OBITUARY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18645, 26 December 1928, Page 12

OBITUARY.

MR BEN SPOOR, LABOUR M.P., DIES.

(United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) LONDON, December 23. The death is announced of Mr Ben Spoor, M.P., at the age of fifty.—Australian Press Association—United Service. Mr Spoor joined the Independent Labour Party in 1903, and served for thirteen years on the Bishop Auckland urban council. During the war he organised Y.M.G.A. work in the Salonika region. He became M.P. for Bishop Auckland in 1918, and later became Chief Whip of the Labour Party. He was expelled from the Independent Labour Party in 1926 because of his support of the working agreement with the Liberals on certain points of policy. However, his committee decided that he should stand as a Labour Party candidate, and he retained the confidence of his constituency. Mr Spoor devoted special attention to India and Egypt, and was a supporter of Egyptian self-govern-ment. He had no sympathy with the Bolsheviks, and considered that their policy was in absolute conflict with that of the British Labour Party.

SIR ROBERT HUTCHISON, M.P. LONDON, December 23. Major-General Sir Robert Hutchison, K.C.M.8., C. 8., D. 5.0., M.P., died today at the age of fifty-five.—Austra-lian Press Association. Sir Robert Hutchison, who was chief Liberal Whip since 1926, represented Kirkcaldy in 1922-3 and Montrose from 1924. He joined the 7th Dragoon Guards in 1900, and served in South Africa and the European war. He was Director of Organisation at the War Office from 1917 to 1919, and Dep-uty-Adjutant-General in 1919. SIR GEORGE HUTCHINSON. LONDON, December 23. Sir George Hutchinson, the publisher, is dead, at the age of seventy-one.— Australian Press Association. Sir George Hutchinson, who was knighted in 1912, founded the publishing house of Hutchinson and Co. in 1887. He edited “The Living Animals of the World,” “The Living Races of Mankind,” and other publications. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. THE EARL OF DALHOUSIE. LONDON. December 24. The Earl of Dalhousie died to-day. He was fifty years of age.—Australian Press Association —United Service. Lord Dalhousie was the fourteenth earl. He succeeded his father in 1887. He served in the Scots Guards in South Africa. His heir is his elder son Lord Ramsay. MR STACY AUMONIER. LONDON. December 24. The death is announced of Mr Stacy Aumonier, the author, at the age of forty-one.—Australian Press Association. Mr Aumonier began his career as a painter and decorative designer. Then he was on the stage as a society entertainer. He began writing in 1913, and contributed a great number of stories to English and American magazines. Several volumes of short stories were published, as well as the novels “Olga Bardel, “Just Outside,” “The Querrils,” “One After Another,” and “Heartbeat.” MR GEORGE WARNE, M.P. LONDON. December 24. I Mr George Warne, the Labour mem- 1 ber of ’ Parliament, is dead. He was forty-seven years of age.—Australian Press Association. Mr Warne was elected for Wansbeck in 1922. He was a trustee of the Northumberland Miners’ Association and president of the Northumberland and Durham Miners’ Approved Society. He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury in the Labour Government of 1924.