RANCHER EARL OSTRACISED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 495, 2 July 1932, Page 17 (Supplement)

RANCHER EARL OSTRACISED.

Lord Egmont was Victim of British Social Snobbery.

RING WOOD (Hants), May 19. ACCIDENTAL DEATH in a car smash, which was the finding of to-day’s inquest on Lord Egmont, the “ Rancher Earl,” has put an end to a drama of callous social snobbery that has been played out here in the past three years. Here are the true facts of a story that should bring a blush to the cheek of* English “ county ” hospitality. From the time that the rancher earl and his youthful son arrived at their ancestral home, Avon Castle, from their Calgary ranch in 1929, they were regarded by county society with an indifference more than cruel in the eyes of those who, like the earl and his son, placed neighbourliness next to godliThe barren plains of the most northern part of their own Albertan province were not more cold that the gentry of Hampshire to this new and unassuming member of their aristocracy. Yet Frederick Joseph Trevelyan Perceval was not a foreigner. He had the blood of a Prime Minister of England in his veins. He was born in Birmingham. Intruders. His chief fault as a native Englishman and as a descendant of peers was that he had become an Empire-builder. He and his son—a motherless boy—had become “ colonised ” to superficial appearance by long sojourns in the Canadian prairie. So Hampshire “ county ” people, on the principle that a man who like a man cannot

be received into polite society, left father and son severely alone. The pair were made to feel intruders.

j That is the real tragedy of the late !earl, a neighbourly man, who wanted to live in a simple and friendly manner with his neighbours, but was defeated by the cold reserve of the well-bred rural English. In a way the earl gave his life for his son. It was for the boy that he left the ranch, where he was happy, I for Hampshire, where he was not. Idolised His Son. j lie idolised his son. The title and j the rank he had inherited appealed ! little to him, but he wished his son to be fitted for the position that awaited him. With that end in view he was prepared to endure the discomforts that convention and class distinction bring to a man who has spent the best part of his life in getting rid of such encumbrances. “ I have no use for that kind of thing,” he had said. Although not a lover of conventionalised society, he was surprised at the lack of ordinary neighbourliness displayed towards him and his son. As a result they dwelt for a time in complete isolation. For two years they lived the lives of comparative hermits at Avon Castle. They came little to Ringwood because here, again, class distinction defeated them. The villagers, decent friendly people, insisted upon treating the earl like a lord,” and made him uncomfortable by calling him “ sir.” His chief occupation was the education of his son. Tie had little faith in public schools. He believed that the manly virtues were of' most account. He taught the boy to ride, to shoot, to break-in a horse, and to herd cattle. In the last few months of his life Lord Egmont and his son made some casual aeauaintances and even a few friends. Mr and Mrs L. Herbert, of Ringwood, were the most intimate f riends the earl possessed in England. Mr Herbert is a wine merchant. He nnd his wife were with the earl in the o fl r at the time of the fatal accident Sacred Trust. “ A finer, straighter man you could never meet,” Mr Herbert told me. “If there were more like him in this country or any other it would be a better place I looked upon his friendship as a sacred trust, and I hope something will be done for the boy who is left completely alone with such responsibilities.”

One of Lord Egmont’s favourite nlaces of call was the corn and coke chop of Mr Brookiev, at Ringwood. TTe would sometimes sit there and talk wistfullv of his life on his ranch and the freedom of existence on the open prairie.