SIR HARRY TWYFORD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23730, 10 February 1939, Page 14

SIR HARRY TWYFORD

HOLIDAY IN NEW ZEALAND FORMER LORD MAYOR OF LONDON RETURNING AFTER THIRTYTHREE YEARS (From Our Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, Jan. 12. Schnapper fishing, wearing old grey flannel trousers and a sweater, basking in the sun, and resting at ease in a large-sized armchair, are the occupations of Sir Harry Twyford, who recently completed h& year as Lord Mayor of London, hopes to find for himself during a three weeks’ holiday in New Zealand. He arrives at Auckland by the Rangitata on March 9. After 12 months of banquets and ceremonies, speeches and receptions, after driving everywhere in a magnificent landau accompanied by goldbraided and top-hatted lackeys, Sir Harry wants a complete rest and change. He wants to forget that there are such things as mayoral furred robes, golden chains, and all the trappings of officialdom. Over 33 years have passed since he left Wakapuaka, Nelson, for London to join the 150-year-old textile firm of G. Brettle and Company, eventually to succeed his uncle, and rise to become chairman and managing director. But Sir Harry has never forgotten his three years in New Zealand, when he travelled throughout the country for the Eastern Exchange Telegraph Company. When he returns in March he hopes to meet old friends again and to talk over old times. Sir Harry will travel by himself. He will not be accomnanied by Lady Twyford, nor by his* daughter, Ennis. NO SET PLANS Sir Harry declares that he has no set plans for his visit. He wants a quiet, restful time. He will leave Wellington on April 3 for Sydney to see Sir Hugh Denison, and then he will sail for America on the Aorangi, touching again at Auckland on the way. He expects to get back to London on May 22 by the Aquitania. Although several weeks have passed since Sir Harry was succeeded as Lord Mayor by Sir Frank Bowater, he is still supervising the Czech Refugee Fund, which he started last September. This work has kept him so busy that he bad to delay his departure for New Zealand by a month. He has been negotiating with the New Zealand Government for a number of /Czech families to be allowed entrance to the Dominion. WIDELY TRAVELLED. Sir Harry Twyford is a widelytravelled man. After joining the Eastern Exchange Company in Cornwall as a lad of 16, he was transferred to Singapore, and then to Hongkong, Saigon, Penang, Foochow, Java, Sydney, and finally Nelson. He comes from a' family with historic associations in the City of London. In 1375 an ancestor, Sir Nicholas Twyford, was elected Alderman of Coleman street, He was also goldsmith-in-ordinary to Richard 11. and was present at Smithfield in 1361 when Sir William Walworth slew Wat Tyler. As Lord Mayor, Sir Harry established a reputation for speaking briefly, but to the point, and for not wasting time with unnecessary red tape. This caused little surprise, since he declared, shortly after taking over the office, that his motto .would be " Cut the cackle and get on with the jjob.” No orator, he is a good raconteur, and 'he loves wit. . , . , IT . His chief hobby is gardening. When he lived in Java he grew roses m a kerosfene tin for want of a better place. When he was Lord Mayor he made a roof garden on top of the Mansion House. He is proud of his flowers at Possill House, his Wimbledon home. A LORD MAYOR’S "ASSETS’* Sir Harry frankly admitted that he was not altogether sorry to retire from the office of Lord Mayor. In the first eight months of his year he had to eat over 400 luncheons or .dinners. Luncheons averaged six courses, and dinners eight. This experience evidently influenced him when he declared that the three principal assets needed by the Lord Mayor of London were; the digestion of an ostrich, the strength of a bullock, and the tact of a high priest. Actually, Sir Harry eats sparingly, and drinks little cxcept an occasional whisky and water. MEETING AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE There is nothing formal about Sir Harry. When he went to the Empire Exhibition last year he met 76-year-old John Forsyth, of Glasgow, with whom he was an apprentice when he joined the Eastern Telegraph Company in Cornwall. Sir Harry was wearing his glittering ceremonial robes and fold chain, and old John was in his unday best; . ~ • “Hello, your Worship,” said John. “Well, well; John, how are you?” said Sir Harry. “ I am glad to see you.” With his usual straightforwardness, Sir Harry said that the Empire Exhibition beat Wembley into a “cocked hat.” While Lord Mayor, Sir Harry nominated a pantry boy and three footmen at the Mansion House to be freemen of the City of London, as well as the steward of his household and the usher of the manservants’ hall. “It has never been done before,” was the comment of a member of the Mansion House staff. FIRST FOR FIFTY YEARS

Sir Harry also did something that had not been done by a Lord Mayor for fifty years. ' For the first time since 1888, the Cabinet was invited to dine with the Lord Mayor in the City. The Prime Minister and Mrs Chamberlain sat on either side of him at the Mansion House, and there were 90 other guests, including Cabinet Ministers. There were no speeches. _ , True to the tradition of Dick Whittington, Sir Harry acquired a cat. Actually it was given him by Sir Joseph Turner, Prime Warden of the Dyers’ Company. He bought it from a friend after he had chaffed Sir Harry at a banquet that he had no cat. Its name, of course, was Dick Whittington.

WHEN LORD DERBY SAID “NO” Sir Harry often caused smiles when he was Lord Mayor. ’ At a meeting of the Association of Municipal Corporations last May he asked Lord Derby for a tip for the Derby, to the amusement of the delegates. Lord Derby replied that he did not wish to put another halfpenny on the rates, so he would not give the Lord Mayor, a tip! At the prize distribution of the Cordwainers' Technical College in October, he declared that he touched his toes twenty times every morning directly he got out of bed. “ I challenge you to step out and do it,” he said to Mr Clifford Medwin. Master of the Company. Mr Medwin did not accept the challenge! When he dined with the Eccentric Club he did not wear his chain of office. “ Having looked up a dictionary and found that eccentric meant • erratic, irregular, peculiar, and odd in character,’ I thought it best to leave my chain at home,” he said. “It does not belong to me, and it is worth £4000.” Sir Harry was elected an honorary member of the club. Last October Sir Harry had a lucky escape. Two and a-half hours after he had stepped from a Belgian ’plane at Brussels on his way to Prague to organise the administration of his plan for Czech refugees, the machine crashed near Soest, Germany, and killed 20 passengers. While he was Lord Mayor, Sir Harry received a salary of £12,500 for the year. But one-third of that went on the first day of his mayoralty to provide the annual banquet!