MUSCULAR CLERGYMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18295, 11 January 1923, Page 10

MUSCULAR CLERGYMAN.

DEARTH .OF "HAMMER" HALES.. The Rev. George Henry Hales,'.who died ;• recently at Stickney Rectory, ■' near Boston, Lincolnshire, ; was without- doubt the/greatest hammer thrower of his day. The ton of ,/ the Key. George Hales, rector of Barningham. Yorkshire, he went to. -Eton and. thence to Trinity, Cam-; bridge. For four years in succession he. threw the hammer against Oxford at the University sports, winning; each time. Those Were the years'lß74 to 1877, when the distances he threw were 126 ft. 9im, 127 ft. lin., 138 ft. 3in., and 138 ft. lin. His 133 ft. 3in. in 1876 "''/ then the world's record. In that year Mr. Alfred Lyttclton was Kale.?' second string for Cambridge; He was known to ; the end of his life as " Hammer" Hales. ■ ..■.'.." Twenty-two years after lie had gone down from Cambridge, on revisiting" his old university he was able, without anv • practice whatever, to throw [he hammer farther than any Blue then in residence. He was also a weight-putter, cricketer, and boxer of no mean repute, and the first president of the Hawks Club at Cambridge. "';••-■"'. ■■ ;■ '■' • Having taken his degree in 1877, -he was ordained to the curacy of- Pickbiil, in. the diocese of Bipon, but two years later removed to Stickney, ..remaining there , first as . curate and then, on the nomination of a private patron in 1883, as rector. In .'Lincolnshire he was a wellknown figure iiand- : an ' immense favourite, especially iit.atbe Fen .-/District, being known familiarly as ''the King of the Fens." '~" "As": : a: ' clergyman he gained the affection and trust of his people in a, remarkable degree/ by his earnestness, manliness, and transparent honesty. He was a man" of great bodily strength, and many stories; are current of the way in which lie used it. For example, ..when he was restoring the tower/of Stickney Church, i two men arrived with a waggon full of scaffold poles. They, "left for their lanchi'on. arid to seek the assistance of a 'third ipjau'to : unload the poles, : On. their . returrt/tbey were astoms)iea f '''to' li'that1 i 'that ■j the Rector, fiihgfe-handed^"had/' unloaded ■..vail the poles and placed them in position.