Popular Young Man Farewelled

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 44, 22 February 1936, Page 2

Popular Young Man Farewelled

TENNIS CLUB LOSES OLD PLAYER

Mr Gordon Lawton, one of the M angamutu Tennis Club’s oldest players, was farewelled from Bentley’s teaTooms on Wednesday evening, Mr Lawton having decided to accept a position in Feilding. The full attendance of members to wish him luck and to thank him for what he had done for the club in the past, and the sincerity of the speeches made, were all demonstrative of a true feeling of regret at losing so popular and unselfish a member. Mr J. G. Brechin, president of the club, was the toast master, and ho read apologies from Messrs A. Morgan, R. ;J. Wade, T. Harvey, W. Barley and D. Twomey and Mesdames L. J. Heayns and W. Houston for their absence. Mr Brechin, in presenting Mr Lawton with an inscribed leather attache case, said that it gave him the greatest pleasure in making the presentation on behalf of the club to one of its most popular members. He was one of the club’s oldest players and one who had always taken an unselfish interest in the game. In most clubs, said Mr Brechin, there was usually evident a selfishness so far as younger players were concerned, but Mr Lawton was always ready to help younger members and many there that evening owed much of their knowledge of the game to Mr Lawton’s efforts. Although they would miss his presence at the courts very much, they all wished him the very best of luck and success in his new venture. Mr Brechin said it was his privilege to have known Mr Lawton since childhood, and in welcoming Mrs Lawton on behalf of the club he would say that as a boy Mr Lawton had enjoyed the teachings of a perfect mother, and she could be proud, too, of her son,