In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 16

In the Public Eye

The Colonial Secretary, Sir Philip Curiliffe-Lister, who is at present visiting the African colonies by air and who is reported to be indisposed at Nairobi, has had.-.:: a. distinguished career for a comparatively young man. Born in May, 1884, Sir Philip was educated at Winchester College and Oxford. He wassailed, to ; the Bar in 1905,". and served .in the Army during the Great War from 1914.t0 1917, winning the M.C. In 1918 lie was chairman of the War Cabinet Priorities Committee, also serving on two Select Committees.

Sip' Philip ia Conservative member for the'.Hendbn Division of Middlesex, a new seat created since the war, and which he •/won at the first election, in 1918. His'first administrative experience was ... gained at the Ministry ..of National Service during the war, while his first Government post was as Parliamentary:, Secretary to the Board of Trade,, followed by the secretaryship of the Overseas Trade, Department., His success in both these, offices led to Ms promotion in to the Presidency of the jßq'ard' of. Trade, a post' which the occupied, except for a short interval in ,1924,;" when a' Labour Government was in power, until 1929. . As President of the Board of Trade he had a great-deal to do with Great Britain's trade relations with the world at large, and he was frequently called upon to address business men in different parts of the British Isles on the question of the interchange of trade within the Empire and other equally important subjects close to the ' heart of ther Prime V Minister, Mr. Baldwin. As a speaker he'always shows a comprehensive knowledge of his subject, and, in addition, is able to place any matter before his hearers in a lucid and simple manner. ' Sir- Philip Cun-liffe-tister' was previous to 1924 known as Sir.Philip Lloyd-Greame, but he received Royal assent to change his name in December, 1924, on his wife inheriting extensive property from a relative. ■ . , Dr. C. Norwood. Dr. ; Cyril Norwood, headmaster of Harrow,'who. was recently elected president of St. John's College, Oxford, is an Honorary Fellow and a former scholar of the, college. He will leave Harrow at the end of the summer term to take up residence at Oxford. ' .He succeeds Dr. Frederick Hill, who died in October. . Dr. Norwood has been headmaster of Harrow >since 1925, and is the first layman ;Who has ever held that position. He went there from Marlborough, where he, spent nine'years, and established for himself a great reputation. Born 58 years ago, the son of the Eev. Samuel NorwoQd, of .Whalley, Lancashire, he was,educated at Merchant Taylors' School and at, St. John's College, Ox : ford. .He was'intended'originally for a Civil Service career, and in 1899 he came out first in the examination for the Home Civil Service and took a clerkship in the Admiralty. Two years later he gave up an assured career ■of succesß in this service by resigning to become master of the classical Sixth at Leeds Grammar School. He quickly made his mark there,, and the .headmastership. of Bristol Grammar Bchool was offered him in 1906. After ten yeirs, of ;work there, during which he raised the school to ia foremost position, :he was- elected to Marlbprough. Hejis'an hon. D.liitt. of IBristoLtlniverT sity.- . ■■'. .. ' :, . , '. Dr. .Norwood•holds' strong \ietws on education.' While.a convinced classicist by instinct and upbringing, he declared three-months ago at Leeds.. that Eng: lishmen ought to make a great deal more of English than they are doing at present. "I would build the;:whole of our education on the future on English —-I' mean the power to speak English, read it,, and use it." > The boy of today, his ways and manners, have, always found a, warm champion in Dr. Norwood. He has protested against the suggestion that the post-war boy is "soft." ;The modern boy,- he' his- said, is stronger, fitter, and pluckier; than his ancestors. A severe critic of examinations and "cramming," Dr. Norwood described at the British; Association meeting some, years?ago;the common entrance examination to public: schools as "being, the examination system at its worst." Admiral;©. F. Hyde, Admiral G. F. Hyde, of the Australian Navy,"' who with Eear : Admiral' Burges Watson, New Zealand delegate, is participating in;. the naval conference, at Singapore, has the distinction of being the first Australian to command the Boyal Australian Navy. Admiral Hyde. served his time as a boy in square-rigged sailing ships away back, in the eighties, one of the ships on. which he served being the Cutty Sark'. He joined' the Royal Navy thirty-two years ago, beginning as' a midshipman and working his way steadily through th,e service until he became a member of the Commonwealth Naval Board,. and, later still, Commodore in command of,the Eoyal Australian Navy. Although he is now flying his pennant as Admiral of the Australian Navy, he has not always served on big ships, for in 1910, when ho was first "lent" to Australia, he was serving on a destroyer, and became commander of a destroyer flotilla. In 1914,,.the year of the Great War, he was placed in command of the first battle-cruiser; Australia, the biggest! ship owned by'the Commonwealth tip; to the time.'of the war, and went in that vessel to take his part in the North Sea operations. He returned again to Australia, and after a few months' service . was promoted to captain by the Admiralty, his' previous rank having been; for the Australian Navy only, and was given command of the scout Adventure! In this ship ho was engaged in submarine chasing off the south coast of ireland. He spent twelve months'in command of the Vindictive, of the Boyal Navy, and after passing through a senior officer's course returned to ' Australia to take command of the squadron, the first native-born Australian to command the Common'wealti Fleet. ' ■■ x

Lord Willingdon, Viceroy of India,' who. is reported as haying opened an appeal for funds to relieve sufferers in last week's earthquake, is one of the most able and popular administrators that that country has had. Lord Willingdon has had a brilliant career, and has been long associated ■ with India. He has had the rare, if not unique, distinction of having served two full terms as a Presidency Governor in. that country '. prior to his appointment as Viceroy. He was Governor of , Bombay from 1913 till the close of the war, and afterwards held the Governorship of Madras.....

