ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 75, 29 March 1913, Page 15

ABOUT NOTABILITIES.

Hi r r _yn Wood, who has just entered n - ntv-sixth year, had his first taste „i_t hy heading a mutiny at MarlBS__'Gramniai- School. It cannot ____n long afterwards that.—at the Si** I "^seventeen —he was "'mentioned in for his valiant conduct with __fl__l Brigade in the Crimea; and Skillies made him a Knight of tbe i|j of Honour.

HI Williams-Bulkeley. who is to Harry Stapleton Mainwaring, Head of a family which has been _3 in Cheshire since tbe Conquest, c very curious name of Aeira, ___s not more curious, however, -- _riol. the name of her younger S-Her father. Sir Richard Willinms_lev, i s a P re ' U n! '' ,£r,lat( ' in Angle'firh'cre he is Lord-Lieutenant. si

Vis understood that Prince Arthur innaught will represent the King i § _rmal opening of the new home Si Federal Parliament in Pretoria !!._.__ I*-* Ro>-«' Highness will attended by rather n large suite. __?__ include distinguished repre___V*s of b,ltll ,no Xnv - V iUld tne r r a nd he will deliver a speech from Mlrone. It may be remembered that _ present King performed a similar py the opening of the Federal '•foment 0 f Australia on behalf of |a Edward.

IWdfoZ to a London paper, the •,_ of Captain Oates in the Antarctic, j o i his uncle. Mr Francis Gates. _GS.* are separated by an interval ot years, but have po.nts in Stfeji For it was while exploring the Sl r 'of South Africa in ISTS. when S,s were very different from what Spire to-day. that Mr Oates was over's, with fever and perished in the wil- .§§_. He was one of the first Enghsh- |^'{' o disclose to the world the secrets Ijjlatabeleland and the region of the f Jittoria Falls.

__,v happy returns of the day to * Samuel Young, the Irish M.P., who I celebrate on tbe 20th inst. his birthday, writes an M.P. i,' London Opinion" early last month, j,is incomparably the most wonderful flutan that Westminster Ims ever seen, {-despite his w« ight of years, bis step ■,jtfll jaunty, he attends most regularly __ Parliamentary duties, deals with _s own correspondence, and is in full jjgtssion of bodily and mental vigour. '___. so far as' 1 can see. there is jj" the slightest reason why "Sam" __d not go on living for ever. 1 am _by a prejudiced teetotaller that he II "distiller, and that his longevity _a_ to the fact that he has never tried his own whisky. The Orand Old _m does not deny the impeachment, _l_t night I heard him send a circle •jlnglish friends into a roar of laughter .adding: "And. what's more, I never „_v of it in Ireland, so that it kills sSody but Englishmen."

I Sr Ashburnham Clements, one of the Socators of the wil. of Lord AshburnB_i*stated at Battle, Sussex, last month, Sat'-the late peer's only child, Lady Uluy Catherine Ashburnham, has not yet 9s_e'-to any decision as to whether she ' :„r3 continue her life at the Convent ot Mp Si«red Heart at Roehampton. It the vow she is precluded by bj|_3 Ashburnhanrs will from inheriting _]_■• real and personal estate. The will _?_s been provisionally sworn at under ff-iI.OOO. She has four years in which If .decide, being still a novice at the conH.f|t Ber age is twenty-three. On her BMher- death she was. by special perpision of the mother superior, allowed if ft leave the convent and she is now |jj tavelling. P Sir Frederick Cowen. who has, at the '-'Ui of sixty, resigned the conductorship 3V of the Liverpool Philharmonic Society, &t& which he has so long been asso- ■ tiled, has a friend of over forty years' I Sading with which he would not part jf k-ntold gold. This is a pianette that jf studs in his study, a modest little inI s__ent little more than three feet 1 _h, and with well-worn keys. Every ntrark he has composed since the age of | fourteen has been written with its aid. |1 Ti has."' Sir Krfderick once confessed, i helped mc with more than 300 song s . — IThe Promise of Life' among them —with I imf symphonies—indeed, with all I have fee down to my last work. 'The Veil.' It tr as made in the sixties, and has had its inside done up once, but it seems to mtobe wearing as well as I am."

I The famous painter. Sir George Keid, 1-tSA., LLD.. formerly President of the Ship 1 Scottish Academy, died at his §j K&er,ce. Hillyland--. Oakbill. Somerset, I arly last month. He was born in 184:2, lod as a boy «as apprenticed to an fl Aberdeen firm 'of lithographers. He I forked from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.. and took B terns in painting at six o'clock one B Homing a week. He went to Edinburgh pin 1860 to study, but returned to AberH fen practically penniless, afterwards flanking a living by painting portraits. II Brst picture winch he sent to the 1 Scottish Academy was sold for £2 10/. || A few years later he studied in Utrecht jj aid. with Jo=ef Israels in Paris. Sir H George established a great reputation as B 'portrait painter, and was a clever landi Wpe painter and black-and-white artist. I ilany of the pictures in the Mackelvie I tollection in Auckland were selected by B lim.

I Hie King and Queen. Queen AlexanE -kaj and Princess Victoria were among

1 lie senders uf birtliday gifts to General i Sr Dighton Probyii, ' who was eighty | JWrs of age on Tuesday. January 20. B Queen Alexandra was also present in the I Mllroom of Sandringham House, where, H •_ Her Majesty's permission, a Lou:s 9 ■-. •' silver punch bowl was presented to ■ Sir Dighton by the tenants, servants, and

ft Workpeople on the Sandringham estate. 9 A_ accompanying address signed by the I to the present referred to I S ; r -O'ghton's forty-one years' Royal serI §-V«nd said: "Some of us have worked || linder you the whole forty-one years and B 6ome for only as many months, but we I «v. all proved your worth as an Eng I ■_ gentleman, e'ourteous to all, magH Sjfcent in friendship, and a lover of ■ Airplay." Sir Dighton has spent fortyI S* years in the Royal Household, and I «« 'been Comptrcjler nnd Treasurer of I tte Household of King Edward when H rh.ee of Wales, Keeper of the Privy ■ Purse during His Majesty's reign, CompB » """General to Queen Alexandra, and II fetta Equerry to King George. Few ll JjWiers have won so many honours on II *M battlefield. It was at Agra in the ■ Mutiny days that he won his V.C., and If Pl-hig the campaign he was mentioned H P nn fewer than seven times. ti .y° "Proib.vn's Horse," tbe irregular ;■ pr_ __| c _ he raised, secured an immoral W name. In 1575 Sir Dighton wns I jfcesc. tf , _ PP „ m p nll y -be late King EdM *"d, then Prince of Wales, on his lull fan tour.