OBITUARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21232, 12 July 1932, Page 9

OBITUARY.

MR. JOHN SCURR.

BRISBANE-BORN POLITICIAN

LONDON, July 10

The death is announced of Mr. John Scurr, formerly Labour member of the House of Commons for Mile End, Stepney.

Mr. John Scurr was born at Brisbane, Queensland, in April, 1876, but was taken to London when he was six months old and lived at Poplar. At the age of 21 he joined , the Poplar Labour League, of which he became secretary. Later he was president of the Trades Council and chairman of the local branch of the Labour Party. During the dock strikes of 1911 and 1912 he was chairman of the London district committee of the Dockers' Union. Made an alderman in 1919; Mr. Scurr went to prison with the 29 Poplar councillors who protested in 1921 against a rating 'system which they claimed bore too heavily on the borough. He was chairman at that time of the Metropolitan Boroughs Standing Joint Committee. Mayor of Poplar in 1922-23, he became- an alderman of the London County Council in 1925.

Mr. Scurr fought six Parliamentary elections in five constituencies before he was returned for the Mile End division of Stepney in 1923. His maiden speech in the House of Commons was devoted to the oase of Poplar : He had worked on behalf of Irish self-government and wps a thorough-going pacifist. Having paid a visit to India to study the situation there he became assistant-secretary of the Indian Parliamentary Committee after he had ehtered the House of Commons. Formerly a member of the Independent Labour Party and chairman of its southern divisional council, he from that party in November, 1928, owing to his hostility to the Maxton-Cook programme and the tendency of the Independent Labour Party to drift away from the policy of the Parliamentary Labour Party. MAJOR SIR H. McMAHON. LONDON, July 10. The death has occurred of Major Sir Horace McMahon. Major Sir Horace Westropp McMahon was born on October 28. 1863, the second son of the third baronet. Ho married in 1911 Ellio Maude, daughter of Mr. H. Moses, M.L.C., of Sydney, and widow of Captain C. E, Bancroft, of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, a regiment he joined in 1885. Ho served in South Africa in 1896, was severely wounded, and was mentioned in despatches and awarded the D.S.O. Ho served in Crete in 1898 and again in South Africa, 1899-1900. The heir to the baronetcy is Major Kellerman Eyre McMahon, late of the King's Shropshire Regiment. He was born on August 24, 1860, is married, and has one son.

REPRESENTATIVE CRICKETER.

LONDON, July 10. Tho death is announced of Harry Howell, cricketer, in his 42nd year.

Howell was a Warwickshire county representative. He played for England in the 1920-21 tour of Australia. He was a fast bowler who did not meet with great success on this tour, but in the following season in England secured more than 100 wickets at an average cost of 16 runs.