SIR FRANK MAPPIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 33, 9 February 1943, Page 4

SIR FRANK MAPPIN

AUCKLAND BARONET AIM ORCHID ENTHUSIAST A baronetcy has come to Auckland. Mr. Frank Crossley Mappin, of Birchlands, Mouhtain Road, Auckland, has succeeded his father, Sir Samuel Wilson Mappin, who died recently at the age of 88 years, and becomes the sixth baronet. Sir Frank Mappin was born in Lincolnshire and educated at Felsted and Cambridge. He came to New Zealand 34 years ago and engaged in farming pursuits at Silverdale. Twenty-two years ago he took up his residence in Auckland, and made Birchlands his permanent home. In 1909 Sir Frank married Miss Ruby Thomson, daughter of Mr. George Lamberton Thompson, of Auckland. There are three daughters —Laura/who has been doing war work in England ever since the outbreak of hostilities; Mrs. Theo de Lange, and Ethel, who is a St. John Ambulance V.A.D. in Auckland. Sir Frederick Thorpe Mappin. grandfather of the present holder of the title, was created a baronet in 1886. He was'a native of Sheffield, and was a Liberal member of the House of Commons for twenty-six years. He was a director of the Midland Railway. He was a Master Cutler in 1855, and was elected Mayor of Sheffield in 1877. In 1900 he received the honorary freedom of Sheffield. His grandson Sir Charles Thomas Hewitt Mappin, who succeeded two of his great-uncles, joined the Royal Air Force when war was declared. He was a sergeant airgunner and was killed in a bombing raid over Germany in 1941. The heir to Sir Charles was his great-uncle, Sir Samuel Wilson Mappin, 8.A.. of Trinity College, Cambridge. The present holder of the title is his eldest son. Sir Frank and Lady Mappin devote a great deal of time to horticulture. Sir Frank is an enthusiastic grower of orchids, and his orchid houses are his special care. He has some rare plants and the blooms are sold for the benefit of St. John Ambulance Association, and bring in a failamount of revenue. The vegetable garden produces many tons of produce for patriotic organisations, and when an Auckland Star representative called on Sir Frank to-day he was trundling a barrow loaded with lettuces to his car which he was later taking to the Carrie Hostel. Sir Frank is a member of the Auckland War Memorial Museum Council and a trustee of the Knox Home. For the last three years he has given his services in an honorary capacity to the Air Force Medical Board at Auckland.