Lady Elworthy Will Miss Travel

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32233, 27 February 1970, Page 2

Lady Elworthy Will Miss Travel

Lady Elworthy, wife of the Chief of British Defence Staff and I Marshal of the Royal Air ; Force (Sir Charles EI--1 worthy), arrived at I Christchurch Airport yesterday with one regret about her husband’s impending retirement. “1 am going to miss the pure luxury of travelling like that,” she said lightly, waving a hand In the direction of the sleek Comet aircraft which brought the couple from Canberra, and which is for the personal use of her husband in aspects of his : work. “Next time I’ll be coming j in an ordinary passenger airliner and carrying my own : bag, I suppose. Which means I must get another bag; the one I take round with me now is so big and awkward.” Sir Charles and Lady ElI worthy were welcomed by j one of their four children, Christopher, who lives in New Zealand, and his wife, Anne. After a quick interview with reporters, Lady Elworthy ! rushed off to see her 16i month-old granddaughter, ' Caroline, for the first time. She was anxious to unload a i rocking horse from the Comet | to present to the baby.

“It’s the most marvellous thing: I couldn’t resist it. 1 bought it at Johore in Malaysia and it’s made of bamboo Not very big, and so light,’ she said. But first. Lady Elworthy chatted brightly about her yeai-s as an air force wife and the farewell visit her husband is now making to centres round the world. “We have seldom slept in one bed for more than- two nights since we left London on February 11. We will larrivd home on March 11. So

far, the only misadventure has been that I left my coat In Canberra —but it doesn’t look as if I’ll need it anyway,” she said, as she surveyed the brilliant sunshine in Christchurch. Lady Elworthy, who was born at Orange in New South Wales, is no stranger to New Zealand. “I came to Auckland when I was one and a bit. I went to school there and got a B.A. in English and history at Auckland University.” she said. Two Trips “I took a trip to England | when I was 20 and another) one when 1 was 23. That was; in 1936 and 1 met and married my husband in London. We have lived there ever since, apart from a year in Pakistan and three years in the Middle East." Their eldest son, Timothy, who has two children, lives in England, and their second son works in Ceylon. They visited him recently. “Our daughter, Clare, who is working as a secretary in a publishing firm in London, was very disappointed she couldn’t come with us. She had her seventeenth birthday in New Zealand when we were last here two years ago and. she is talking of coming to work here,” said Lady Elworthy. “By the way. are there any oysters about?” When she heard there were: “Oh, thank the Lord! Oysters have been

my passion in life since 1 was about five.” Sir Charles and Lady Elworthy intend to visit New Zealand for three months at the end of this year, after his retirement. Cooking After having a cook to prepare the meals in their official London flat (they also have a seventeenth-centur.- cottage at Hanley-on-Tap, where they will retire), Lady Elworthy is looking forward to doing the cooking. “Mind you, I’ve still got my hand in. I can still do a jpavlova and I love to make toheroa soup—if 1 can get the toheroas.” She will devote more time than ever to voluntary and charitable work, too. and wants to take an active part in the local activities of Hanley. Lady Elworthy will certainly not lose her enthusiasm for life when her husband retires. And she has a full diary to remind her of all her travels. From her handbag yesterday she produced a notebook in which all events of the present trip had been recorded neatly. Were there other notebooks? “Oh, a great box full at home.” When asked if she had thoughts of publishing her writings she said: “No, they; are just to remind me of all I the exciting and interesting) trips I have made. I have had; an extremely happy life." )