IN THE WRONG LOBBY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 460, 29 December 1930, Page 8

IN THE WRONG LOBBY

VOTING AGAINST OWN MOTION BEAU BRUM MEL OF COMMONS Colonel Sir Charles K. Forbes-Leith of Fyvie, A.D.C. to the King, died at his home, Fyvie Castle, Aberdeenshire, recently. He was 71. As Sir Charles Burn, deceased, was Conservative M.P. for Torquay from 1910 to 1923. His wife, who died last January, was the daughter of the late Lord Leith of Fyvie, and, under the will of Lord Leith, Sir Charles in 1925 assumed the name and bore the arms of Forbes-Leith of Fyvie. Sir Charles was A.D.C. to the Viceroy of India in 1883-85 and 1887-88, and to the Duke of Connaught 1891-96. He was created a baronet in 1923. He raised the 6th Imperial Yeomanry (Scottish) Regiment for the South African War and commanded it. He also raised the 2nd County of London Imperial Yeomanry, and once commanded the Ist Royal Dragoons. As A.D.C. Sir Charles travelled many thousands of miles in the Great War. He ‘crossed the Channel 378 times; went to the Mediterranean 14 times; visited Egypt four and the Dardanelles three times. On nine occasions he visited the Italian front, and also made the tedious journey to the Russian fighting line three times, returning once battened down in a small Irish cattle boat. When he was M.P., Sir Charles was known as “the most distinguishedlooking man in the House of Commons.” His dress was out of the ordinary run, and his morning coat of braided black, a waistcoat that was pronounced “daring,” a large cravat, precise trousers, and illuminating spats, made of him a compelling picture. Ho also had the unusual distinction of once walking into the wrong lobby and voting against a motion he had made hmself. Sir Charles was a great courtier, and knew many of the potentates of the world intimately—among them the exKaiser. He had the reputation of being as “hard as nails,” and up to four or five years ago he had a coldbath every morning at 6 o’clock, then went out for a walk and a run. ]t was his custom to walk three miles and run one. He led an abstemious life and neither smoked nor drank. Sir Charles owned Thame Park, Oxfordshire. as well as Fyvie Castle. His eldest son was killed in the war in October, 1914. His heir is his surviving son, Mr R. A. Forbes-Leith.