TRAGEDY OF THE GRENFELL FAMILY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18045, 4 January 1927, Page 8

TRAGEDY OF THE GRENFELL FAMILY.

1: LORD DESBOROUGH’S LAST SON KILLED. (Special to the “ Star.”) LONDON', October 11. I Few private bereavements, of recent I years have touched the heart of the I nation like the. death of the Hon. Ivo I Grenfell, which occurred on Friday night at Ilawkhurst, Kent, as the reI suit of a motoring accident. [ For ten days his father and mother, Jj Lord and Lady Desborough, had been Si by his bedside in the hospital to which he had been carried, and the sympathy of a great number of their fellowcountrymen was with them there. | For this death has added another chapter to the tragedy of the Grenfells. Lord Desborough, the early part of whose life seemed so fortunate and happy in both public and private affairs, has now lost his last surviving heir. For many \*ears in the front rank of oarsmen, fencers, and athletes. Lord Desborough is one of the best-known and most popular peers in England. In national affairs he has taken a pro- . minent part as president and member ! of many important public bodies. Three Splendid Sons. Lord and Lady Desborough had three splendid sons, as well endowed, both in mind and muscle, as their distinguished father, and full of promise to hand down to future holders of the title all the prestige with which its original holder had surrounded it. Of these, the two eldest, Julian and Gerald, were killed in the war at the ages of 27 and 25. Both had marked themselves out by their gallantry, and Julian had earned renown which will long endure as the author of “Into Battle,” one of the finest soldier-poems I in the English language. The Grenfell Twins. Heavy bereavements were not rare in distinguished British families during the war, but calamitv has followed the house of Grenfell with unusual persistency. Even before Lord Desborough’s sons were killed, one of their cousins, the “Grenfell twins,” well known for their athletic skill and high spirits, had i fallen in France, and the second, Francis Grenfell, met his end in that same year of 1915, both at the age of 35 And now, more than ten years later, by the ill-luck of a. dark road, vet another of those clever, manly, popular Grenfells has lost his life, again at the early age of 28. To all these young men, as to Lord Desborough, the father of three of them. Fortune seemed to have given all that she had to bestow. By a stronge irony of fate, she has followed this by taking from the older man all his sons and from the younger generation live lives full of achievement and great with possibilities. Crash Into Wall. The. inquest on Ivo Grenfell was held j On Saturday, when a verdict of death from misadventure was recorded. The [ theory was advanced, and was shared 1 by the coroner, that Mr Grenfell, on reaching a bend in the road, failed to see a wall in time, wrenched the steering wheel, and caused the shearing of a pin. thus rendering the steering gear inoperative. , *