People We Heart About

New Zealand Tablet, 13 June 1912, Page 41

People We Heart About

Rev. Father Byles, who was lost in the wreck of the Titanic, had been for many years rector of the church at Ongar, Essex. His career was not less remarkable than his death. Born in Yorkshire, the son of a Congregational minister, he was educated at Rossall School, Lancashire, where he studied with distinction. Going up to Oxford with the purpose of studying for the Anglican ministry, he took his B.A. degree, and later became a convert to the Catholic Church. On returning from Rome, where he studied for two years, he became, after his ordination, Professor at St. Edmund's College, Old Hall Green. He was subsequently appointed to Kelvedon, and eight years ago to Ongar. Dora Sigerson, the noted Irish Catholic poet, is the wife of one of the most prominent editors and authors of London Mr. Clement K. Shorter. Her father, Dr. George Sigerson, is professor of biology at University College, Dublin, and a well-known author. Mrs. Shorter is a native of Dublin, and began her literary career in 1894, with a book of verse. She takes a great interest in painting and sculpture, and was for a time a student at the art schools of the Irish capital. Her publications include: The Fairy Changeling, My Lady's Slipper, A Father feasor, Ballads and Poems, Story and Song of Earl Roderick, etc. Her collected poems appeared in 1907, with an introduction from the pen of no less a personage than the late George Meredith. The Sigersons were originally of Danish extraction.

Much sympathy has been expressed all over the County Wexford with Mr. John J. Ennis, J.P., Springwood, Ballymitty, County Wexford, on the death of his son-in-law, Mr. McElroy, chief purser of the ill-fated Titanic. Mr. Ennis had been for many years manager of the Allan Line of steamers in Liverpool, and on resigning the position a few years ago, he went to reside with his two daughters at his home place in Springwood. Last year one of his daughters, Miss Barbara Ennis, was married to Mr. Hugh McElroy, brother of Rev. Father McElroy, of Bootle, England. Deceased had been purser in the White Star Line for a quarter of a century, and for the last ten years he had been purser in another liner, when he was transferred to the Olympic. After, that ship's collision with the Hawke he was transferred to the Titanic. He was extremely popular with everybody who knew him, and was well known in New York and Liverpool.

The subject of the late George Meredith's nationality has given rise to some controversy. The point at issue has now been settled by Mr. Coulson-Kernahan, the well-known writer, who proved that Meredith, like himself, was an Irishman. Mr. Coulson-Kernahan quotes Meredith's own testimony given in an interesting conversation on the matter. 'Am I right, Mr. Kernahan,' he asked, *in supposing you to be Irish 'I have that honor, Sir,' was my reply. 'You put it well; you put it well, sir,' he said, emphatically, and I, too, have that honor.' 'ls that so?' I answered. 'I had no idea that we might claim Mr. George Meredith as a fellow-countryman.' He wagged a forefinger at me playfully: ' Ah, but you can only claim the half of me. My mother was pure my father was pure Welsh.' George Meredith's father was a tailor and naval outfitter in Portsmouth, and his mother's name was Jane Macnamara.