OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23225, 24 June 1937, Page 12

OBITUARY

MR CECIL DUFF The death occurred at Hastings, on June 18, of Mr Cecil Duff, a former resident of Dunedin. Mr Duff was born at Waitahuna and at the time of his death he was in his fiftysixth year. He received his early education in Edievale and later studied for the legal profession at Dunedin. After practising in Stratford and Napier, he took up permanent residence in Hastings, and during the past 20 years he had taken an active interest in the affairs of the town and district. He filled many public offices and was held in the highest esteem. He was a brother of Mr Oliver Duff, who was for some years editor of the Christchurch Press, and of Mr John Dull, who was a prominent official in the transport department of the New Zealand Railways at. Wellington. He is survived by his widow and two daughters.

SIR ERIC GEDDES

LONDON, June 22. The death is announced of Sir Eric Campbell Geddes, in his sixtysecond year.

Sir Eric Geddes had for the past 15 years been a prominent figure in British business circles, and at the time of his death he held the positions of chairman of the Dunlop Rubber Company and of Imperial

Airways, Ltd. He had enjoyed a wide and varied experience in his younger days, and during the war he served in various official capacities. He was later engaged in political affairs and was associated with several committees before he returned to commercial life in 1922. Sir Eric Geddes, who was born in India in 1875, was educated at the Oxford Military College and Merchiston Castle School, at Edinburgh. He then went to the United States of America, where he engaged in lumbering. His interests turned towards railroad transportation, and he was connected with the Baltimore and Ohio railway system, and also with the Rohikund and Kumaon Railwa'ys in India, before he returned to England, where he joined the North-eastern Railway Company under Sir George Gibb, whom he succeeded as general manager. After the outbreak of war he was appointed Deputy Director-general of Munitions Supply. Although he was a civilian, his work in this connection was so markedly successful that in 1916 he was appointed Director of General Transportation in France, and later his sphere of activity was widened to include all theatres of war. He was knighted in 1916 and was created K.C.B. and G.B.E. the following year. He was also transferred to the board of the Admiralty, and in 1917 he was Navy Controller, with the rank of temporary honorary vice-admiral, later becoming First Lord of the Admiralty. In the Imperial War Cabinet he was Minister of Transport, and he held this portfolio until 1921, when he became chairman of the committee appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to advise on all questions of national expenditure The task of the committee was to recommend public economies, and in various reports drawn up in the period 1921-22 savings amounting to £86,000,000 were recommended.

After ' returning to business activity, Sir Eric held the positions of president of the Institute of Transport, president of the Federation of British Industries, and president of the Association of Trade Protection Societies of the United Kingdom.

MR MATTHEW KEATING

(From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, May 31

The death has occurred at Cricklewood, London, of Mr Matthew Keating, a prominent member of the Irish Parly, who married Miss Hannah H. Sweeny, of Gore, 24 years ago, in Rome.

Mr Keating was educated at the local Catholic elementary schools and was employed in the collieries as a miner until his twentieth year. He was subsequently in business at Cardiff and Newport. He came to London in 1898 and became very active in the national movement and in Irish affairs in the metronolis. He was elected M.P. for South Kilkenny 11 years later. He made his mark in Parliament and was often heard to good effect in debates and at question time.

Mr Keating was chairman of Shell-Mex (Dublin). Ltd. He was a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, and a member of the Empire Parliamentary Association. He was a member of the Irish Literary Society, and used frequently to contribute to its programmes.