LIEUT-COL. M. CRADOCK, C.M.G.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1930, Page 8

LIEUT-COL. M. CRADOCK, C.M.G.

11IS GREAT PERSONALITY

LONDON, January 7

The Metropolitan-Y'ickers Club News for December lias a page inset referring ro the late Lieutenant-colonel M. Craddock, who was for 27 years a Director of the Metropolitan-Vickers Company and its predecessr, the British Westinghouse Company. He was intensely devoted to the interests o. the company and its employees, and as a firm the feeling is that death ha bereft them of one of their staunchest friends.

Writing of Colonel Craddock as a man and not as a company director, the editor says :

“He was born on October 16, 1559. a son of the late Christopher Craddock of Hartford, Yorkshire, and a brothei of Admiral Craddock, who had a very distinguished career in the Navy and was lost in the naval engagement at Coronel in a gallant fight against an immensely .superior German squadron. Colonel Craddock was gazetted to the Durham Fusiliers in 1877, to the Canbiniers in 1879, and served through the Afghan Campaign in 1879-80. He retired from the Army in 1895, but joined up again for the South African War, and commanded the Second New Zealand Contingent, the Third Mounted Infantry Corps and the Bushmen’s Brigade and for these services was promoted lieutentant-coloncl, mentioned in depatches, granted the South African medal with five clasps and given a C. B. In the Great War he formed a 2nd King Edward Horse in August, 1914, and commanded them until he was retired in August, 1918. In 1914 lie could have pleaded age as a reason for not joining up. He preferred military service, and in so doing maintained the best traditions of the country families of England. We did not know him primarily as a soldier, but we can appreciate and admire the record which he left in every branch of the service with which he was connected, as a gallant officer and as a leader who inspired those under him to give the best that was in them. We knew him best in connection with the work of this company, and learnt to admire his high ideals, his sense of humour, his regard for the value of a man’s word his unswerving loyalty to his friends, to the company, and to its men. We feel that we have lost a man of sterling character whose personality and influence will be greatly missed, especially among those who have known him many years. Personality is different to define and more difficult, if not impossible, to convey in the written word nothing we can say could adequately indicate the atmosphere which permeated everything which Colonel Cradock did or said.

In the earlier .stages of his illness and some months before he was seriously ill, lie discussed his failing health, and it was evident that lie had a strong premonition of the end, but no sign o'f complaint or regret that this was soon to be escaped him. The impression he left was of one looking the Great Reaper squtre in the face without fear as he had faced in his old campaigns. One learned in those few moments something of the unbending courage which characterised Colonel Cradock in every straightened circumstance of life. He b’ved a full life, he enjoyed life, he was a good shot, a hard rider to hounds, a fine Englishman, and a very gallant gentleman.