FAMOUS MEN

Evening Star, Issue 20361, 18 December 1929, Page 15

FAMOUS MEN

LESSER KNOWN ROLES WHAT THEIR HOBBIES ARE . KING AS PHILATELIST. When hundreds of thousands of admirers acclaimed Major Segrave they visualised him as the hero of nerve and daring, hustling in his car through space at the record speed of 231 miles an hour. They did not imagine him in his lesser known role —his hobby of “playing” with toy railway engines. Yet probably this hobby of his is closely linked. up with that supreme skill in mechanics that enabled him to have travelled faster in a car on land and in a motor boat on water than any other man, says a writer in an English journal. It is a fascinating hobby in itself to conjecture what part hobbies play in the lives of famous men and women. There is no keener philatelist, when ho is not occupied with the onerous cares of State, than the King, who has one of the finest collections of stamps in England. His Majesty, in fact, has all the ardor, of the collector, and the same is true of the Queen, who rarely spends a holiday without visiting the shops of neighbouring antique sellers. She is an expert on period furniture, and makes frequent purchases, PRINCE’S MODERN TASTE.

More modern is the taste of the Prince of Wales. He has bought all sorts of up-to-date orchestra! instruments—banjos, banjoleles, ukuleles, and saxophones, on which he has achieved a good degree of proficiency, and has provided himself and bis friends with many a musical evening at St. James’s Palace.

Toy railways provide on© of the most popular of nursery games, but with Major Segrave this love of mechanics and fascination of being the master mind of a railway is an elaborate pastime, combining scientific study with recreation. The world’s car speed record holder has taken many years to assemble his miniature railway. It includes fourteen engines, one alone costing £4OO. and coaches, including sleepers and restaurant cars. He lias different systems crossing each other, and can throw sections of the lines “dead,” to enable an express to pass the points at a given moment. In the same way Lord Ashfield, the head of London’s underground transport system, who is such a busy man that he works fourteen hours a day, has a model set of the _ underground railway, so he combines his bobby with business study. Lord Ashfield, too, is one of the “wood sawyers”—an apparently eccentric pursuit, because its chief ex■ponent is Wilhelm, the wood-cutter of Doom. BERNARD SHAW’S AXE. But it has an equally famous practitioner in Mr Bernard Shaw, who is, moreover, as skilful with the axe as he is with the saw. If you have tried it you will know that once you hare recovered from the first spells of headache it is not only a splendid form of physical exercise, but the rhythmic swing of the saw and the axe is highly conducive to thought and reflection. Very different from Mr 11. G. Wells’s games with lead soldiers, with which, it is said, he fights little wars of his own, just as ardently as he writes to set the world free from real war! Lord Dewar sparkles when he is polishing up his epigrams for alterdinner speeches, and it is doubtful whether he is better known for his epigram matical _ hobby or the amber liquid associated with his business name. Who, when laughing at the jokes of Robey of the Eyebrows, imagines him as an expert maker of violins, . Yet he is so adept at this serious hobby that when be presented one to Kreisler, the famous violinist was so pleased n ’ the home-made gift that he played on it at one of his concerts. Of the unusual hobbies of Lord Grey of Fallodon found one of the most delightful when he started classifying the_ notes of birds in his garden so that their song could be set to music. _ Among the owners of strange collections is Mr Bransby Williams, who has spent _ years gathering together a theatrical museum of daggers, hats, and other articles worn and used by famous actors; while a well-known head master collected in a glass case everything taken from boys in school, from a revolver loaded in six chambers to a stick of liquorice. The strangest collector of all, however, was probably the man who pulled hairs from the tails of famous racehorses and nearly lost his life in the process when a horse lashed out with its heels at him at Yarmouth race meeting some years ago. VERSATILE M.P.’S.

Some hobbies of politicians arc: Painting and Bricklaying.—Mr Winston • Churchill, an accomplished artist

with the brush, as well as with Budgets, who has held private exhibitions of his pictures. His one-time passion for eccentric hats has now giveh way to amateur bricklaying. Reading Detective Stories.—Both Mr Baldwin and Mr Lloyd George are enthusiast readers of this form of novel. It is said that during the war the Liberal Leader read a detective story a day, and set his secretaries a harci task in finding him fresh ones.

Pig Breeding.—Sir William JoynsonHicks is often occupied with the rearing of pedigree pigs on his Susspx estate.

Art Collecting.—Mr William Brace, the former Socialist M.P. Excepting Sir Martin Conway, he was regarded as the most astute collector in Parliament.

Statistics.—Miss Susan Lawrence, by making a hobby of collecting facts and figures, has become one of the best statisticians in the Commons.

Cartooning.—Mr “ Jimmy Maxton, whose rebellious spirit finds a rich and playful field in his sketches of fel-low-members. He is a clever draughtsman with a mordant wit.

Playwritiug.—Sir Patrick Hastings. K.C., who could not resist the call of the drama, even when burdened with the dual role of politician and King’s Counsel.

Knitting.- Miss Ellen Wilkinson, who is understood to have refused permission to practise her practical pastime in the House.

Miss Wilkinson is, however, as conservative in her bobby as she is revolutionary in her politics, for there has been a sweeping change in women’s pastimes in recent years. Knitting and crocheting, with which the Victorian maiden wiled away her idle hours, have largely given way to recreative pursuits like golf and tennis; while many women have entered fields that combine hobbies with business, such as dog-breeding and the farming of rabbits for their furts. farming of rabbits for their furs.