DEATH OF SIR CECIL LEYS AFTER SHORT ILLNESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23288, 24 June 1950, Page 6

DEATH OF SIR CECIL LEYS AFTER SHORT ILLNESS

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, June 23. Sir Cecil Leys, chairman of directors of New Zealand Newspapers, Limited, died early this morning at Mackay, Queensland, after a short illness. I-ic was aged 73.

Sir Cecil Leys, whose knighthood was conferred in 1931 in recognition of services performed in the profession of journalism in New Zealand, was born in 1877. He was educated at the Auckland Grammar School and he won diplomas at Lincoln Agricultural College. He joined the reporting staff of the Auckland Star in 1895, and in 1897 he spent a year in London with the New Zealand Press Agency. He became assistant editor on the Star in 1903.

During the First World War. from 1915 to 1918. Sir Cecil saw active service. first in the Balkans with the Red Cross, to which he presented an ambulance car. and later as an officer in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the operations in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. On his return to New Zealand he was appointed editor of the Star, and managing director in 1926. When New Zealand Newspapers, Ltd. was formed in 1930 he became managing director of the company.

In addition to his journalistic associations, Sir Cecil Leys took a keen interest in the social and cultural life of Auckland.