PERSONAL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17532, 25 January 1919, Page 8

PERSONAL.

Captain Myers, who has acted as A.A.G. at District Headquarters for the past couple of years, has left the service of the department.

Mr J. ■Smclair-Thomson, formerly manager of the National Bank in Dunedin, is returning to New Zealand by the steamer Oxfordshire. During the war, as a member of the New Zealand Wax Contingent Association, Mr Sinclair-Thomson did a great deal of valuable work in England. Our London correspondent writes that Mr R. W. Dalton, H.M. Trade Commissioner in New Zealand, arrived in England early in November. Hβ is spending a few weeks in' London to interview representatives of British firms at the Department of Overseas Trade, and will then proceed on a series of visits to provincial manufacturing centres.

Our London correspondent reports the retarn to England from Germany of Captain H. J. F. Mills, K.R.R.O. (son of Sir James and Lady Mills). In July, 1917, Captain Mills was posted as "missing," but in the following month news was received that he had been taken prisoner. Quito early in the war he had the misfortune to be buried in his- dug-out by a shell explosion and severely injured. He returned to England invalided, and remained there about eight months. Another New Zealand officer released from Germany is Lieutenant G. I. Kirkcaldy, Black Watah (Dunedin), who was missing last May and reported to be a prisoner in the month following. Near the beginning of the war he had a commission in the A.S.C, and after more than two years with that unit he transferred to the Royal Highlanders in 1917. Lieutenant Kirkcaldy is the son of Mr W. M. Kirkcaldy, of Dunedin, and was a student at Cambridge when war broke but A few days ago St. Paul's congregation, Napier, met to bid farewell to Sister Elinor, who has been deaconess in the congregation during the past two years, and is leaving to take up an important position in Dunedin. Mr L King, Mr R. C. Runciman, and Mr;R. L. Paterson spoke on behalf of the session, the managers, and the congregation. The work done by Sister Eknor had been of the best. The congregation was' very sorry to lose ' Sister Elxaor, but was pleased thajt she was' to continue this work in connection with one of the largest Presbyterian congregations in New Zealand, First Chnrch, Dunedin. The Rev. J.. A. Asher,_ as minister of St. Paul's, spoke in the highest terms of the, work done by Sister Elinor, and on behalf of the congregation presented her. with a cheque. During the evening songs were contributed, and supper was nrovided.

Lieutenant W. O. Berryman, M.C. (Christchurch), who had intended standing as an: Independent Coalition candidate for Brighton at- the general election at ilome, was not amongst the nominated candidates. Lieutenant Berryman was, however, speaking at Brighton the other day (writes our London correspondent) on the labour tion in New Zealand. Being in • uniform, he was unable to touch, the ■political side of the question, but he gave a very interesting statement of the conditions of labour in the dominion. He had. he said, been born and bred and educated there, and had been a labouring man. Lieutenant Berryman has served throughout the war in British cavalry regimej.'ts. . .

Another of Otago's old identities in the person of Mr Andrew Davidson passed away yesterday morningj after «a few days' illnesj, at the residence of his daughter (Mrs Douglas), 197 Cargill street. Born in Wpst Hill, Crieff, Scotland, 77 years ago, Mr Davidson went to Australia when 17 years of age, and after being there for two years took horses from Australia to India for use in the British army during the Indian Mutiny. He also saw service at the taking of the Peking forts. Mr Davidson then returned to Scotland, and brought to New Zealand his widowed mother, his brother (Mr David Davidson, of Saddle Hill), and three sisters, • arriving in the ship Mataura in 1863. • Deceased joined the New Zealand railways in September, 1873, being the first guard on the service to Balclutha and Kaitangata, and was for many years stationmaster at Sawyers' Bay, from which position he retired in 1910. He was highly respected by/ his fellow workers and all who knew him, and was for many years an elder in the Port Chalmers- Presbyterian Churoh, and later in the St. Leonards Church, being a keen worker in all church work. Mr Davidson leaves a widow, three sons, and five daughters. Captain J.. R. Kirk, "W.I.R. (Gisborne), Was (our London correspondent says, writing on December 3) the guest of the Master of Balliol, Oxford, last week-end,' and ■ addressed the Commonwealth Club on "Thoughts on Some Aspects of the Problem of a Better Understanding in Empire, with a Practical Suggestion." The meeting, over which the master presided, was a very large one, and included some New Zealand cadets at present at Oxford. Lieutenantcolonel E. S. M. .Lascelles, Dragoon Guards (formerly of Hawke's Bay), who is acting as secretary of the overseas soldier and sailor scholarships, took part in the discussion. Captain Kirk was recently elected a Fellow of the 'Royal Economic Society. He has been laid' up with influenza and tonailitis, but has how recovered. He is expecting to sail for New Zealand by the Athenic. Private Thomas A. Finch, of the Auckland Infantry (21st Reinforcements), who was reported as missing on September 30 last, and subsequently reported to be a prisoner of war, was repatriated on December 11, but his name was not included in any list of repatriated soldiers supplied to us. He was twice wounded during three years of service. Tfi« next-of-kin is Mrs Finch, of Kaitangata (his mother). The death is announced in England, at the age of 72, of Dr W. G. Kemp, who was for many years one of the leading medical practitioners in Wellington. Dr Kemp arrived in Now Zealand about half a century ago under appointment as medical superintendent of the hospital at Nelson, where he was married to Miss Charlotte Greenwood, daughter of Dr Greenwood, of Moljueka. After his marriage he took over Dr,Boor's practice in Wellington, where he remained until January, 1892, in which year he returned to the Old Country. He has left a widow (resident at Hastings, England) and four sons and three daughters. The sons are: Mr Geoffrey Kemp, district manager for the A.M.P. Society at Invercargill; Dr John Harold Kemp, of Wellington South; Major Frederick William Kemp, M.C, New Zealand Medical Corps (now in France); and Captain Charles Gordon Kemp, M.D., M.G", Royal Army Medical Corps, who is also on active service in France. The daughters are Mrs Macpherson (London) and Miss Kemp and Miss Violet Kemp, who are living with their mother. One of the daughters (Sister Elise Kemp) was killed while on active servics on die western front, and another (Miss Kathleen Kemp) died -at Homo about nine years ago

Mr Percy Brown, 'who died on the Moana on her voyage from San Francisco, ■was a planter belonging , to the Cook Islands, and was on his way to New Zealand. Deceased, a number of rears ago, was a prominent officer of the Colonial Bank of New Zealand at Wellington, Dunedin, and London. On the amalgamation of the Colonial Bank with ihe Bank of New Zealand, he took op fruit and copra growing at the Oook Islands. He lea-yes a widow (a daughter of the late Mr C. C. Graham, of Dunedin) and a daughter, Mrs S., J. Goulter, of Merriwee, Clive, Hawfco's Bay. Mr D. M. Graham, of Moeterton, is a brother-in-law of deceased.

A Press Association cable message from London announces that Mr Aston Webb has been "elected President of the Royal Academy. N