PERSONAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3336, 20 February 1918, Page 53

PERSONAL NOTES.

lieutenant Eric Maude, the son of the lato General' Sir Stanley Maude, was one of the most noticeable people at the memorial service for his father at St. Paul's Cathedral. This was not from any lack of modesty oh his part; but when a young man who stands 6tt 9in has to appear in the front row at a public ceremony it is difficult to overlook him. He holds a.commission in the Royal. Horse Artillery. Sir Frederick Bridge, who has just passed the seventy-third milestone of a life devoted to music, is noted for Hie wit as well as his learning. One of his stories concerns the new Wesleyan hymn book, in connection with which he acted as adviser to the Editorial Committee. The committee submitted to him a tune thought to be of Handelian derivation, but which he declared would make Handel turn in his grave every time it was sung. The committee, however, were not to be denied, and submitted the tune once more, suggesting that it might be marked pianissimo, " so as not to disturb Handel." The Rev. J. H. Hardy, one of the Congregational chaplains at the front, has been working amongst the men of the heavy artillery, and he writes:—"All sorts and conditions do you find in the R.G.A. —lawyers, plumbers, clcrke, actors, publicans, warehousemen, journalists, mechanics, old soldiers, young apprentices,—but -rffever yet have I felt anything but a pardonable pride in being their padre. They are all simply splendid, fundamentally heroic. Of course, they are human. They can swear, most of them. They can 'pinch,' some of them. They can slack, a few of them. But when it comes to the push—when the hour demands it —they can be, and they are, absolutely great." Mr James W. Gerard, lato United States Ambassador to Germany, speaking at a dinner given by the American Authors' Club to their "Ambassador members," eaid that while in Europe he had met only two authors—the Kaiser and Maximilian Harden. The Kaiser has written extraordinary articles, he said. In one the Kaiser had stated frankly that since his childhood ho had taken the great world conquerors —Alexander the Great, Julius Cassar, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte —for his examples. "I have often dreamed of German world conquest," he wrote, "and I- still believe I shall succeed." This written statement by the Kaiser gives the real reason for tliG war. —Sir George Everard Cayley, ninth baronet, of Brompton, Yorks, died in London on November 8 in his fifty-seventh year. The Cayleys trace their lineage back to a Sire de Cailly, -one of the followers of William the Conqueror. His descendants wore settled in Norfolk for three centuries, when the chief reprcsentativi. removed to Yorkshire, where the family has since remained. The late baronet married in 1884 Jjudy Mary Susan, sister of the Earl of Wharncliffe, and succeeded to the baro-

nctcy 11 years later. Their elder son, V Lieutenant Francis Cayley, K.R.K.0., wa* killed in action in September, I€ls, and the title now goes to the younger son, Lieutenant Kenehn Cayley, buffolk llegiment, who has been wounded, and is now a prisoner of war in Germany. —■ Sir Edward Fry. the distinguished Lord Justice of Appeal, who, including his previous service in the Chancery Division,' adorned the Judicial Bench for 15 years, has attained the age of 90 years, lie comes of a long-lived race, for liia brother, Mr Lewis Fry, many years member for Bristol, ia past 85, and his forebears attained patriarchal ages. The Frys, of Bristol, the world-famed coooa manufacturers, belong to the innermost aristocraoy of Quakers; they cling to the doctrine of non-resisi-ance with a simple sincerity that has woo them for generations tho profound respect of fellow-oitiV,en3 who do not share their views, which .they never thrust upon others, but follow so that the cost fajla upon, themselves.

The death of Mr Napier Hemy wa* followed at a brief interval by that of another artist of distinction who came to London from the North. Mr John Charlton, though his. life had covered 68 years, seemed to his friends likely to last a greafc deal longer; but he lost his two sons in the war, and sank rapidly under that great bereavement. By tho public ho will be beet remembered through a number, of spirited double-page illustrations in. the Graphic, and by his picture of the Royal procession at Queen Victoria's Jubilee, which was followed 10 years later by a Diamond Jubilee picture, both of theso being commissions from Windsor. But he was more especially a painter of horses and of hunting scenes, and many, probably most, of his works will become heirlooms in tho houses of country squires. Recently placed on the retired list at his own request in order to facilitate the promotion of junior officers, Admiral Sir Robert S. Lowry, K.C.8., who is 63 year? of ago, entered tho navy at the ago ol 13, and served on the Scranis on the occasion of King Edward's vis.t to India over 40 years ago. It wa*s under his guidance that Rosyth became the best-equipped naval port in the world. v Admiral Lowry is known to his friends as a very religious man, and on the Sunday morning when Admiral Beatty chased the German squadron in the North Sea, he sent a message to Edinburgh's Lord Provost asking that prayers should be offered up in the churches. Some thought our warships were in peril, but reassuring messages soon camo to hand. Sir Robert is said to have been in the habit of reading the burial service over those spots where his patrols had accounted for a U-boat. King George derives two titles frcm the region of the Clyde—Duke of Rothesay and Baron Renfrew. Shipbuilding saved Renfrew —once the principal port on tho Clyde—from extinction, and gave Rothesay its present great prosperity by enabling engineers, boilermakers, and shipwrights to earn big wages and spend them-, in the beautiful town on Bute Island. The \ title .' Baron Renfrew comrs down from Stuart times; but Greenock, too, has iia old associations with Royalty. About 1670, when it was struggling out of obscurity, a herring-curing company was started, and was styled " Royal " from the circumstsneu that- Charles II was one of the shareholders ! But Greenock has a better claim to fame in the fact that it was the birth—place of James Watt, who refused an offer by tho Russian Ambassador to go to Russia and bo tho supreme director of mines, metallurgy, and ordnance castings in thai country. ! Tho King has awarded the Albert Medal in gold in recognition of the conspicuous gallantry and self-sacrifice of Mr Robert Leiper Lindsay, lato superintendent of tho Tembi pumping station of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and the Alberfc Medal to Mr James Still, his assistant. Last July one of the oil pipe valvee. burst, and great fountains of oil were thrown in all directions to a great height. The burst occurred within 30 yards of the boiler furnaces -Slid a disastrous five, involving the ~ whole station and compound, which Will populated by nearly 300 natives, was a question of seconds. The only means of averting disaster was to turn off tho oil fuel supply to tho furnaces and to stop the pumps. Mr Lindsay was near the furnaces, but to reach them it was necessary to pass. . through tho oil shower and th;is_ arrive afc the furnace doors soaked with oil. To do so meant almost certainly a terrible death: but Mr Lindsay did not hesitate, turning off first tho oil "cock, when the whole atmosphere buret into flames. Ho staggered away, but died from his injuries some hours later. Meanwhile 1 Mr Still had succeeded in turning off most of the pumps when the fire burst out. Ho was cut off from all the doors, but managed to escape bv a window, stupefied by heat and smoke. He then sought for and removed Mr Lindsay, and then returned to do what ho couSd to limit the damage.