A FAMOUS FAMILY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9306, 5 August 1908, Page 2

A FAMOUS FAMILY.

* SIR JAMES WILLCOCKS AND HIS BROTHERS. Few families have done more solid and enduring work for the Empire than the famous Willcoeks brothers, one of whom has just brought to so successful a conclusion the operations which he has b&en directing on the Indian frontier. All have served the British Government, and all have won distinction. One is a soldier, two are engineers, another is a doctor, and another is in the church. Every on© of them is remarkable in his way, and all are. very much alike in faoe, figure and temperament. The best-known is, of course, Major-General Sir James Willcocks, and it is an odd thing that in his youth he was regarded as the least promising of all. Sir James is no office general, but one who rejoices in the open air and the tented field. His faoe is tanned and weather-beaten; he has the hard-bitten look of the man who has led a vigorous life and faced innumerable dangers. A rigid and stern soldier, he is nevertheless rank and genial in private life, the ,beet of companions and beloved by all who have served under him. No general officer is more popular with the rank and file. They know and understand him, and he knows and understands them. Another brother, Sir William Willcocks, K.C.M.G., is the famous irrigation engineer who has done t so much to help forward the prosperity of Egypt. His share in conceiving and creating the great dam at Assouan is a matter of history. The one purpose of Sir William Willcocks' s life has been to make ten blades of grass grow where none was growing before, to " win the deserts in. 55 He dreams of restoring the vast Babylonian irrigation works in the Euphrates Valley, of making Chaldea once more on© or the granaries of the world. Wh^n he wont to Mesopotamia he refused to look at a single ruined temple or buried city. He would not suffer his mind to be diverted from the mighty scheme he had conceived. When he has irrigated Chaldea his last great task will have been accomplished ; and though there are diplomatic difficulties he will probably do it. That also is- the Willcocks way. Yet another brother, John Willcocka, is in the Indian Public Works Department. The Government of India thought it would like to have a special architect, and sent him to South Kensington, to be trained. # On his return he built the Anjuman-i-Islam at Bombay, still recognised as the most beautiful building in that city of nalaces. Then, after the fashion of the Government of India, having proved cimseii a brilliant architect, he was naturally pet to build railway embankments. But even at that task he found an opportunity for distinction, for he has just built the longest railway line ever constructed by a single engineer in India. Now he has been placed in control of the railways of Burma. Another brother has done admirable work in the Indian medical service. But' the most remarkable meanber of the family is really the one who entered the church, who is least known to the world. All the brothers declare that " the parson is the best of the lot." A scholar of exceptional attainments, who won high place- at Oxford, he is alao distinguished for his deep and varied knowledge of Oriental languages. For twenty years he perved a© a _ Government chaplain in India, and incidentally became famous as a big srame shot. Now lie has taken his pension, and has actually turned eneineer. and is buildine railways through the heart of the Indian forests from sheer love of the work. ________»_».„.