BURIED AT SEA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 299, 19 December 1933, Page 5

BURIED AT SEA

DESCENDANT OF DRAKE. GIBRALTAR CEREMONY. Mr. Edward Thomas Tyrwhitt Drake, for several years master of the Old Berkeley Hunt, was buried at sea near the Rock of Gibraltar recently. He was landed from the P. and O. liner Strathnaver suffering from an abscess on the neck, and died before an operation could be performed. Before his death he expressed an earnest wish that he should be buried at sea, says a London paper. The coffin, which was taken out in a steam launch by Mr. TyrwhittDrake's widow and accompanied by a priest and a few friends, was dropped into the sea and many wreaths were east upon the waters. Such a sea burial is unique in the history of Gibraltar. Mr. Tyrwhitt-Drake, who was 45 years of age, claimed direct descent ‘from Sir Francis Drake. A curse, said to have been banded down to the family from th® days of the Armada, was attributed to a murder committed by Sir Francis Drake. The great Admiral, it is alleged, cut off a cabin boy’s head in a fit of pique and the boy’s mother cursed the family as follows; “No male child will be born in the Drake family until a member of the family lives in the dungeons of Shardloes, the mansion of the Drakes, for seven years—or a stranger for 14 years.” Mr. Drake leaves four daughters and no sons, but the curse had previously failed, for many male children have been born in the family. The late Mr. Tyrwhitt-IDrake lived at Shardloes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, where he was known as the “Squire of Amersham.” A few years ago he sold the greater part of the old town, which he owned, and which had been in the possession of his family for many generations. Ho gave his tennants every opportunity of acquiring the property they occupied,.and three-fourths of them took advantage of the offer, and thus the old-world character of Amersham was preserved. Mr. Tyrwhitt-Drake resigned from the Old Berkeley Hunt at the end of the 1930 season .after holding the post for ten years, and was presented with a picture of his gallant old steeplechaser, Holmes, which twice ran unsuccessfully in the Grand National. Holmes got his name .in a curious way. A young anin, staying at a London hotel, gave a mare to the head waiter, named Holmes, in payment of a debt. Holmes, not being a racing man, regarded the horse as a burden, and sought the advice of Mr. TyrwhittDrake, who was staying at the hotel. Mr. Tyrwhitt-Drake took a fancy to the mare and bought it, and in due course she foaled Holmes, who, first as a hunter and then as a steeplechaser, won many races.