OVERSEA SETTLEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22820, 30 August 1937, Page 9

OVERSEA SETTLEMENT

APPOINTMENT TO BOARD UNOFFICIAL MEMBER (Received August 29, 5.5 p.m.) British Wireless RUGBY, August 28 Lord Barnby has been, appointed an unofficial member of the Oversea Settlement Board in place of BrigadierGeneral J. J. H. Nation. Lord Barnby, Yorkshire wool magnate, was born at Bradford in 1884 and. educated at Eton and at Magdalen College, Oxford. His father, the Ist Baron, created ab. Bradford the great woollen goods firm of Francis Willey and • Company, with interests in America aud other parts of the world. On leaving Oxford- the son joined the firm, studying every branch of its many ramifications and travelling widely to extend them.

A keen supporter of-the Territorial Army movement, he became colonel o£ the- Sherwood Rangers 'Yeomanry and on the outbreak of the* world war went overseas with the army. After serving in Egypt and Gallipoli he was recalled in 1915 by the War Office to

act as assistant director of the clothing section of Ordnance Service, his special duty being to deal with the recovery and repair of military uniforms for both home and overseas. In June, 1916, he was made wool controller and carried out the great task of organising under war conditions the purchase of the wool output of the Empire for military and civilian use. In 1918 Willev was awarded the M.Y.O. and C.M.G. and in 1919 the C.B.E. From 1918 to 1922 he was Conservative M.P. for South Bradford. On the death of his father in 1929, he succeeded to the barony, the control of the business and to the estates which his father owned.