In the Public Eye

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 78, 29 September 1934, Page 26

In the Public Eye

It was revealed recently that Sir AValter Gilbey, Bart., and Mrs. Marion Miller Broadhead, of Farnley Tyas, near Huddersfield, were married at a Huddersfield register'office. Only five local friends of the bride and bridegroom were present. On the register Sir AValter was described as a "baronet, previously married, now divorced." His age was given as seventy-four, and that of the bride as thirty-nine. The bride is the widow of Mr. Wilson Broadhead, a director of a firm of gas engineers at Elland, near Huddersfield, and tho daughter of the late- Mr. James Roberts,' a brewer, of Farnley Tyas. Sir Walter is the'second baronet. He married in 1884 Miss Ella Fowlie, daughter of the late Mr. J. C. Fowlio, of Coombe Warren, Kingston Hill. The marriage was dissolved iv 192(5. .There is one son, Mr. Walter Ewart Gilbey. .Sir AValter' is widely known for his interest in horses. He has been present at every Shire Horse Show in London since 1877, and was president of the society in 1327. He is president of the London Cart Horse Parade Society. He is also a prominent owner of racehorses. I .Recently he attracted some attention by criticisms of what he described as the slovenly attire of riders in Bottcn Eow, especially condemning those who wore no hats or otherwise departed from convention. Signorß. Jacchini. The coachman of five Popes, Rinaldo Jacchini, aged ninety, is spending his declining years pensioned at full pay after seventy years of service in the Vatican. Interviewed on his fourscore a"d tenth birthday recently Jacchini was regretful that the motor should have deprived him of active work. He retired live years ago, after the signing of the Lateran Treaty that ended tho Pope's seclusion. The Vatican stables were then abandoned, tho black horses sent away, and the garages built. Jacchini saw three periods of service, one before the Italian troops captured papal Kome in 1870 and the. Popes could drive where they liked, another during the "captivity,''' from 1870 to 1922, and the last following the settlement of the "Eoman Question." "In the days before the automobile the Vatican had sixty horses," Jacchini said. "Four were harnessed to the Pope's coach for ordinary drives, and six on state occasions." Before 1870 he drove Popo Pius IX on the seventeen-mile trips to Castel Gandolfo, in the Alban hills, when that Pontiff spent the summer there. He remembers Castel Gandolfo because he was given double allowance there. "The most dramatic drive of Pius IX," he recounts, "was his last trip outside the Vatican. It was September 19, 1870, when the Pope ordered me to take him to the- Holy Stairs near St. John Lateran Church. "The Pope ascended the Holy Stairs on his knees and prayed for guidance. The next day Italian troops were at the Pia gate, and tho Popes became prisoners of the Vatican for fifty-two years." Thereafter Jacchini drove the Pontiffs along the narrow gravelways of the Vatican gardens. Asked what was the most momentous coach trip of his life, Jacchini replied without hesitation: "The funeral procession of Pius IX, the night of July 12,1881, when I was almost thrown into the Tiber." Pope Pius had died in 1878. His reign was marked by the animosity of anti-clericals, who objected to his attitude towards united Italy. In 1881 it was decided to carry out his wish and bury his 'bodyin the Verano Cemetery, at the other end of Borne. "The transport was to have been secret," Jacchini recounts, "but a menacing' crowd gathered, and when we reached the Sant Angelo Bridge some of the fanatics shouted, 'Throw the coachman into the- river!' "I had four horses under my reins and urged them forward. As we pulled clear of the mob the Catholics in the procession shouted they would defend the Pope's body, and we proceeded without much trouble." Lord George Rodney. A British rancher-Earl, with a civil list pension from the British Government, and owner of a 1000-nere farm in Canada, recently arrived in Britain —in a cattle boat. AA rorking and slcepiug with the crew, Hie man was plain George Rodney—and no one knew ho was an earl except the captain. He is Lord George Rodney, direct, descendant of the famous Admiral Rodney, who was granted a pension of £2000 a year in 1782. This has since-been, slightly reduced. "I worked, my passage over because it was.the cheapest method, and I am thoroughly used to hard manual work," Lord Rodney' said in an interview. "I have two boys at school in Britain and T have not seen them for six years. That was the main reason for my visit. If you work your, passage over, you are entitled to a free passage back on the same, line of ships." Lord Rodney's day on the cattle boat started at four in the morning with washing down and feeding the cattle. This meant about five hours' hard work, which had to be repeated in the afternoon. "On top of all that," the rancherpeer said, "I was violently seasick for several days . . . but the work had to be done just the "same. On this trip we encountered unusually heavy weather, and most of the cattle were ill, too. "The boat I came over on wns the Manchester Producer, but when I take my more leisurely passage back to Canada it will probably be in another boat of the same line. "As for that Rodney pension—well, it's nearly all swallowed up'in various taxes these days!."' . .