Born in 1866, and raised to the peerage in 1910, Lord Willingdon (or Mr. Freeman, Freeman-Thomas as he then was) served as A.D.C. to his father-in-law, the first Earl of Brassey, when the latter was Governor of Victoria, from 1897 until 1900.' In that year he secured election to .Parliament as Liberal member for Hastings,', and six years later he was returned for Bodmin, which he represented until-1910. , He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury and Government Whip in 1905 and 1906, and was Lord ;in Waiting to1 the King from 1911 to 1913. /During, his membership of the House of Commons he was associated with the Imperialist wing of the Liberal Party and spoke chiefly on' Admiralty reform and national defence. In 1913 he was appointed Governor of Bombay, and in 1918 he became Governor of Madras, a position he continued to fill until 1924. The period spent by him in India as Governor has been, described as "eleven years of perhaps the most difficult and critical time in the country's history." Lord Willingdon -w.as delegate for India at the Assembly of the League of Nations in 1924, and he presided over the delegation ftom the Boxer Indemnity Committee which visited China two years later. He became Governor-General of Canada in 1926 in succession to Lord Byng, and both he" and Lady Willingdon soon made themselves exceedingly popular in the Dominion. Lord. Willingdon is an enthusiastic cricketer. He captained .the eleven at Eton and Cambridge, was a Blue who took part in four University, matches, and was afterwards a member of the Sussex t^am.;A .memorial.of Ms Indian administration is the Willingdon Sports Club of Bombay, the first club for both Indians and Europeans to be established in India. ' Lady Willingdon, -who is a daughter of the fiist'Earl of Brassey, holds the decoration of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, and was created G.B.E. in 1924.: Lord Willingdon has on several occasions paid a graceful tribute to her help. "My wife," he once stated, "has been a constant inspiration and encouragement." Lord Willingdon's eldest son, Gerard Frederick Fre"eman.-ThQmas;, lieutenant in the Coldstream • Guards, was killed in the. war. His heir now is his second and only surviving son, the Hon. Inigo* Brassey Freeman-Thomas, captain, R.A., late Indian Army, who was born in 1899, and married in 1924 the eldest daughter of Sir Johnston ForbesRobertson, the actor. ■ \ Sir Malcolm Campbell. The lure of speed, thrilling, worldrecord specd —of 270 miles an hour—is not the only lure that fills the life of Britain's champion- racing- motorist, Sir Malcolm Campbell. According to a cable message this week,-Sir Malcolm, in company' with Sir Alan Cobham, will leave early next'taonth on a gold-hunt-ing- expedition' in'the Kalahari Desert. Sir Malcolm, will, also. r search for a newtrack for a motor speed attempt. It-is not long ago since Sir, Malcolm set out on a treasure-hunting trip to Cocos Island, a small: island :in the Pacific around which is woven: a* romantic story of treasure estimated to be' worth & 12,000,000 V• * For over -a' century this little .inland has harboured its secret, and despite the frenzied efforts and the spending of thousands of pounds on expeditions to discover the lost hoards, they still' remain : beyond the reach of man. Sir Malcolm is one of the many who have failed to find the Cocos Island treasure.- ■ ■ ;

In Ms preface to "Speed," the biography of Sir Malcolm Campbell, Mr. J. Wentworth Day, of the "Field," says that .when the transition from, the Horse Age to the Motor Age is analysed iii future history,; Campbell's name will stand with that of Stephenson.-

"This is a bold statement to make of one motorist in a world which holds so:many motorists," he says, '.'yet consider the achievements of this man. He has thrown the inheritance of a brilliant brain,, the creation of a lucrative business, /the possession/.of. a large fortune, and the risk of his: own, life.completely- and without, hope of .personal gain! into the. building, designing, and driving of. motor-ears which have set up more world's' land speed records than have ever stood to the credit of ■ any one man before." ' ' • ■ ;

"Malcolm ■ Campbell. at the. present day. is a national hero. And,. unlike some heroes, he is a ; national asset—an ambassador not only .of .trade^ of Imperial prestige, but of the spirit of manliness and adventure." v > >

The book tells the story of Campbell's life from the days when a youth called Malcolm'Campbell was 'fined 30s in Bromley Police Court for riding a bicycle at what the Magistrate described as* a .totally unnecessary- speed of 27 miles per hour. '' Wo, hope this will be a lesson to you not to travel so fast in future,'' added the Magistrate.

After Campbell had left Uppingham, he went to.Germany, where he took up bicycle track racing. Speed became almost an obsession. That was the beginning of his career of speed.