OBITUARY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1912, Page 7

OBITUARY.

THE DUKE OP FIFE. DEATH AFTER SHORT ILLNESS. By Tolograpb.— l'reas Association.— Copyright* (Received January 30, 8.5 a.m.) CAIRO, 29th January. The latest bulletin states that the Duke of Fife spent a restless night. The improvement is not being maintained, and grave anxiety is felt. (Received January 30, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, 29th January. The Duke of Fifeis dead. The Rt. Hon. Alex. Wm. Geo. Duff, Duke of Fife, was born on 10th November, 1849, and succeeded his father ac sixth Earl of Fife in 1878. He was created Duke of Fife in 1889, on his marriage -with H.R.H. Princess Louise Victoria Alexandra Dagtaar, eldest daughter of H.R.H. the Prince of Walee (subsequently His Majesty King Edward VII.). The Duke was educated at Eton, and held the 'offices at various periods of Lord-Lieutenant of Elginshire, ■ I Deputy-Lieutenant of the Counties of ! Aberdeen and Banff, hon. Colonel of the Banffshfre Artillery Volunteers, a mem- ! ber of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, a vice-president of the British South Africa Company. In the spring of 1898 he severed his connection witn I the company on the ground, as stated j by him, that " a board of gentlemen I sitting in London, however able and j honest -they might be, could not exercise tho same control as the Imperial authority." In the same speech he welcomed the scheme formed by Mr. Chamberlain for the future government of the Chartered Company 'b territory, and pointed out that the Jameson raid, of which plqt he and hk co-directors were demonstrably ignorant, could never have been 1 carried out by individuals " who felt themselves under the direct control of the British Government." The Duke sat as M.P. for Elgji ,and Nairn in the Liberal interest in 1874-79 ; was Captain and Gold Stick of the Gentlemen at Arms, 1880-85;' went on a special mission to tho King of Saxony in 1882, and received the first Order of Saxony. In 1905 the King ordered that H.R.H. Princess Louise .should bear the stylo and title of the Princess Royal and her tw6 daughters be styled "Highness" and ''Princess.'' The elder of the two is Alexandra Victoria Alberta Ed'wina* i Louise, born 17th May, 1891; and the second is Muude Alexandra Victoria Georgia Bertha, born 3rd April, 1893. The Duke of Fife, the Princess Royal, and theit two daughters (Princesses i Alexandra and Maud) left London on Bth December for , Egypt On the P. and ' O. liner Delhi. The party encountered a furious gale when about to enter the Straite Of Gibraltar, and the vessel went ashore at Cape Spartel,. on the Morocco coast. The Royal party were rescued and were drenched, to the skin whilst Hding to Cape Spartel signal station. It was this rough experience that no doubt was the first cause of the Duke's fatal illness.