DUKE OF CLOUCESTER BECOMES ENGAGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 205, 30 August 1935, Page 7

DUKE OF CLOUCESTER BECOMES ENGAGED.

SCOTTISH FIANCEE. Lady Alice Scott, Daughter Of Duke of Buccleuch. ARTIST AND SPORTSWOMAN. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, August 29. The Duke of Gloucester has become engaged to Lady Alice Christabel Montagu-Douglas-Scott, third daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. The Duke of Gloucester obtained special leave from his regiment to seek the King's consent to the engagement. Lady Alice, who is shorter than the Duke, is a brilliant conversationalist. She has spent much time in Kenya painting watercolours which were exhibited in the London Gallery last month. The Duke is a friend of the family of Buccleuch. The Duke sits in the House of Lords, as Earl of Doncaster. He has a priceless art collection, portion of whicL was destroyed by fire in 1929. Lady Alice was born in 1901. She is at present with her family at Bowhill, Selkirk, her father's Scottish seat. She is prominent in social circles in the West End and is a sportswoman and lover of horses. The Duke and Lady Alice have been close friends for some months and often danced together. The Duke travelled to-day to Balmoral with the Queen to join the King. There have been rumours that he intended to acquire a residence in the West End, and these were strengthened when in the past few days he bought furniture.

SOLDIER DUKE. A MILITARY CAREER. Prince Henry William Frederick Albert, Duke of Gloucester, third son of King George V. and Queen Mary, was born on March 31, 1901. At an early age he decided on a military career, and at Eton joined the army class from which he passed direct into Sandhurst by examination. Taller and stronger than his two elder brothers, he devoted himself to outdoor sports, especially cricket and long-distance running, taking up polo and fiunting later. From Sandhurst he went to Trinity College, Cambridge. In August, 1920, he was gazetted a second lieutenant of the King's Royal Rifles and later became second lieutenant in the 10th Hussars,, in which he had risen by March, 1926, to the rank of captain, and is now a major. The King stipulated that the Prince should be promoted in the ordinary way and should not enjoy any special privileges. He had, therefore, to perform all the duties of his rank and take a full share in the work of the regiment, with the result that he appeared much less in public than the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York up to 1927. His desire is for a career like that of the Duke of Connaught, in which hi would rise to the highest rank in the army. Like the Prince of Wales, he is fond of cross-country riding and was the first of the King's sons to win a point-to-point race. This was in the Ist Cavalry Brigade steeplechases in the spring of 1921 when lie captured the Infantry Cup against 12 other riders. A few days later his eldest brother won a similar success, but Prince Henry is regarded as by far the better rider of 'the two. When he came of age he had the Order of the Garter bestowed on him. In 1925 he was made a member of the Privy Council. He is also High Steward of King's Lynn, a Bencher of Gray's Inn, and a freeman of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow. On March 31, 1928, when he was 27, the King conferred on him the titles of Duke of Gloucester, Earl of Ulster and Baron Culloden. The previous Duke of Gloucester died in 1834. The Duke went to East Africa on a shooting expedition in 1928, going through Kenya and Tanganyika into Northern Rhodesia, largely over rough tracks, crossing watercourses by flimsylooking bridges or driving through fords of unknown depth. During his trip he bagged n, number of lions, water buck, hartebceste, wildebepste, gazelles and impala. Early in 1929 he visited Japan to convey the insignia of the Order of the Garter to the Emperor and received the Grand Order of the Chrysanthemum. On his way back he broke his collarbone during a game of polo in Vancouver in June. The Duke proceeded to Abyssinia in 1930 to represent th° King at the coronation of the Emperor. Afterwards he went on a shooting trip there, returning to England in December. His adventures in East Africa and Abyssinia were described in modest, but graphic contributions to a book, s 'Big Game Shooting in Africa," published in 1932.

It was announced in April, 1934, that he would go to Australia and New Zealand via Ceylon in the autumn in place of Prince George, as it would be inadvisable for the latter to undertake a six months' tour so soon after the strain entailed by his successful visit to South Africa. His engagements included representation of the King at the Centenary celebrations of the State of Victoria, and visits to Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania, as well as to New Zealand.

The Duke has taken an active part in scientific and philanthropic work. Early in March, 1928, as president of the Lancashire", Cheshire and North Wales Council of the British Empire Cancer Campaign he inaugurated a Lancashire appeal at Manchester and Liverpool. He has a quiet, but engaging manner and has manv friends in all walks of life.