OBITUARY.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1929, Page 3

OBITUARY.

SIR WILLIAM BIRKBECK

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, April 17

Major-General Sir William Birkbeek, Director of Remounts at Army Headquarters from 1912 to 1920, has been killed at St. Briac, near Dinard. He lost his footing on the top of the cliffs and fell over 100 feet to the rocks below.

[Sir William Birkbeck entered the Army in 1883. He served at Hazara in 1888, being mentioned in dispatches, at Chin Lusliai in 1889-90, in South Afrca 1899-1902, and was attached to the Japanese 3rd Army in Alanchuria in 1905. Prior.to being appointed Director of Remounts, he was commandant of the cavalry school at Netheravon.]

SIR HENRY BAX-IRONSIDE

RUGBY, April 17

The death has occurred of Sir Henry Bax-Ironside, aged 69. He was Minister at Sofia at the outbreak of the war.

r Sir Henry Bax-Ironside was born in 1859 and educated at Eton and Exeter College. Oxlord. He joined the Diplomatic Service in 1883, and served in Teheran, Vienna, Cairo, and Washington. In 1897 he was placed in charge of tho Central American Legation. He was appointed to Peking in 1897, and to Stockholm in 1900, as Charge d’Affaires. From 1.907 to 1909 he was Ambassador to Chile, in 1909-10 Ambassador to Switzerland, and was appointed to Bulgaria, m 1910, remaining there until 1915.]