DEATH AT 111

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1932, Page 3

DEATH AT 111

LATE HON. KATHLEEN PLUNKET

LAST LIVING LINK" WITH SCOTT

LONDON, November 20. The Hon. Katherine Pluuket, the oldest woman in tfae British is.iis, and possibly in the world, died at her home Ballymascanlan, County Louth, yesterday, at the age of 111. Had she lived till November 22nd she would have been. 112. t She took breakfast in bed as usual, I and shortly afterwards she had passed away without any pain. A week ago she was carried in a chair round her gardens, and had contemplated taking a motor run. Miss Plunket was a descendant of the celebrated Irish Lord Chancellor, the first Lord Plunket, who was a member of the old Irish Parliament. •She was born in the year of accession of King George IV., and she was in her 17th year when Queen Victoria came to the throne. SAW WORLD TRANSFORMED. To sketch her life-story is to cover the history of three or four normal generations. She actually knew six successive holders of the title of Lord Plunket.

For a long period of her life shi was, a woman of affairs, meeting celebrities of this and other countries, and herself travelling widely unde. 1 conditions less comfortable than those which obtain to-day. In the course of her long life she had seen the world transformed. She was six months old ' when Napoleon died. One of her earliest recollections was that of being carried about Dublin in a Sedan chair. When Sir Walter S..ott visited her father, she was brought from the nursery, and sat on the great novelist’s knee. She s*W the opening of Stephenson’s Stockton ind Darlington Railway, and, ova- half i century later, the coming of the inotor-csr arid the aeroplane. At the time of her birth her father was curate of Kilsaran Castle, Bellingham County Louth. He succeeded to the barony in 1854, and ht his death in 1866 lie was Bishop of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry. HOUSEHOLD DUTIES AT 104.

Miss Plunket was the eldest of five sisters, and she outlived them all. Gertrude, the youngest, having died in 1924. The story is told that when Gertrude, then aged 75, wanted to visit Dublin,’ M ss Plunket refused to allow her to go unchapcror.ed, as Dublin was far too big a place for the sister to go about alone. And when Gertrude died, Miss Katherine, aged 104, announced that she would have to “pull herself together* and take on the household duties her sister had been forced to forsake. T" course of her long life she had visited nearly every capital in Europe. In Switzerland she was a pioneer among women climbers. In India she made long journeys, frequently camping out; and when she journeyed in Palestine she alarmed her friends by going under an' Arab escort. When her doctor suggested that she should have a wireless set installed in her room, she reminded him that she had heard all the famous musicians of her time and the finest music, and preferred her memories to anything the wireless could produce. ' Although mainly confined to her room, she retained her mental faculties, and was able ‘to read the news-

papers and follow the course of public events. She was one of the most loyal residents in Ireland. , Almost to the last she exercised personal control of her household and of her affairs ; her pass-book was generally on the tablo beside her bed.