MR. A. M. BETHUNE

New Zealand Mail, 22 January 1902, Page 31

MR. A. M. BETHUNE

The "North Star Chronicle” (.England) contains the following notice of the death of the late Mr A. M. Bethune, brother of the late Mr J. H. JJethune, c-f this city:—Mr Alick M. Bethune, the younger surviving sou of the Rev. Hector JJethune, of Dingwall, died last week at his residence in Upper Norwood, near London, of heart failure, after a long illness, in about the sev-enty-seventh year of his age. He had been nearly all his life actively connected with the great P. and O. Steamship Company, holding responsible positions for them in Alexandria, Australia and China, before being brought home to the London office, where he was for long secretary, and latterly a director, of that company. For some years back he was a prominent and influential member of the community at Penge and Norwood, with a seat on the Bench of Magistrates, and filling the office of chairman of the Conservative party for the sitting M.P. of the district, and his death has called out expressions of regret in the London and the local press. There are probably few in the town now who can recall Mr Alick IJethune as one of the most popular lads in “Mr Glass’s school,” under the shadow of th“ old Town House. In a letter now before the writer, written a few years ago, the late worthy Dr Aird mentions that “when he last preached in Dingwall in 18-10, the Bethune lads were then particularly handsome and goodlooking ; Mr Bethune himself was the handsomest man in Ross-shire.” Mr Mackenzie Bethune leaves a daughter and two sons, one of the latter, Captain Hector, being a popular and promising officer in the Indian army, keeping up the traditions of the county clan that has given, during the last century, so many distinguished officers to the service. The late Mr A. M. Bethune had his Mackenzie connection from his grandfather, the first Millbank, who was brother to Sir Alexander, the second baronet of Gairloch. The eldest son of the old manse still survives, and is on active duty as rector of Sealiam— the columns of the “Star'” having a special reference to his wonderful vigour and activity in work last spring, on his passing his ninetieth birthday. Mrs Harper, Torgorm, and Miss Bethune, Edinburgh—with the rector of Seaham—still survive of the fine family which filled the old manse of Dingwall in the first half of the century.