DEATH OCCURS OF WEMBLEY CHAIRMAN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17915, 3 August 1926, Page 12

DEATH OCCURS OF WEMBLEY CHAIRMAN.

FOUNDER OF RUBBER CONTROL SCHEME. (Special to the “Star.”) LONDON, June 11. The death of Lord Stevenson, chairman of the Standing Committee of the British Empire Exhibition, took place yesterday at Holmbury House, Hoi tilbury Street. Mary, Surrey. His death, at the age of fifty-three, was due to arterial scelerosis—hardening of the arteries—which caused heart failure. Lord Stevenson, known especially, both in this country and throughout the Empire for his work in connection with the Wembley Exhibition, crowded into his comparatively short career an astonishing amount of work. Educated at Kilmarnock Academy, he joined the firm of John Walker and Sons Ltd., the distillers, as a traveller, and rose to the position of managing director of that firm. His War Work. Lord Stevenson, with that untiring energy and drive which characterised his work in peace time, conducted the work of various administrative departments during the war. He was successively member of the Central Reconstruction Committee, member of Munitions Council for Ordnance, chairman of Council Committee on Demobilisation and Reconstruction, SurveyorGeneral of Supply at the War Office, member of the Army Council, vicechairman of the Advisory Committee on Civil Aviation, chairman of the Rubber Investigation Committee, and commercial adviser to the Colonial Secretary. When he was appointed chairman of the Empire Exhibition, he had a herculean task to perform in reducing the chaos of Wemblei'- in order in time for the opening date, April 23, 1924. When the management of the exhibition was challenged in the House of Commons, be made the best possible reply to his critics by having Wembley practically complete on the-opening date. He was raised to the peerage on the eve of the opening. Under the nom de plume of “ Roland Dunster, ” Lord Stevenson once wrote a novel, “ The Kiss of Chance, ” when a specialist ordered him to take a change of work. lie finished the novel in three weeks.

Lord. Stevenson leaves a widow but no heir.

The Rubber Scheme. lo hundreds of thousands of investors and others interested in the rubber plantation industry Lord Stevenson was known for his work on the rubber output restriction scheme. lie was chairman of the Colonial Office Committee which formulated the scheme adopted in November 1922, and he then became chairman of the central advisory committee to advise the Colonial Office in the administration of the scheme, through, the Colonial Governments concerned. Thanks largely to increasing demand, the scheme eventually proved of great benefit to the producing companies and their shareholders.