SOLDIERS' FRIEND DEAD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20597, 23 June 1930, Page 10

SOLDIERS' FRIEND DEAD.

HOSPITALITY AT DURBAN. LATE MRS. A. D. C. AGNEW. Of the soldiers of thoso New Zealand reinforcements which during the Great War passed through Durban, in Natal, on their way to Europe, there will be many who will remember Mrs. A. D. C. Agnew, and will hear with regret of her death. Mrs. Agnow was born in Maritzburg, the daughter of an English barrister, and went to Durban while a girl. Her hus band, whom she married in 1882, was a cousin of the present Earl of Southesk, whose son is married to Princess Maud Mrs. Agnow was renowned in her younger days for her horsemanship and used to rido with the Prince Imperial, the only son of the Emperor Napoleon 111. and the Empress Eugenie, when he was at Durban with the British forces prior to his death in action in the Zulu War. Mrs. Agnew and her mother served coffee to the troops on their way to the Zulu War in those far-off days of 50 years ago and in the Great War she entertained men in khaki and blue from all parts of the world and the affectionate regard in which she was held is testified by the hundreds of letters she roceived from mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of the fighting men from all parts of the Empire. She was known to contingent after contingent as "Our South African Ma," and was the soul of generosity and sympathy. To her belonged the distinc lion of having opened the first Sunday school in Durban.