C. Moore. There havo not been many occasion, on which a; prominent London Alderman has'ref used to accept nomination as Lord Mayor of the City, and-probably never before' has any man been twice placed in that position. That, however, is the ease with' Sir Harold John do Courcy Moore, who could have been Lord Mayor/ last year a n d perhaps again this year, been elected to stand down in favour, of his older friend. Sir Kynaston Studd, who was installed last week. There i was much excitement among the thousand' Liverymen at the attitude of Sir Harold Moore, who is the senior Alderman. He had previously stated that he was prepared to again stand down for Sir Kynaston Studd, but the authorities ruled that such action was not lawful or possible. When it came to the day of tho election, the Common Sergeant, Sir Henry Dickens, announced the names of the three candidates, but that of Sir Harold Moore was received with shouts of "Never! Never!" Sir Kynaston Studd's name was received with cries of "All!" and Sir Stephen Killick's with "Next Year!" Thus Kynaston Studd became Lord Mayor for 1925-29, while Sir Harold Moore apparently fell from the favour of the Liverymen, who are the electors. A city authority, after the incident, stated that such a scene, so far as he knew, was without precedent, while the newly-elected Lord Mayor termed it "very regrettable." After the scene, however, Sir Harold explained his position to the Liverymen. "For personal reasons," he said, "I did not wish to serve the office of Lord Mayor in the year which has just been concluded, and on the day of the election I wrote a letter to the Lord Mayor, my reason being accepted, with the result that Sir Charles Batho, the Alderman next in seniority to myself, was' elected. As regards this year the position was very much the same, and for personal reasons it would suit me best not to offer myself as a candidate. The authorities have ruled that what was done last year was not quite regular, but I can assure you that' there was no. wish on my part to place the Liverymen in an unlawful position, or to evade the duty which I owe to the city as its senior' Alderman." :Sir Harold Moore is 51 years old, and' is senior partner in the accountancy firm of Moore, Stephens, Futcher Head, and Co., and he is a fellow of the Institute of. Chartered Accountants. He served during the Great War .with the Royal Air Force, having the rank of major. He was. Sheriff of London in 1921-22. and is now Lieutenant of the City in addition to being Senior Alilernian.' Mr. C. D. Wilbur. Last. Saturday was set aside by the. United States as "Navy Day," and Mr. .. Curtis Dwigh't Wilbur, Secretary, of the American Navy Department, • asked that as many "countries as',possible should join with the ' United States in celebrating a widespread observance of tho day. Ho went on to say that all. that America desired was a Navy sufficiently strong to protect the trade routes of the "greatest: seaborne commerce in the world, and to ensure the livelihood of the most populous of modem nations" which sounds very much like brno-gin'r Mr. Wilbur became Secrctarv of°Sta?o for the Navy on the nomination of President Coolidge in March, _£>"4 when he succeeded Mr. Den In- almostat the.commencement of what'are nouknown as the "Teapot Dome" scandals. Prior to his appointment to the Navy Department, Mr. Wilbur was ('liieY Justice of the California Supreme Court, having, previously graduated from the Naval Academy in the ISBS class, which was not the least of his qualifications for his new post. He was born at Bouupsborn, in lowa, sixly-oho years ago. and married Miss Olive Doolittle, of St. Paul, when he was in his early thirties. Although he started out to make the Navy hi s life, calling, he did not proceed very far' with the idea, and began the practice of law at Los Angeles in 1890, of which city he, became Chief District Attorney and later still. Judse of the Supreme Court. From this legal eminence he was promoted to the" Supreme Court of California, of which he was Chief .Justice from 1922 to 1927, wh-n he resigned, though he had three rears previously been appointed by the President to the portfolio of the Navy. During his legal career Mr. Wilbur devoted considerable attention to'juvenile depravity, aud lie organised the first Children's Court in California, as well as drafting several laws in relation to crime by children. Politically he is a Republican' and he is also a firm supporter of the Congregational Church, and is aI. heart a ver;- religious man.