11l an effort to reconcile Cuba's waning political factions, former President Carlos Manuel de Cespedos has launched a Centrist party that he hopes will draw to his fold both Leftists and Rightists. With a platform based on the idea that a "sound, sane Centrist party is the political salvation of Cuba," Cespedos has recently, finished a tour of the eastern provinces of the island. Himself a proved conservative, Ccspedes was caught in the currents that swerved the course of three successive Cuban Governments from' right to left and again back to right. Cespcdes' downfall from the Presidency, where ho was placed after Machado was forced from office in August, 1933, was caused by the "enlisted men's revolution" of ■ September . 4, while he was touring hurricane-torn districts of Cardenas, and Sagua. He had been in office only twenty-two days when, returning from the interior, he was met at the Presidential palace by the then sergeant, Fulgeneio Batista, and live members of a ~ revolutionary committee —Sergio Carbo, Guillermo Portela, Jose Irizarri, Porflrio Franca, and Ramon Grau San Martin. They informed him he was "finished as President." Cespedes picked up his hat and walked out of the palace with his aids, warning his successors that theirs was "the responsibility before history.',' . . ' . Now, almost nine months since he was ousted, Cespedes is campaigning for a new party. Whether he will be a candidate for the Presidency in the December elections has not been announced. . . . On his recent trip, from Matanzas to Orientc, he expounded as the idea on which his Centrist party is based:— "That Cuba's ship of state should not be steered to the right or to-the left; that a centre course is the best." Speaking in all tho important towns of the interior, Cespedes called on Cubans to put patriotism above political or social prejudices. He urged "proved statesmen, the most brilliant intellects, men of serious mind, men of strong arms, idealistic youth, labourers, field workers, and all other solid elements," to rally to a Centrist platform. "Both' Rightists and Leftists have in turn carried the country to the brink of the abyss," he declared. Ronald Vickery. A broad-shouldered, healthy-looking boy sat in. a room in St. Margaret's Eoad, Brockley, recently, working on some complicated experiments in, chemistry. He was Eonald Vickery, a four-teen-year-o-ld Scout patrol-leader, who had just returned home from Lewisham Hospital after his thirty-first operation. During his fourteen years Eonald has been given "a few days to live" on twelve occasions. He has suffered from pneumonia, inastoids, and scarlet fever with many complications. Yet between operations he has excelled at games. Only a few months ago, shortly before he entered hospital for his last operation, he laroke three records at his school sports, for running, throwing the cricket ball, and the long jump. Pie also figured prominently on the Rugby field, and is a good boxer and wrestler. News of Ronald's .will-power and courageous fight for life reached the headquarters of the Boy Scouts' Association, and he has teen-awarded the Cornwell Badge, the Boy Scouts' exceptional award, "for courage shown, during life-long illness." _ He wrung my hand with a vice-like grip when I met him, wrote a reporter. ... "At last I hope I am finished with serious illness," he said. "My ambition is to become an analytical chemist. I am now about to start studying lor matriculation." Lord Edward Montagu. After flying to France with.the reported intention of joining, the; French Foreign Legion, Lord Edward Montagu changed, hii mind and left for England by steamer. Had Lord Edward had his papers with him when he went to the reernitin<r office he might have signed on, but he"had not got them and was asked to brine them with him. later. _ Lord Edward was accompanied l>y a party of friends. He called them to his room in a Dunkirk hotel at 2 o'clock in the morning and announced that he would not engage for five years service in Africa with the Foreign Legion. A quarter of an hour later the whole party boarded a steamer due to sail from Dunkirk for Folkestone. Lord Montagu, who is ?J years ot a"o and tho second son of the Duke of Manchester, was accompanied by his sister, Lady Louisa Montagu, and a friend when'they flew, from Heston Airport. They landed at St. Englebert a)id Lord Montagu entrained for Dunkirk. Before lie changed his mind Lord Montagu mado the remark: "i. know the life will be very hard indeed, but there is no going Vjack."