TIMARU HONOUR

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33141, 3 February 1973, Page 1

TIMARU HONOUR

(From Our Own Reporter) TIMARU, Feb. 2. The title of HonoraryFreeman of the City of Timaru was conferred upon Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Elworthy at a special meeting of the Timaru City Council in the Bay Hall, Timaru, this afternoon.

The 250 guests at the function included members of the Elworthy family, the mayors and county council chairmen of South Canterbury. The title was given in "recognition of Lord Elworthy’s services to the British Commonwealth, both in war and in peace, and of his attainment to the highest office in the Armed Services of the Commonwealth, and as a token of the esteem in which he is held by the citizens of Timaru.” Lord Elworthy’s grandfather settled in South Canterbury 110 years ago, and many of the family have contributed to the city of Timaru since then. “CONTRIBUTED NOTHING” In accepting from the Mayor of Timaru (Mr C. R. Hervey) a scroll bearing a record of the meeting and the resolution, Lord Elworthy, who was accompanied byLady Elworthy, said he was deeply grateful, and flattered by the honour. “I am conscious of the fact that I am the first person to receive this honour. I have had the most immense nostalgia for South Canterbury and my family home in Gordons Valley in particular. The fact that I only spent four years, from eight to 12, in this country reveals the stark truth that I have contributed nothing to the welfare of Timaru. I am, however, deeply

conscious of this. It does not diminish my pleasure, but it makes me very humble.” The conferment of the freedom of the city on Lord Elworthy marks his first return visit to South Canterbury since his elevation to the peerage last year. He chose the title “of Timaru” (as well as “of Elworthy”), when taking his seat in the House of Lords in June, 1972. Lord Elworthy is not only the first man to receive the freedom of the City of Ti-

:naru, but the first person to have been granted the freedom of any city in New Zealand. Hitherto, the Freedom of Timaru had been granted only to the Ist Battalion, the Canterbury Regiment — now the 2nd Battalion, the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment — in 1959, South Canterbury's centennial year.

The picture shows Lord Elworthy (left) receiving the scroll from MrHervey.