OBITUARY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 24 October 1942, Page 3

OBITUARY

MR J. 11. PYE-SMIMI Tlie death of Mr John Howard PyeSmith this week removed one of the best known of the old school of commercial travellers in the West Coast. Marlborough and Nelson districts. An old boy of Wellington College Mr Pye-Smith was interested in a variety of sporting activities and will be remembered as a prominent road racing cyclist in Wellington, being a contemporary of the late Teddv Reynolds He was also captain of the Swifts (Wellington) Soccer Club and on one occasion brought a team to Nelson. A keen tramper he devoted much time to shooting, being a shot well above the average with both rifle and gun. Boating and sailing were two other sports with which he was associated. When in Wellington Mr Pye-Smith was a keen supporter of the Wellington Kennel Club, his chief interest being in Pointers and Setters He was also an en T thusiastic member of the Nelson Kennel Club and served on the committee. When the Great War broke out Mr Pye-Smith enlisted and went overseas with the Samoan Expeditionary Force. Later he was appointed Chinese Commissioner in Samoa When he returned to New Zealand after the war he rejoined his firm Messrs Abbott, Oram, Ltd., of Wellington. He later became associated as a traveller with the Bruce Woollen Mills, the Manchester Importing Company. W J. Ross and Co , McPhail and Fisher, and more recently with Messrs Abbott. Armstrong and Howie. He was representing those firms up to the time of his death Mr Pye-Smith was a member of the Nelson R S.A. committee. He was a foundation member of the Nelson National Military Reserve and after serving in camp with that unit for some time he was released from service and joined the Home Guard. He was a member of the Victory Masonic Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter Mr Pye-Smith is survived by his wife, one son. Private John Pye-Smith (Middle East Forces), who went overseas with the First Echelon, and one daughter. Mrs C N Wadsworth. At the funeral on Wednesday the services at the house and at the graveside were conducted by the Dean of Nelson. the Very Rev P. B Haggitt. The

bearers from the house were six fellow n c.o.’s from the Home Guard. They were Sergt.-Major C Topliss. Quarter-master-Sergeant W. J Forsyth, Sergeants M. Rout. W. Paiker. R. Gunn, and Corporal H. Goodall The members of C Company of the Home Guard, under Captain W. H. Parr, formed a Guard of Honour in Collingwood street and also at the Nelson Cemetery, where the bearers were Messrs V. Cox C. T Weblev (Travellers). H. Fletcher (Masonic Lodge). N. B. Wilkes (City Club). W J Forsyth and J. Muggeridge (Returned Services’ Association) Trumpeter E. C. Robinson, of the 7th Independent Mounted Rifles, sounded the Last Post and Reveille, and Colonel C. B Brereton. of the Nelson R S.A.. placed a poppy ■ 1 remembrance on the casket.

Marriages in the old Fleet Prison in London were common. The Duke of Wharton was married at the Fleet in 1715. He was then in his 16th year. Marriages at an early age were much more prevalent in those days than now. It is curious that nearly every English poet of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries writes of “fifteen” as the most charming age in young ladies. One of the Dukes of Bedford was married in 1725 at the age of 16.