OBITUARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 115, 14 May 1920, Page 6

OBITUARY.

CRIMEAN VETERAN*. ' Mr. William Andrews, who died in Auckland, aged 82 years, was a veteran of the Crimean war, and also saw service in India. He enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders, and wae transferred to the 12th Regiment, with which he served in Xew Zealand during the Maori war, and after his discharge remained in Auckland. MR. M. B. MERGENTHEIM. The death occurred on May 6, while" on a visit to Rotorua, of Mr. M. B. Mergentheim, hon. secretary of the Sydney Metropolitan Repatriation Committee. The late Mr. Mergentheim was visiting New Zealand under a commission from the Commonwealth Minister of Repatriation to investigate the New Zealand system, and had already spent several months in this country collecting data when he was seized with pneumonia, to which he succumbed after a very brief illness. The funeral took place at Waikumete on Sundny last-May 0. Mrs. Mergentheim, who accompanied her. husband to the Dominion, is returning to Australia at an early date. MRS. J. R. WALLIS. Information hae come to hand of the death at Dunedin on Wednesday of Mrs. J. R. Wallis, widow of the late Rev.. J. W. Wallis. Deceased had attained the. advanced age of 81 years. Her husband, who was a missionary at the Friendly Islands for a number of years, was a son of the Rev. James Wallis, one of the early Weeleyan missionaries to New Zealand, who carried on his work in Raglan and. other d_tric_g .before finally settling down at Mount Eden, in Auckland, where the remaining member, of his family still reside. MR. GEORGE LEAHT**„ A very old resident of this city, Mr. George Leahy, has just died, aged 86 years. A requiem Majs took place at 9 a.m. to-day in St. Patrick's Cathedral, after which the cortege Mt for the Symonds Street Cemetery. Mr. Leahy was born at Gibraltar, and arrived in Auckland from Ireland in 1855, where he .became secretary to St. Patrick's Hibernian Society, having Col. T. J. Brown (Governor) as patron, and the ltfte John Williamson as. president of the same. After a few years in tne above Society he left and became a member of the Fountain of Friendship Lodge, and soon went through the various offices from Warden to P.P.G.M. Also about this time he was a member of the Auckland Fire Brigade, under Superintendent Asher. Joining the Victoria Rifles he soon rose to the rank of captain, having served through the Maori | War. He also held the position of auditor of the district for 21 years, trustee of the Fountain of Friendship Lodge for 27 years, and was treasurer for sisryears, having been a member for some 62 years. On February 24th, 1920, the Fountain! of Friendship Lodge carried a resolution congratulating Mr. Leahy on the sixtysecond anniversary of hk initiation as a member. Mr. Leahy was a genial man, possessed of many friends. His healthwas such that he remained in 'active business until his seventy-seventh year.' Deceased is survived by six sons and six daughter*. A retired farmer, who called at the "Sfcr" Office to-day, stated that he remembers Mr. Leahy when taking horses to him to shoe, in his shop in West Queen Street, now Swanson Street, in 1862. The shop was then situated about the spot where the present Chamber of Commerce stands.