MR T. P. O'CONNOR.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19814, 30 December 1929, Page 14

MR T. P. O'CONNOR.

PERSONAL TRIBUTES.

"CHARITY BEYOND REASON."

LONDON. November 21. i Doubtless, the main facts of the .lit. Hon. T. *P. O'Connor's career have \ appeared in overseas newspapers, but I more personal tributes to the Nestor lof British journalism and "Father" i of the House of Commons may be inter- ! esting. I Mr O'Connor died early on Monday ' morning (November 18th). He had i been in bed for ten days, but. even. ' at the age of SI and four days before i liL= de-ath iiis brain was in good order, | and he dictated his weekly article for •the "Sunday Times." In this, by the j wav, he has a kindly -word for Sir JoI sep'h Ward, "who."" he said, "is still iouite voting," and he recalled his first meeting v.ith Mr T. M. Wilford in tho < House of Commons.

I It was not until Friday that the soil- ! cusness of Air O'Connor's condition | was made known to the public. It was i then announced that he had a septic i leg. Lord Dawson of Penn saw the ! invalid on Sunday, and took a message I of sympathy and good wishes from the I King. Mr "O'Connor was sleeping when ( Lord Dawson arrived, but when the message was conveyed to him he smiled and nodded to show he understood it. The Pope sent his blessing through Cardinal Bourne. Mr O'Connor received the last Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church from Mgr. How-

lett. or Westminster Cathedral. Vhen Mr O'Connor died there were present ! his two niece,-;. Miss Mary O'Malley and I Hiss Teresa O'Malley, with Dr. Swinjdale, Mr O'Connor's doctor and close friend, two nephews, and his ! housekeeper and servant. 1 In the words of his housekeeper. "Ha | just slept away. He was like a child ! asleep.''

Lord Curzon's Tribute. 1 It is recalled that Lord Curzon of Kedleston _ spoke of "T.P." when he was entertained to a banquet on his 75th birthday. "Throughout his varied career," Lord Curzon said, "our friend has enjoyed one great advantage, which he owes, I presume, to his parents, and that is the possession of initials which slip with a gracious and captivating inflexion from the tongue. To be Mr O'Connor is to be commonplace: to be 'T.P.' is to be popular; to be 'Tay Pay' is to be Irresistible. "It may be laid down almost as an essential in the life of a public man who aspires to popularity and fame that he should have a Christian name, or a nickname, which is both familiar and arresting. If yon have not this advantage of a name, at least you must have initials. That advantage our friend has consistently and worthily enjoyed." Audacious, Irrepressible. Lord Curzon added rather a jiathetie sentence. "I congratulate him," he said, "I envy him more particularly when. I trace the lot of the man who has groaned for a lifetime under the cruel brand of an undergraduate gibe." ("The man" was, of course, Lord Curzon himself, and the "gibe*' was:— My name is George Nathaniel Curzon, I am a most superior purzon.) Lord Curzon spoke of "T.P.'s" Parliamentary career as one of the Irish Nationalist Party—"the most formidable combination that has been seen in our time." He recalled the powerful personality of Parnell, the biting humour of Timothy Healy, the sombre eloquence of John Dillon, and went on:

"When the smoke of this overwhelming artillery had rolled away—and it seldom did roll away under the space of about three or four hours —then from the third bench below the gangway opposite there rose the young and alert figure of our friend. Speaking in accents of the most approved Hibernian quality—audacious, irrepressible—he would pour out for at least an hour, it never was less, it was often more, the most entrancing irrelevancies, the most audacious humour, the most withering sarcasm." A Great Journalist.

Mr Caradoe Evans, who acted as Mr O'Connor's editor for five years, contributes a personal note to the "Daily Express." "He was a great journalist with limitations," he writes. "As a contemporary diarist he was next to Pepys. He attributed his success to his ability to draw pen portraits of men and women, and some of his portraits arc models of shrewdness and observation and economic prose. "But he could not draw a child; the most he could say was that she romped or that she had flaxen hair. Nor could he see a landscape, knowing not one tree from another or one flower from another. In common with most writing peasants, he knew men better than Nature.

"T.P. remained the cultured peasant to the end of his days. He disliked youth addressing him as 'T.P.,' and he disliked intensely the term 'Tay Pay,' invented by George E. Sims. He spoke with an Irish, accent because he could not de otherwise. A flighty man was a 'laddo,' a film was a 'fllhn,' and a column was a 'colvwni.'

''Yet. though he was an idealistic peasant, his mind was ever concerned with money and books, and he was not able to keep either. His charity was beyond reason, and may it be accounted nnto him for righteousness. Nobody ever appealed to him in vain.

"At his death he should have been worth £IOO.OOO. He walked out of the 'Star' newspaper with £30,000. and his income dunrt2 the last twentv years was not less than £2OO a week. He lived scantily; two or three domestic servants, a secretary, and a flat. His food was painfullv rjlain and frugal: a little fish, a little meat, and a weak whiskv and water.

"But he could not hold liis money. AVlien a typist was leaving our office I asked him if he would care to contribute a guinea towards a presentation for her. He gave five guineas. '"T.P. was a sympathetic, understanding: editor, and it is not probable that journalism will see his like again."' Blows in the House. In later years O'Connor did not often speak in the House, and. having meiloivea with age, liis part was usually to soften asperities or to get his comrades out of a fix in which tactless and indiscreet statements had lauded them. He had not, however, entirely controlled his native impulsiveness, and it led to the most violent scene that ever took place in the Commons. Chamberlain had made a fierce attack on Gladstone, and the Liberal subserviency to him. "'Never sinca the time of Herod."" he declared, "'has there been such slavish adulation." ''Judas! .Juda«!" cried O'Connor, and immediately there was an uproar, and blows were struck for the first time in the House. Mr Speaker P»-el was sent for and succeeded in calming the excitement. Explanations followed, r.nd the proceedings ended in loud laughter when Mr Condon, an Irish member, standing up to defend O'Connor. spoke of him by a slip of the tc-ngue. us "the hon. member for Scotland Yard.'' "T.P.V* activities did not cease wiiii ape, until the last few months «f his life In 1.9*28 he re-visited America after ten years' absence, during which he wa« arcorde<J the honour of a Red Indian chieftainship. H»> acted as President of the British Board of Film Censors; cm iu Slat birthday 1m

visited Liverpool, and announced a Ki>t towards the education of the Catholic poor of that city; and he wrote his "Memoirs of an Old Pailiamentarmn." a eeries of brilliant portraits of his former contemporaries. And in the evening of his days, as lie sat on the terrace of the House in an invalid chair. Lord Birkenhead presented to him, on behalf of his friends and colleagues in both Houses and of all Patties, the deeds of a trust fund of £IO.fKiO which had b*>en subscribed a, a con i mem oration of his long career is public ]if&