PERSONAL

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 24, 28 December 1942, Page 4

PERSONAL

Mr T. C. A. Hislop, Mayor of Wellington, ivas a visitor to the A.N.A. Club last evening and praised the high standard of the club and the splendid work that is being done by tlie committee. I The death has occurred after a long and severe illness, due to war disabilities, of Mr Arthur Harold Watts, of Marton Junction, where he | was a goods-shed storeman in the : [Railway Department. He was the I younger son of the late Mr and Mrs i G. Watts, of Feilding and Wangair.ui. The late Mr Watts enlisted and I saw service in the South African and J Great Wars and his elder daughter, Miss Ella Watts, is now serving in the Middle East as a V.A. He is survived by his widow and four children. Mr Watts was a past committee member of the Marton Junction School. He was a sergeant-major in the E.P.S., also a member of the Court of Little John (Marton) and the Court Loyal (Foresters), of Feilding. j Mr A. C. Blake, a well-known educationist, who died in Wellington last week after a brief illness, was born in Bangalore, India, in 1862, the eldest son of the later Rev. Alexander Blake, M.A., Presbyterian minister, and grandson of the late Rev. Benjamin Rice, of Bangalore, who for 50 years was a missionary in Mysore. Mr Blake was educated at the Otago Boys’ High School and Canterbury College. For CO years his life was devoted to education. From 1880 to 1928 lie served in the teaching profession at the Sydenham, Waimate D.H.S., Timaru Main, Mount Cook, Te Aro, and Lyall Bay Schools, being headmaster of Lyall Bay School for 19 years. At various periods he was a member of the Dominion executive of the New Zealand Educational Institute and a president of the Wellington branch of that body. Alter his retirement from the teaching profession lie was for 12 years a member of the Wellington Education Board and of the Technical College Board of Governors, and for five years a member of the Victoria College Council; and he was also a member of the Education Broadcasting Advisory Committee. While in Timaru he was a past master of St. John’s Masonic Lodge and an officer! of District Grand Lodge. Mr Blake' always took an active interest in the work of the Presbyterian Church and was a member of St. Giles Church, Kilbirnie, for over 30 years. In his younger days he played senior cricket and Rugby football in South Canterbury and he always maintained a keen interest in Rugby. He was a veteran bowler, having played for 40 years, and was a member of the Hntaitai Bowling Club for over 25 years. In 1898 Mr Blake married Miss Emma Vale Rowley, daughter of the late Mr T. G. Rowley, of Timaru. He is survived by his wife, his daughter, Mrs James Stokes, of Wellington, his son, Second-Lieutenant G. C. Blake, of Palmerston North, and four grandchildren The late Mr E. M. Blake, F.R.1.8.A., Wellington, was a brother.