People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 18 May 1916, Page 37

People We Hear About

The New Zealand branch of the Parliamentary Association has selected the Hon. W. F. Carncross, M.L.C., Sir James Carroll, and Messrs. E. P. Lee and C. J. Parr to visit England in accordance with the. invitation received from Home.

Captain Lionel George Carrell, 16th Baron Petre, Coldstream Guards, of Thorndon Hall, near Brentwood, Essex, head of one of the most ancient Catholic families in England, who was killed in France on September 30 last, aged 24, left unsettled estate (net personalty, £31,260)£203,577.

The Laetare Medal conferred annually by the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, U.S.A., upon some distinguished Catholic layman for valuable work done in the arts, sciences, public service, religion, education, or philanthropy, goes this year to Dr. James J. Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., LLD., noted physician and litterateur, of New York City.

The death has taken place at Brighton, England, of Isabella Anne Lady Beaumont, widow of the eighth Lord Beaumont and eldest daughter of the third Lord Kilmaine. She was the mother of the ninth and tenth Lords Beaumont, and grandmother of the present Baroness. A convert, she was received into the Church in 1872. She was in her 93rd year.

Private John Crichton- Stuart, of the Inns of Court Officers' Training Corps, is a person of no particular importance on the parade ground. When he is off duty, however, Private Crichton- combines with his best-known distinction as Marquis of Bute the social responsibilities of three earldoms, three viscounties, and six baronetcies. He is greatly pleased with military life, and as he is billeted at home for the present, the problem of how to be boarded and lodged on 2s 9d a day has not had to be seriously faced yet. Lord Bute's determination to join the Army is largely due to the death of his brother, Lord Ninian Crichton-Stuart, M.P., who fell leading the 6th Welsh Territorials in France.

The South American Republic of Ecuador has sustained a severe loss in the death of rls staunch Catholic President, Antonio Flores. The press, without distinction of opinion,' says a contemporary, ' has proclaimed the nation's sorrow for this great Catholic, as well as admiration for his personal character. Antonio Flores was a gifted writer, a learned lawyer and historian, a wise diplomat; but, above all, he was a practical Catholic, deeply attached to the true faith both in his public and private life. In a country governed by factions and troubled with religious differences, President Flores succeeded in forming a Government as respectful of the authority of Christ's Vicar on earth as it was watchful for the interests of the Republic. Before his election to the Presidency of Ecuador Antonio Flores was Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See. He was son of a famous General of the War of Independence, Juan Jose Flores, and his mother, Dona Mercedes Jijon, was a lady of noble birth. On the occasion of Antonio Flores' election to the office of President of Ecuador he shrank from accepting the responsibility, but Pope Leo XIII., who knew his estimable character and fitness for the position, overcame his resistance.' Ecuador (says the Glasgow Observer) has had a troubled history. Up to 1861 its Government was anti-Catholic, but then appeared the great Garcia Moreno, a noble Catholic, devoted to the Holy See, who was twice elected President. He had his reward for faithfulness to God and the Church in being assassinated on August 6, 1875. ' The enemies of God and the Church can kill me,' he once said, ' but God does not die.' Antonio Flores was no unworthy successor of such a saintly hero. Ecuador has a population of about a million and a quarter, all of whom, except for a few foreigners and a few pagan indians, are Catholic.