Obituary MR G. T. HENNESSY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 17

Obituary MR G. T. HENNESSY

Mr George Thomas Hennessy, formerly a captain in the Royal Irish Fusiliers, died in Christchurch yesterday. He was 71. Mr Hennessy was bom in India, and attended Rugby School and Sandhurst Military College. He joined the Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1910, and served in that regiment in India and in France during World War I. At the end of the war he commanded a guard of honour at Dover on the arrival of the body of the Unknown Soldier from France on H.MS. Verdun. He came to New Zealand in 1922, and in 1924 began farming on e block of the old Waikakahi estate, near Waimate. He was for 24 years a member of the Waimate Hospital Committee and on the South Canterbury Hospital Board. He was chairman of the Waimate Hospital Committee for 12 years, during which time the new Waimate Hospital was built. Mr Hennessy was a keen sportsman and an excellent shot. During his youth he was a fine hockey player and represented the Army in India, and a good cricketer and boxer. He was a member of the New Zealand polo team which toured Australia in 1934. In World War IT Mr Hen. nessy served with the Ist Canterbury Regiment. He retired from Waimate in 1958 to live in Christchurch. He is survived by . his widow, Mrs D. A. Hennessy, and two sons, Mr Peter Hennessy, of London, and Mr J. M. Hennessy, of Little Akaloa.

LT. COL. A. KIRK

(N.Z. Press Association)

TIMARU, May 3. The oldest officer in the Salvation Army in New Zealand, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kirk, died at Timaru today. He was 96. Becoming a Salvation Army officer in 1890, Mr Kirk served as a corps officer before becoming divisional secretary at territorial headquarters in Christchurch, and later trade secretary. After four years in Sydney he returned to Christchurch, and in 1912 became manager of the Salvation Army auxiliary company at the national headquarters in Wellington, a position he occupied until he retired in 1931. During his service to the Salvation Army, Mr Kirk was particularly interested in youth work.

MR H. B. WILLIAMS

(N.Z Press Association) GISBORNE, May 3. One of New Zealand’s leading public benefactors, Mr Heathcote Beetham Williams, a prominent farmer and businessman, died today in Gisborne after a long illness. He was 92. Bom in Hawke’s Bay in 1868, he was educated at a private school at Akaroa and later at Christ’s College, Christchurch, Ijefore going to Cambridge University where he graduated B.A. He spent much of his money from farming and in the creation of family and charitable trusts. Perhaps the most notable of these is the J. N. Williams Trust, commemorating Mr Williams’ elder son who lost his life in the Second World War. From its income the trust distributes thousands of pounds a year.