ADVENTUROUS CAREER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21255, 9 February 1931, Page 7

ADVENTUROUS CAREER

THE NEW LORD LANGFORD. A RESIDENT OF MELBOURNE. FORMERLY IN NEW ZEALAND. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) MELBOURNE, February 7. 1 The following is Lord Langford’s story by Prank Russell, of Melbourne : After years of wandering in many countries, rubbing shoulders with humanity in its crudest state, sharing husks, sleeping in the cold, and eating scantily, Clotworthy, Wellington Edward Thomas Rowley, seventh Baron Langford of Suramerhill Hall, County Meath, Ireland, finds himself to-day in the tantalising position of not knowing whether he is a wealthy man and the owner of entailed estates, or merely the owner of a barren title. He is awaiting in Melbourne the result of inquiries which have been sent to Ireland. He has not yet been officially informed by the estate lawyers of the death of his late uncle and his own accession to the title. Behind the uncertainty lies a story of family jealousy and dislike rather reminiscent of the Early Victorian novel, in which the young master wanders the world, the victim of a sonless but vindictive uncle. » I talked at length with the new baron to-day. He is rather under the average height, with eyes hidden behind dark glasses. He is a clean-shaven man of 45, who looks younger, and rather nervous and uncertain in manner. This latest Rowley hardly embodies the traditional swashbuckling characteristic, of the turbulent Irish family that was ennobled in the seventeenth century. Appearances are deceptive, however, for he has had adventure enough in all conscience. His father was the younger brother of the fourth Lord Langford. He went to New Zealand many years ago as one of the hopeful George Vesey Stewart settlement, which was to do such great things on the land. Like most land schemes it failed, and Randolph Thomas failed with it, the £SOOO with which this younger son meant to fight the fates and woo fortune in the colonies went glimmering in New Zealand. He met a beautiful Irish girl named Rosetta Fletcher, the daughter of a zoologist of Dublin. When an Irishman is in the process of ruin an Irishwoman always hopes to arrest the progress by marrying him, and Rosetta was a traditional daughter of Erin.

The present baron was the only child of the marriage. The family reluctantly came to the rescue of the pair, and Eandolph Thomas left the land to take up business. When young Clotworthy Wellington Edward was- a year old the family left New Zealand and returned to England, where for 10 years the youngster remained. / When he was 11 they all returned to New Zealand, but at 20 the boy again left for the land of his fathers for education. He encountered the suspicions of relatives, and his friendship with his uncle, the fourth baron, which was sincere, seems to have been spoiled by his feud .with the second Lary Langford, who lost no opportunity —according to the story—of poisoning the uncle's mind against his nephew.

Back to New Zealand went Clotworthy, until he enlisted and went to Egypt, where he transferred to the artillery, led by his love of horses and hunting gained as a youth in Ireland. He went through the two. battles of the Somme, and with the army of occupation he went from Abbeville to Cologne and was demobilised.

The war, had brought him a step nearer the barony. He decided to go to Dublin and try his luck in Ireland. There he married, but finding civil life dull, tried to persuade his wife to accompany him to another country. She refused, preferring to stay in Dublin with her family. It was to Canada that this scion of the old family decided to emigrate, as so many scions had done befoic him. For three months ho was harvesting. He had a voice, so went on a singing tour with a few friends. He went into the Hudson Bay territory after the elusive silver fox. “ I lived with the Eskimos under conditions I would have thought impossible at one time,” he said. “ You would think it would be freezing to live in a round ice house. It is damn hot, but outside it is many degrees below zero. You -know what cold means.” He lived through the trapping season in this region; getting chinchillas and fox and selling tfye skins at Montreal. He felt homesickness coming over him, *o determined to go home. “ I had a bit of money saved up from the concert tour and the fur expeditions, bu* did not feel like paying any more fares for travel. I heard there was a cattle boat going from Portland (Maine) to Liverpool. I applied for the job of valet to the cattle, and got it. At Liverpool 1 disembarked and helped to get rid of the cattle, i I rid myself of the smell and set out for London. Once again I heard of a boat which was sailing for Australia, and I got a job on her as assistant steward. From Australia I decided to keep moving, so signed on as assistant steward on one of the Port boats. I went through the Panama to the United States. I was a couple of days in New York and Boston, then we squared away for England.” Once more in Australia, Lord Langford heard unofficially of his uncle’s death and his own accession. He had no money beyond what he had made_ by singing and in other ways. He waited to learn the circumstances of the estate. These are even yet obscure, and so likewise are ■ his plans. He is not likely to assume the use of his title unless he has sufficient money to decorate it. Even then he is not sure what he will do.