People and Their Doings.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20543, 19 February 1935, Page 6

People and Their Doings .

Sir Nevile Wilkinson has an Anzac Cove Road Sign : Forgotten Incidents of Lord Nelson’s Career Recalled by London Exhibition : A Radio Romance.

“ \yHAT has poor Horatio done, who is so weak that he, above all the rest, should be sent to rough it at sea? But let him come, and the first time we go into action a cannon ball may knock off his head and provide for him at once.” This was Lord Nelson’s welcome to the Royal Navy when, as a sickly lad of twelve, he sought to enter the service. Many forgotten incidents of Nelson’s life are recalled by a recent exhibition of prints and pictures of the great sailor in London. Nelson was never physically strong (he was a martyr to sea-sickness the "whole of his life). Thus it is not surprising that his uncle answered in the foregoing manner, w’hen Horatio’s father, the country vicar, proposed a naval career for the boy. Only three years later young Nelson was taking part in a Polar expedition under circumstances which, we may be sure, took little account of the miseries and discomforts which the personnel were to suffer and w T hich certainly lacked all the aids to endurance which can be provided in these more enlightened days. $$ ATTACKING San Juan in Nicaragua with a fever-ridden crew, until he himself was prostrated with the infection; fighting in Corsica where he lost his right eye; and “disobeying” orders at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, where his boarding and capture of two Spanish ships was the main cause of victory, were incidents that marked Nelson’s path to promotion to Rear-Admiral. Six months later, commanding an action against a treasure ship at Santa Cruz, he was carried back to his ship with a shattered right arm. Never did the power of his spirit over the flesh rise higher than when, his right arm hanging loose and torn almost to ribbons, he swarmed up the side of Theseus by one man-rope, shouting as he reached the quarter-deck for the surgeon with his instruments to amputate the arm. And there were no anaesthetics in those days. As often as not stumps were seared with hot tar to prevent suppuration. Sixty hours after amputation he was writing to

Lord St Vincent, his commander, with his left hand. The exhibition includes numerous admirable and rare prints of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, the majority of which have the added interest of being by contemporaries. sg 52? W TWO years ago, a young Italian count, listening to a 8.8. C. programme at his home in Milan, was fascinated by a girl’s voice. A few months later he went to London, and while at a party he heard the voice again. His hostess introduced him to the owner of the voice. They fell in love at first sight, and on last New Year’s Day they were married. The bride was Miss Eve Becke, the 25-five-year old star of the “ Air-do-Wells ” concert party, and she married Count Eugenio Caneva di Rivarolo, who is 27. “It was by accident that I tuned in to the 8.8. C. programme when Eve was singing,” the count said. “ It was yet another coincidence that brought me to the hotel at which Eve was singing. I recognised the voice at once.” W © 9 TI-IE MOST WORSHIPFUL the Grand Master of the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons is the title that has been bestowed on Mrs Seton Challen when she was installed leader of the only masonic fraternity organised entirely by women for women. The installation ceremony, lasting about three hours, took place in the temple of the mother lodge at St Ermin’s, Westminster. Women masons from all parts of the country attended—only women, for no men are allowed to attend women’s lodge meetings. Mrs Seton Challen wore the richest masonic regalia ever designed for a woman mason, a replica of the regalia worn by the Duke of Connaught, Grand Master of England. As she walked from her room to the temple she was escorted by the Grand Master of Ceremonies, the Grand Sword-bearer, and the officers of the order, all wearing their full ceremonial regalia. She had a bodyguard of eighteen of the tallest women in the order. At present there are eight women’s lodges—all in London. Some of the members journey hundreds of miles every month to attend the meetings.

** T MET a splendid lot of New Zealanders when I was commander at the island of Imbros,” said Sir Nevile Wilkinson, Ulster King at Arms, on his arrival at Wellington recently. “ Some may be interested to know that I still have in my possession the direction board, ‘K. B. West,’ which stood near the jetty at Anzac Cove, a signpost that I designed and which was executed by an Australian signwriter with some skill. Many have tried to get this sign from me for this or that museum, but so far I have not been able to part with it. Later on I expect 1 will give ,it to some war museum in Australia or New Zealand.” 9 e 9 THE PROMOTIONS in the three fighting A services which were conferred on the Prince of Wales in the New Year Honours List will cost him well over £IOOO. He will have to buy the full-dress uniform, the undress and the mess attire of each uniform belonging to the new ranks he has been given, and this will cost him over £4OO for each service. H.R.H., by the way, caused some flutterings in Savile Row by opening the Exhibition of British Art in Industry at Burlington House in a morning coat, dark grey check turned-up trousers, a stiff double collar of the same blue-grey shade as his shirt (instead of the conventional white one) and a tie of black and grey plaid. This is further evidence of the Prince’s characteristic of de-conventionalising the most conventional of social uniforms. 0 0 0 CIXTY YEARS AGO (from the “Star” ° of February 19. 1875) : Wellington, February 19. —The " New Zealand Times ” states that there is no foundation for the statement contained in telegrams from the south to the effect that the timber in certain railway bridges in Otago and Canterbury is rotten. The “ Times ” also contradicts the statement published in the “ Evening Post ” that the Government has just received news of half-a-million being placed to its credit in the bank bv some unknown agency, and says it was neither sent by nor passed through the manager of the W ellmgton branch of the Bank of New Zealand.