THE LATE DUKE OF FIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3021, 7 February 1912, Page 34

THE LATE DUKE OF FIFE.

THE SAD DETAILS. CAIRO, January 30. The Duke of Fife, accompanied by the Princess Royal and his daughters, left Cairq at the end of January to ascend the Nile in private dahabeahs. His illness caused the journey to be broken at Wady Haifa. His condition was serious since Friday. The King, who was aboard the Medina, was constantly informed by bulletins by wireless massages sent by Captain Fitzgerald. The Hon. John Ward has left Cairo for Assouan to assist the Princess Royal with the funeral arrangements. It is understood that the body will be brought to England aboard a battleship. The newspapers pay a tribute to the Duke of Fife's unbending loyalty and probity towards his tenants, and his deep religious convictions. He was a devoted husband and father. It is officially stated that the Duke of Fife was taken ill on the 19th, and pleurisy appeared on the 21st. His temperature was normal until Thursday, but the left lung was congested and heart trouble appeared on Friday, with increasing heart failure thereafter. His faculties were unimpaired until just before death. The King and Queen have curtailed their Gibraltar programme owing to the death of the Duke of Fife. January 31. Lord Kitchener has gone to Assouan. The Duke of Fife's body will be embalmed. The Princess Royal will leave on Friday on board the Nyksoe. The journey to Cairo will occupy eight to ten days. PORT SAID, February 3. The warship Powerful conveys the late Duke of Fife's body to England. THE IRISH EARLDOM. LONDON, January 31. The Daily News says that though the Princess Alexandra becomes the Duchess of Fife, the Irish earldom, which was created in 1759, apparently descends to an Australian named Jekyl Charmers Duff, of Warrnambool, who some years ago was in the police service, and whose sons are in South Africa and India. The Daily Mail states that the son of the first earl, named George, died in 1818. He ha<l a son, who was the Rev. George Duff, whose -son was Colonel Daniel Duff, employed by the East India Company, and vva6 the father of Jekyl. No property accompanies the earldom. February 1. The Daily Mail states that Mr J. C. J. Duff, now Superintendent of Indian Police at Bilaspur, Central Provinces, is aware of his father's claim to the earldom. He made diligent inquiries in England some vears ago. MELBOURNE. February 1. Mr Jekyl Chalmers Duff, mentioned in yesterday's cablegram, is now a resident of Melbourne. He was formerly a member of the Indian police, and is minus an arm. which was bitten off by a tiger while he was out big game shooting. He claims eousinship to the late Duke of Fife, but is fully aware that, even if he succeeds in proving his title, there may be no estate or money attaching to the peerage. There have been six Earls of Fife since 1735, and twice over the succession has pone to a brother and once to a nephew. When the Earl of Fife, as ho then was, was chosen as the husband of the Princess Louise Victoria, Alexandra Dagmar of Wales, no one claimed that his position in the peerage compared with that of several other Scottish peers, not to mention those of England. But, on the other hand, his personal qualifications were very marked, and lie had the advantage of jzreat wealth to k-oep up bis gpleudid position Then, again, though

the Duffs and the Mae Duffs have not had chiefs of national importance since the days of Macbeth, the fanniy has been noble and historical since time immemorial. They claim to -go back as ' far, at any rate, as Fyfe Mac Duff. who helped Kenneth II of Scotland in fc34 to conquer the Picts, and was given all the lands between the Forta and the Tay, to which, according to the legend, he gave the name of Fife. A descendant of his about 200 years later was the Mac Duff of Shakespeare—a thoroughly historical personage, who was created Earl instead of Thane of Fife by Malcolm Canmore, five years before the battle of Hastings, for assisting him to recover his crown from Macbeth. The direct line of the Mac Duff who helped to conquer the Picts and the Mac Duff who helped to conquer Macbeth, came to an end with Duncan, the thirteenth. Earl of that line, who died in 1353. But a descendant of his, David Duff, was made Baron of Muldavit by Robert 111, in 1401, a title which remained in the family till the days of Charles 11, and William Duff, a descendant of this David, was created Baron Braco, of Kilbride, County Cavan, in 1756, and Viscount Mac Duff and Earl of Fife in 1759, the year in which Quebec was taken, and the fifth in descent from him was the deceased Earl, created a Duke on his marriage with the Princess Louise of Wales a few years ago. His daughters, besides one of them having an off-chance of succession to the Crown of England, will succeed to largo personal property (the Duke of Fife was a banker and concerned in great commercial enterprises) and a number of fine seats, the principal of which are Duff House, in Banffshire, just outside the town of Banff, a copy of the famous Villa Borghese built in the middle of the eighteenth century; Eden House, BalVenie Castle, once the property of the Duke of Athol; Innes House, once a seat of the Dukes of Roxburghe; Milton Duff, Westerton House and Mar Lodge, the shooting box near Balmoral The Duke of Fife had two town houses —one in Portman Square, and one at East Sheen, almost opposite the house so long occupied by the late Comto do Paris. The late Duko of Fife, Alexander William George Duff, was born on November 10. 18*19, and was the only son of the fifth Earl of Fife, and Agnes, daughter of the seventeenth Earl of Erroll. He was educated at Eton. From 1874 to 1879 he sat as Liberal member for Moray and Nairn, in the House of Commons. He was created Knight of the Garter, in 1911; Knight of the Thistle in 1831; Privy Councillor in 1880 and G.C.V.0.. in 1901. He was captain of the corns of Gentleman-at-Arms from 1880 to 1881; member of Council of the Duchyof Lancaster, 1882; Lord-lieutenant and Cusfcos Rotutorium of the County of London (1900); President Commander of London Territorial Force Association; Hon. Colonel Banffshire Artillery Volunteers. The late Duke went on a special misson to the King of Saxony in 1882, and held the position of Lord-Lieutenant of Elgin from 1872 to 1902. He was one of the founders, and for nine years vice-president of the Chartered Company of South Africa, which position he resigned after the Jameson raid. He was also lord High Constable at the Coronation of King Edward VII, and King George V. His heir (by Special remainder) is her Highness Princess Alexandra, Victoria, Alberta, Edwina. Louise. It will be recalled that the Duke and Duchess and daughters very nearly lost their lives in the wreck of the s.s. Delhi off Tangiers last December, and that nrobably the exposure to which he >was subjected after the wreck bixiunrht on the il!ne°s from which he succumbed.