OBITUARY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 August 1924, Page 4

OBITUARY.

MRS W. J. HARDING. The death took place recently in Sydney of a lady held jn high esteem and at one time a resident of Wanganui in the person of Mrs W. J. Harding, who passed peacefully aw’ay during sleep at the great age of 97. Mrs Harding, who survived her husband by 25 years, arrived in New Zealand in 1855, and settled in Wanganui, where she was much beloved for her Christian and unselfish disposition and for her artistic and musical abilities, which she posseed by inheritance. Mrs Harding the great-granddaughter of Dr. Knight, D.D., granddaughter of Dr Baker, Mus. Doc.; her father, Mr J. Iv. Baker, was also an eminent musician, and her uncle, John Prescott Knight, It.A., was at one time president of the Royal Academy, London. Edw'ard Knight, comedian, of the Lyceum, and the original “Dorothy Yernon” of Haddon Hall, was also a near relative. A miniature painting of the deceased lady executed by her daughter, Mrs E. Maclellan, hangs in. the gallery of the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, London. There are five surviving children—Mrs E. Maclellan, artist, Sydney; Mr A. Harding, draughtsman, Auckland, New Zealand; Mr H. K. Harding, watchmaker, Grafton, New South Wales; Mrs J. J. Crawford, Adelaide; Mrs E. Swmin, v>aipawa, Hawke’s Bay, New' Zealand: and also 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. Mr G. W. Harding, chief cartoonist for the Free Lance, and Mr‘Edgar Swain, of Turnbull and Jones, both of Wellington, New Zealand, are grandsons of the deceased lady. The late Horace R. Baker, of Haw-era and New Plymouth, 1 w r as a brother of the deceased lady • and Mrs. Archd. Blair, of Hawera, M r s C. F. Ramie, of Inaha, and Mrs A. Elliott, Wanganui, late of Hawera, are nieces.