THE AGE AT WHICH FAME IS ACHIEVED

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 106, 28 January 1939, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE AGE AT WHICH FAME IS ACHIEVED

Some Interesting Examples

Kemal Ataturk was born in an alleyway to the wife of a little Government clerk: As a boy he cleaned out stages. At 40 he led the Turkish revolution. Reading these words in the newspapers set me thinking of a problem, savs u writer in an overseas weeKlj. ' If a man is destined for greatness—by what age does he generally achieve K Let us see what lessons the past teaches. , Take the case of statesmen first. Ataturk’s most important contemporaries in the ruling of the w ere Chamberlain, Roosevelt, Daladier, Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini. Neville Chamberlain first won a Parliamentary election at the age of 49. Of three of Mr. Chamberlains predecessors, Mr. Baldwin entered the House of Commons at 39, Lloyd George at 27, and Asquith at 34. In America Roosevelt entered the Senate at the age of 28 and became President at the age of 51. Daladier became a deputy at the age Stalin was leader of the Marxists in Tiflis at the age of 18. He was sent to Siberia at the age of 24. He emerged to greatness as Commissar for Nationalisation when he was 38. His predecessor was Lenin, who broke the Russian Empire at the age ° f Hitler made his Munich putsch when he was 34. He was Chancellor at 44. Most of his lieutenants were on the road to fame young. Goering was leader of the B.A. at -J, and became Prussian Prime Minister at 40. , Goebbels was editor of the “Angritt at the age of 30. He took up his task of propaganding and enlightening the German people at the age of 36. Mussolini is six years older than Hit- ' ler. He found his destiny at 39. His lieutenant who is, at the moment, most in the public eye, Marshal Balbo, received his first big job as Under; Secretary for National Economics at the young age df 29. Ex-President Benes, of Czechoslovakia. is a ruler who has just lost his job A farmer’s son, he emerged to fame as Foreign Secretary of his counter at the age of 34. Julius Caesar invaded Britain at the age of 47. Napoleon, most conspicuous ot all rulers, who'rose from nothing, won fame by taking Toulon at the same age —24.

Pitt was unique in being Prime Minister at 2-i. Cromwell entered politics at 29. and Bismarck at 33. When we come to generals, we find that in these present days they are usually older than most people before they know whether they will rise out of the rut or not. , Eoch waited forty years for the war he dreamed of. In 1914 he was 63. Haig was 53, Roberts had his first independent campaign at 46. General Franco had to wait until be was 44 to emerge from obscurity. . Moltke, the general whose battles made the German Empire, did not fight his first campaign until he was 64. How different this is from olden ’times.

Jenghiz Khan was ravaging the Asiatic plains at 15. Charlemagne was famous at 31. Marlborough won ins first notable battle at 35. Volte captured Quebec at 32, Clive had led an army to victory at 26. and Alexandei as a youth of 20. In the business world, I’ord founded his first motor-car company at ob. Morris made motor-cycles at 23, and cars' at 35. Austin was a director ot the Wolseley Sheep-shearing Machine Company at 34.

Among the Inventors, the engineers and the architects, the cinematograph was invented by William Friese Greene when he was 35.

The telephone by Bell when be was 29. The gramophone by Emile Berliner when he was 36. The internal combustion engine by Daimler when he was about 52.

But Isambard Kingdon Brunel, who had designed the still-existing Clifton Suspension Bridge at only 23, was appointed to be the engineer of the new Great Western Railway when be was 27. One of tile greatest architectural romances of modern days is the way Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was selected m a competition to design the new Liverpool Cathedral when he was only 23.

An extraordinary example of a man who came to fame late in life is McAdam. He revolutionized road transport by using small lumps of granite to build the first macadamized roads. But be did this when he was 62. George Robey, now 68. whose name was originally George Edward Wade, made his first professional appearance at the age of 22. . But Shirley Temple looks like being the first person to make a million pounds by her own efforts before reaching the age of 10. At 25, Shakespeare bad written nothing that would make him famous. His first plav was written at the age of 27. Francis Bacon, one of the greatest brains the world has ever known, published his first important book at the age of 44. although he had become famous in other spheres before that. H. G, Wells, born to a professional cricketer in a small general shop, became a draper, a chemist’s apprentice, a student. He produced his first book at 29. Charlotte Bronte passed all her twenties in a country parsonage and as a governess. Nothing further seemed decreed for her. It -was not until she was 31 that a novel made her famous. Scott’s .first poems were published when he was 31. Artists are difficult to investigate, because it is often so long before their genius is appreciated. However, Van Dyck was well-known at 21. Turner was an A.R.A. at 24. Sargent at 38. Constable painted his first really 'important picture at 35. Rembrandt, greatest of them all, was not rated very highly while he lived. Walt Disney invented the comic mouse that was to delight every nation under the sun when he wag 27. Of reformers —William Booth started the Salvation Army at the advanced age of 49, while Luther became famous when he was 34.