OBITUARY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10146, 20 September 1898, Page 5

OBITUARY.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, September 18. The death is announced of the Earl of De-art, aged fifty-four years. Major George de Winton is dead, aged seventy-four years. Deceased went to Tasmania in 1843 in command of a convict guard, and subsequently was the first white man to land in Northern Queensland, where the port of Gladstone now stands.

Lord Desart, who was the fourth Earl, was bom in 1845, and succeeded to the title in 1865. He was the author of a number of novels. Lord Desert was a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards in 1862, and captain in 1865. His heir is bis brother, the Hon. H. Cufie, C.8., Solicitor to the Treasury, and Director of Public Prosecutions.

Major George de winton entered the army at the age of seventeen, in the year 1841, as an ensign of the 99th Regiment, and in 1843 embarked for Hobart in the barque Constant, in command of a convict guard! When a new penal settlement in North Australia was projected, he was Selected to command a detachment, and when he landed was received by the natives with a shower of spears, but succeeded at great personal risk in establishing friendly relations. Afterwards the settlement was abandoned, and Lieutenant Winton was sent in command of a detachment to Brisbane, which was at this time little more thari a collection of weatherboard huts. After his return to England, he volunteered for active service in the Crimea, and was appointed Brigade-Major of the British Swiss Legion. Shortly after his return from England, he retired from the army. For some time he edited "Colburn's United Service Magazine."