Personalities.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 451, 8 December 1904, Page 2

Personalities.

LADY STANLEY. HER ladyship whose distinguished husband Sir H. M. Stanley, was laid to rest in London recently, is the daughter of a Charles Tenant, long dead, who made a large fortune out of a canal which he owned near Neath. - She is a cousin of Hamilton and, like him, claims descent from Cromwell through his daughter Francis, who married Lord Rich. Statesmen, scientists, and soldiers of the first rank resorted to her mother's house at Richmond-terrace, Whitehall, and it was there she made the acquaintance of Stanley. She had been painted by Watts, had sat for a story-picture to Millais, and was herself a painter of established reputation, with a partiality for studies of the London gamin in all his manifestations. Her sister married Frederick Myers, the Cambridge poet and essayist. Lady Stanley has no children of her own, but a few years ago she adopted a baby boy. He was early introduced to many famous men, and among these was Dr. Nansen, just back from his last attempt to reach the Pole The great Norwegian took the child in his arms and tried to make him talk. After critically examining his big friend, Master Denzil Morton Stanley cocked a foot in the air, and gravely remarked, « New boots !' VISCOUNT KOOD, Lord Hood, who is now sixty-six, is an old officer in the Grenadier Guards, who served his country in the Crimea, His four sons have all adopted the military profession with one exception, namely, 'the second, who is a captain in the Navy. The Guards, the Royal Artillery, and the Royal Engineers claim the other three. His lordship, who is the fourth Viscount, owns a modest 2,600 acres. Samuel, first Viscount Hood, who founded the fortunes of the family, was the son of a Somersetshire parson of that name, and the elder brother of Alexander Hood, who also rose to the peerage as Viscount Bridport. Samuel entered the Navy in the capacity of captain's servant, becoming an A.B. later on, and from this humble beginning he worked his way upwards to the post of admiral. Among his chief exploits were the. capture of the French frigate Bellona in 1759, the defeat of the Comte de Gracce's fleet when he led the van under Rodney, and the cap-' ture of Corsica in 1793.

LADY HUNTINGDON. Gifted as a vocalist, the Countess of Huntingdon is one of the not very numerous representatives of the Commonwealth in the peerage. Her father was Sir Samuel Wilson, the famous Australian millionaire. Her brother, Captain Gordon Wilson, is the husband of Lady Sarah Wilson, the heroine of the Boer War. It was to Lady Huntingdon's father that Australia owed the experiments in the acclimatisation of salmon under the Southern Cross which have since proved so successful, and it was her brother Gordon who, as a loyal Eton boy, seized the lunatic who fired at Queen Victoria at Windsor railway station. Her marriage with the fourteenth Earl of Huntingdon took place twelve years ago, and has been a singularly happy one. GENERAL LYTTELTON-

Sir Neville Gerald Lyttelton, First Member of the Army Council and Chief of the General Staff, whose name is prominent in the consideration of the Army reform scheme, is, like the Colonial Secretary, a son of the fourth Baron Lyttelton, a title merged in that of Viscount Cobham since the death of the kinsman, the last Duke of Buckingham, in 1889. Just how old the Lyttelton fami,Jy is there are no means of ascertaining, but there were Lytteltons—or 'Lutteltons,' as the name is given in ancient records—in Worcestershire long before Thomas du Luttelton married the daughter and heiress of Sir Simon de Erankley, one of the knights of Henry the Third. In the days of the Second and Third Edwards a Luttelton represented Worcester in Parliament, and his son enjoyed the distinction of being esquire of the body to three successive kings—Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth— and he lived to see the succession of Henry the Sixth. His only child was a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Thomas Westcoate, the King's servant at court, but made the marriage conditional upon her issue taking her father's name. It was her son Thomas who first turned Luttelton into its present form, became a famous lawyer, wrote the great ' Treatise on Tenures,' thereafter associated for all' time with his name and that of Lord Coke.

NEW GOYERNOROF NEWFOUNDLAND Sir William MaoGregor, ihe new Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Newfoundland, has a tremendous appetite for work, and is famous for seldom,, if ever, taking a vacation, except to prowl about in the more sequestered regions of the Colony where he may happen to be at the time, and although he left England for the Colonies originally to save his life, the malarial atmosphere even of West Africa seems to have done him little harm. Sir William MacGregor is, by profession, a medical man, and sports the letters M.D. after his name. He was at hospital work in Scotland when his health broke down, and he applied for a foreign berth at the Colonial Office. They sent him out as medical officer to Mauritius, and he was afterwards transferred to Fiji, where he showed a genius for administration, and in due time he was promoted to the Governorship of British New Guinea, a post which he held for twelve years; Sir William is a fine figure of a man, and is an athlete of no mean powers. A fine.swimmer, he distinguished himself by his daring in saving life at the wreck of thecoolie immigrant ship Syria, his heroic conduct being rewarded with the Albert Medal and the Clark gold medal. He also possesses a gold medal" presented to him by the Eoyal Geographical Society for his services in exploration. He is furthermore a K.C.M.G. and a C.8., so that for the son of an Aberdeen farmer he has n;bt done so tfacUy in Bfif?