LEADING SOUTH AFRICAN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 217, 12 August 1940, Page 7

LEADING SOUTH AFRICAN.

DEATH ANNOUNCED. Received August 11, 9.10 a.m. CAPETOWN, Aug. 10. The death has occurred of Sir Abe Bailey, South African millionaire business man, politician and sportsman, aged 75. . A British Official Wireless message says the Sunday newspapers print full appreciations of the career and character of Sir Abe Bailey. His activities as a mining magnate, politician, agriculturalist, racehorse owner and all-round sportsman arc touched upon as well as the breadth of his interests. Sir Abe had travelled over a hundred times between South Africa and Britain.

Sir Abe Bailey was a prominent figure ill South Africa, ivliero ho owned largo interests. He was a speaker of considerable cleverness, and never lost the ability to hold an audience entranced while unfolding tho possibilities of sonic scheme or other. He had a chequered career in many ways, however. At the time of the famous Jameson Raid ho was one of the leaders of Uitland thought, and was one of those who objected to the treatment meted out to foreigners by tho Boer Government of the day. For his part in the raid he received two years’ imprisonment, but after his release he became one of the leading business men in the country, which, under President Paul Kruger, had objected to his interference and desire for freedom of action and thought. Sir Abe afterward became one of South Africa's leading politicians, as well as one of its loading business men, representing the Tranovifiil electorate of Krugersdorp in the Union Parliament from 1910 to 1924, when lie was defeated because lie sided with the Imperialists against the Afrikanders. He served throughout tho Boor War, receiving the King’s and Queen’s Medals. . with six clasps, later taking part in mining in the Transvaal, eventually becoming one of tho principal owners. During The Great War, when British troops were harrying the Germans in East Africa, he acted as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General with the Union of South Africa Forces, for which he received special mention in dispatches. Sir Abe first married Miss Caroline Paddon in 1894, but she died in ISO2, leaving him with a son and a daughter. Nine years afterwards he married the Hon. Mary Westenra, only daughter of the fifth Lord Rossmore, and they had two. sons and three daughters. He was a close friend of Rhodes, just as later, of Botha and Smuts. It was for his help in relation to the establishment of the Union that he was knighted, receiving his title in 1911 and being given a baronetcy in 19.19. In recent years he lost both' his legs, but made a good recovery. He raced horses in South Africa for 48 years and for 40 years in England. He was a member of the Jockey. Club and tho M.C.C., and a founder of the Johannpsburg Turf Club. His horse Tiberius won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1935.