“EMPIRE JACK.”

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11382, 6 December 1930, Page 9

“EMPIRE JACK.”

FAMOUS ENGINEER’S SUICIDE.

Sir John Norton Griffiths, head of the engineering firm of Sir John Nor-fon-t-rrifiiths and Co., Ltd., ’Westminster, was found dead recently with a bullet through his head near a surf boat off the casino of San SteTano at Alexandria. Sir John as ho was called at the time, had been upset hv a dispute between his firm and the Egpytian Government over the £3,800,000 contract for the heightening of the famous Assuan Dam on the Nile.

By an irony of fate, negotiations between experts had led to the opinion that a settlement was imminent. The news came too late; Sir John was dead.

The great engineer, renowned a? an Empire-builder, soldier ancl politician. was a regular early morning bather at the San Stefano resort.

He was accustomed (says Reuter) to go from the casino to the beach, where hoi had a little cabin in which he would undress. Then ho usually enjoyed a trip in a surf boat. His friends saw him enter the surf boat and go out some distance. After ail hour (accorindg to the 8.U.P.) Sir John was seen to stand up in his boat and topple over in an unnatural manner.

Suspicions that something untoward had happened were at once aroused, and Boats put out to search. After some time the body was found, with a bullet wound in the right temple. Later it was discovered that his papers were in perfect condition, neatly tied up in his room. “Empire Jack”, as Sir John Norton was often called, died at the age of fifty-nine ,after a life crammed from beginning to end with almost every form of thrill and adventure that it would seem possible for one mail to accomplish.

Soldiering, administration, business —lie was equally capable of all. Tlie great adventures of his career were .always audacious and brilliantly planned, but they often failed at the last moment.

In popular memory lie will probably go down to history for his dramaticcoup in Rumania when, during five Great War lie went to the oil fields with a hatchet, running from place to place smashing the machinery, so that the advancing Germains under Mackensen ancl Falkenhayn would lie robbed of a vastly rich prize. He burned artd blew up oil weds, and dismantled apparatus, leaving behind him a trail of ruin. He then turned his attention to the wheat fieWs and silos, which he also destroyed. This action earned him his knighthood. The value of oil and wheat interests which he despoiled was placed at £52,000,000. There were many postwar litigation suits in consequence. By profession he was an engineer,ancl loved to dabble in immense contracts. But he was constantly getting into hot water over the consummation of some deal or other. The “finishing touch” in matters requiring a concentration on business cletaiL were the. arguments in which ho consequently found himself involved. This was particularly the case with a huge undertaking at St: John, - New Brunswick. Any scheme that involved obstacles requiring tunnels, bridges, and dams specially appealed t'o him.

It was his brain that devised the layout of the deep mining scheme for the Messine.s Ridge, which enabled the British Army to reach the top with few casualties.

This was his greatest achievement in the war, and saved 50,060 lives. His heart was in the Army, where his service was brilliant. In. 1916 ho won the D.S.O.

In the Matabeie war he commanded a* company of Scouts in Rhodesia, and was captain and adjutant of Lord Roberts’ bodygurd in the South African war.

His first engineering exploit was to start the Benguella railway in the heart of Africa. The first 200 miles of this track presented an insoluble problem until Norton-Griffiths tackled it.

South America also contains examples of his engineering skill. Brazilians and Argentinians called him "the transcontinental man,”

He helped to join up New York to .South America. Before starting work, on the Chilian Railway he established a record in the lalid of swift horsemen by riding 285 miles in five days over the scene of his Avorlc. Immediately afterward he rode another 650 miles to the Argentine border.

( greatest aqueduct in the world —that carries water 100 miles to Baku—was another of his undertakings.

The original Assuan , Dam—which Sir. John’s company contracted to heighten—was built in 1899-1902. Then it avcs 120 feet in height, and impounded 1,000,000,000 tons of Avat-

Tho picturesque and unusual were ever a Aveakneas with Sir John. During his “hustings,” stunip speeches, he used, expedients!, to win votes.

He was a member of Parliament, and resigned after several years’ political work.' His victory at Wednesbury in 1910 was a sensation of the clay. . His baroncy came in 1922 “for Imperial work.”- ■

As a founder of neAV cities in Cana-da-many named' after English toAvns —he adopted the catch-phrase “The British Empire for the British.”