OVERSEAS LEAGUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 17

OVERSEAS LEAGUE.

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS.

SIR EVELYN AND LADY WRENCH.

Sir Evelyn Wrench, London, founder and controller of the Overseas League, accompanied by Lady Wrench, will arrive !n Xew Zealand from Australia within the next few months. This information has been received by the Christchurch branch of the league, in a letter from Sir Evelyn, who said his ■visit to the Dominion would not be long and he and Lady Wrench intended visiting Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Sir Evelyn has had an interesting career. An Irishman by birth he ia the eldest surviving son of the late Right Hon. Frederick Wrench, of Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, and is 56 years old. He was educated at Eton and in Europe, and for four years was engaged in a postcard publishing business. He then entered journalism on Lord Northcliff's staff, whore he served for eight years. He gave up his position to devote himself to the work of the Overseas League, which he founded, and other imperial movements. He toured the. self-governing British Dominions in 1912-13, -anl later founded the English-speaking Union and the All People's Association.

In 1937 he married his couisn,, Lady des Voenx, widow of Sir Frederick des Voeux, seTentli baronet, and daughter of the late Sir Victor Brooke, also of Colebrooke, County Fermanagh, Ireland. She was born at Pau, France, and lived there with her mother until her first marriage, in 1890. During the war, she was chairwoman of the Overseas League's Soldiers and Sailors Fund, and in 1918 she was created C.B.E.

Sir Evelyn and Lady Wrench, while in Christchurch, will be entertained by tie members of the local branch of the Overseas League.