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Evening Star, Issue 14786, 30 January 1912, Page 4

It is with much regret that we announco the death of the Duke of Death Of the Fife. The news is not Duke Of FifS. entirely surprising, for there was an ominous note about the latest cablegrams; but the Duke was of sturdy build, and only in his sixty-second year; so that it was hoped, ti"aitist hope as it were, that he would pull through and survive the shock which he experienced at the wreck of the Delhi. We heard people laughing at the notion of the Royal Duke in his nightshirt—there are curious folk who, for some occult reason, .always laugh at rank or royalty in a difficulty—but the laugh would have a hollow and tragic sound to-day. The first Duke of Fife was not a very great or able man; he was not even a very popular man (though better known and better liked in Scotland than in England); but as the husband of King Edward's eldest daughter, the Princess Royal of England, he filled his station with adequate dignity and acceptability. Unfortunately he does not leave a male heir; but, by "special remainder," the elder of the two daughters, born on May 17, 1901, will succeedto the duchy.