LONDON PASSING

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 122, 26 May 1942, Page 4

LONDON PASSING

MRS. JORDAN, SENIOR

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S LOSS

Mrs. Elizabeth Ann Jordan, mother of the High Commissioner for New Zealand in London, Mr. W. J. Jordan, died at her home in London, states a United Press Association cablegram received this morning from London. "Mrs. Jordan was 90 years of age. She was the daughter of Captain Joseph Catt, of Ramsgate. Her husband was Captain W. Jordan, who died in 1935, and was for many years a member of the crew of the Ramsgate lifeboat and later of the crew of the Margate lifeboat and surfboat which participated in many ship rescues on the dangerous Goodwin Sands. Mrs. Jordan retained full faculties to the end. She is also survived by two daughters," the cablegram adds. It will be remembered that when Mr. Jordan and his family arrived in England in October, 1936, the first act of the High Commissioner was to visit his mother in Kent. In this connection, a charming gesture was made by the Onehunga branch of the League of Mothers, of which Mrs. Jordan was president, on the departure of the High Commissioner from New Zealand.

Knowing that he held his mother in high regard and was always very thoughtful for her welfare, the members gave Mr. Jordan a serviette ring made of New Zealand wood to present to Mrs. Jordan with their Rood wishes. They did not, of course, know her. since she had lived in England all her life. Mrs. Jordan's home was in Ramsgate, Kent, and when the High Commissioner and his family went home, Miss Gwen Jordan went to a college in Kent. Mrs. Jordan also lived for a time in Rahere Street, Goswell Road, London. When an Onehunga supporter of Mr. Jordan, Mrs. Ward, of George Terrace, went home to visit her mother, Mrs. Riches, who lived in the same street, she visited Mr. Jordan in London and on learning of this, he said, "Shake hands. I lived there with my mother." Other friends of Mr. Jordan in Auckland recently received a letter from England stating that Mrs. Jordan, sen., had celebrated her ninetieth birthday on March 16. She was then very well, her mind was clear, and she spoke of the Onehunga friends of Mr. Jordan who had been to see her when visiting England. She was living at Cheltenham with a widowed daughter, her home in North London having been destroyed in an air raid.