To His Dear Wife

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 6

To His Dear Wife

Tribute Read After Death An eloquent tribute to his wife would have been paid by Viscount Cowdray had he lived two days longer to receive with her the freedom of the City of Aberdeen. The speeches, which had been prepared for the occasion, were, however, later issued to the Press, and Lord Cowdray’s noble eulogy is thus not lost to the world. He would have said: “Of the influences which shape one’s life, nothing comes into the same category with the great crowning influence which a man possesses in that perfect partner—a well-mated wife. “To have by you one who shares with head and heart the successes and the failures; who gives due encouragement, but has the courage to administer the home truth, unpalatable but necessary sometimes; who is never afraid of responsibility, but is prepared to start life afresh should need .arise—such a partner is beyond praise or price. “She is simply one’s needed lifeblood, and I make no apology for thisdue tribute to mine.

“Indeed, in all my partners I have been singularly blessed. They joined me as young men, and if growing old can ever be pleasure, it has been in growing old together.

“I would like to say one thing to the young men and women who must carry on the work of the world. In no part of it, and I have worked in many, is there any short cut or royal road to success, and success includes much more than mere money-getting.

“I say this because I am so often asked by anxious parents how they can ensure the success of their children, as if there were a secret to divulge. “Nobody can ensure the success of another. A man must stand on his own feet. The inexorable law is character, and let every young man a?nbitious to succeed feel that he has lost his way until he finds a job which absorbs all the best of himself.

“Success is sweet. To-day I realise how profoundly sweet it is, but the joy is in the doing. Not the end of the journey, but the travelling is what makes life worth while.”

Lady Cowdray had written: “I shall eternally be thankful that life gave me a partner who answered ‘wo questions in my own spirit. The first is, ‘ls woman’s place necessarily limited to the home?’ and the second, ‘Should a mqrried woman work?’ To that freedom I owe to-day’s freedom.” Lady Cowdray, who was married in ISBI, is the daughter of the late Sir John Cass, of Bradford, Yorkshire.