A VERY PERFECT GENTLEMAN.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2709, 17 June 1925, Page 4

A VERY PERFECT GENTLEMAN.

The late Sir William Acworth, the great authority on railways, was, as a young man, tutor to the ex-Kaiser and his brother. Referring to that phase of his career a correspondent of the “Times” says: "He had taken his degree from Christ Church, was intending to read for the Bar, and went to Germany for a year. He had good introductions, in Berlin, and after a very happy time there he felt that he ought to return home. On the night before he was to start for England a distinguished German professor urged him strongly to spend another year in Germany as tutor to the sons of a family whose name he was not at liberty to mention. Acworth at first declined the offer. But the professor begged him earnestly to reconsider his decision, and promised him very interesting pupils, and a pleasant experience of home life In Germany. At last he prevailed upon Acworth to think it over. In the morning, having received his promise to stay, the professor for the first time revealed who his pupils were to be. That he had a most interesting and eventful time can readily be imagined, and he told me as a boy many amusing stories as to his experiences within and outside the Royal circle. Nearly 50 years afterwards came the Great War, and then Acworth showed that, however little in this respect his pupils had profited by having an Englishman as their tutor, he at least was a very perfect gentleman. While so many of those who, often' in the humblest capacities had had to do with the Prussian reigning house, were making capital, either in notoriety or otherwise, by retailing gossip and tittle-tattle about the Hohenzollerns, Acworth, who probably knew more about the whole family than any Englishman then living, kept his unique knowledge and information from all but his most Intimate friends. So much was this the case that more than once It was astonishing to find that those who had known him well for many years found it difficult to believe when they Sieard , cor the first time that Acworth' had

been for 18 months English tutor to the exKaiser and his brother, Prince Henry of Prussia.”