OBITUARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23866, 21 July 1939, Page 9

OBITUARY

MR HAROLD WAGSTAFF LONDON, July 19. The death Is announced of Mr Harold Wagstaff, twice captain of' England Rugby League teams to Australia! CAPTAIN W. GARDINER (Special to Daily Times) • ■:" AUCKLAND, July 20. One of the best-known figures on the Auckland waterfront and on the New Zealand coast, Captain William Gardiner. died yesterday. For 28 years Captain Gardiner was the Auckland Harbour Board’s tugmaster and successively commanded ' the tugs Te Awhina and William C., Daldy, illhealth compelling him to retire two years ago.

Captain Gardiner, Who was ,b6m at Ardrossan, Scotland, 61 years ago, went to sea at the age of 14 on'the barque Hindustan, and served for several years on deep-sea sailing vessels. He arrived in New Zealand 40 year's ago by the full-rigged ship Canterbury, and after trading on the, coast, spent several years towing rafts. Before joining the Auckland Harbour Board in 1909 he had been master of the steamer Awaroa in the coastal trade. He was regarded as one of the most valuable officers in the service of the board.

Captain Gardiner is survived by his wife, seven sons and one daughter.

LADY GODLEY t- ■ 'From Our Own .Correspondent; LONDON, July 8/ Lady Godley, whose death occurred on June 29 at Ploughley, near NeWbury, Berks, had been in failing health for some considerable time., • Indeed, it may be said that she never really recovered completely from.her fall at Government House, Gibraltar, when General Sir Alexander : Godley was Governor some years, ago. On that occasion she broke .her hip, and she always since had needed to qse a stick when walking. But lameness did not prevent her from travelling, for she had been in New Zealand since then, as well as in South Africa and the East. Sir Alexander Godley has received a large number of letters of condolence from friends, among whom were many New Zealanders. The funeral of Lady Godley took place two days later at Woodlands St. Mary, near Newbury, the Rey. Arthur Watson officiating. The High Commissioner for New Zealand was E resent. Mr Jordan sent a wreath on ehalf of the Governmerit .of £Jew Zealand. and one also on behalf of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association. . ■' In an appreciation' The Times referred to Lady GodleyV adventurous life. The writer says: “She had accompanied her distinguished husband throughout his service and to all quarters of the globe—in-spite latterly of serious physical handicaps—and showed all the courage of a true Irishwoman in the hardships and-anxieties of a soldier’s wife. Louisa Marion Fowler was the daughter of Mr Robert Fowler, D.L., and thus came of a well-known Irish family—the Fowlers of Rahinston—whose fortunes had been founded by one of the Archbishops of Dublin in the early eighteenth century. Bob Fowler, the famous cricketer, was her nephew. In her youth she was a keen ah,d accomplished rider to hounds, as was hex husband. John Watson, the celebrated M.F.H. and polo player, said of her that she was the best ridef‘ to hounds that he had ever seen. Her marriage took place in 1898, when her husband was serving in the Mounted Infantry on Salisbury Plain. "In 1899 she accompanied him to South Africa, where hostilities were imminently expected. When that occurred Lady Godley was in Bulawayo, and there she remained during the seven months when her husband was shut up in the siege of Mafeking. When Mafeking was relieved she joined her husband there, and decided, in company with Lady Sarah Wilson, who had actually been in Mafeking during the siege, to travel across the Western Transvaal to Pretoria. They journeyed in a Cape cart drawn by two white horses, and naturally outdistanced the British troops, whom they were supposed to be accompanying. . . . Few women can have had a more varied and venturesome life, or can have shown a finer blend of high spirits and endurance.” 4