LORD JELLICOE'S AUNT

Otaki Mail, 9 November 1923, Page 3

LORD JELLICOE'S AUNT

IQ2ND BIRTHDAY PASSED. A LONG-LIVED FAMILY. 8 LONDON, Sept. 13. Miss Catherine Jane Jeliicoes birtb--1 day is an occasion lor annual comment regarding her great uge, but this year un enterprising correspondent at Southampton has approached as near an interview with Miss Jeilicoe as it possible. The result oi this interview by proxy appears as an article in the Evening Standard. In a top-back’ room ot a tall old house in Portland Terrace, Southampton (says the. correspondent), an om lady sits -all day in a wheeled chair luouing through her window out to sea. When sue wearies she calls lor writing materials, and writes laborious hut perfectly legible letters to her many relatives, principal among whom in her memories is her ''deal nephew” Viscount- Jeilicoe, GovernorGenerai ol New Zealand. The old lady is Miss Catherine Jane Jeilicoe. who on Saturday laxt celebrated nor 10.2nd birthday. I was privileged to peep into Uie chamber where the old lady lias been siiut m with her memories ior six years past now. "Miss Jeilicoe sees no one except her very near relations,” her lady companion told me. So, whxl e the old lady sat in her chair, her 'snow-white head with its strongly carved leatures, m which one sees at a glance the resemblance of her favourite nephew, hem over some, piece oi .writing, j wa 6 told the story oi her life. An uneyentiol lile story It Is, hut sweetened with the memory oi good works and. service on behalf of others. Her bi-qther, the Hev. George Jeilicoe, of Bassett, Southampton, whom I saw, gave'me an accuunt of this remarkably long-lived family, of whom Miss Jeilicoe is the Bluest. Inc white-bearded old gentleman was most anxious in the first instance that ills own age should be correctly stated. > ‘‘l was 93 in January,” he said, “not 92 as has. appeared m the. papers.; please put that right. OI course, 1 shall not live as long as my sister—oh no—but all the same we are a remarkable family. There were seven of us. five boys and two. girls. Catherine" and I are all tliat remain now. Our father was a manufacturer a( Milibrook, where we were all born, and mother .was a ‘Lancashire lass'— puf, that in. There .Was John, the Viscount's lather, you know, he lived till he was 90; then there was poor Fred, who was killed in the Indian Mutiny. Our sister Memieka died two years ago, at the age of 90; and our cousin Grace (Miss Grace Emily WhaS--1 ley-Sinythe-Gardiner) was 105 when she died two years ago. Yes, that is something to be proud of. My sister hag spent her lile in Southampton. Her days were devoted to. the 'church and to philanthropy,‘and she still takes a great interest in church work and always . reads the parish maga- = zine.”

■“She is quite interested in what appears in the newspapers, too,” put in another relative. “In fact, it- Is remarkable that ail her thou c ti:= are of xhe present. She rarely speaks oi the past. It is ten years since she was out of the house, but she knows ai] about modern, inventions such as the motor-car and the aeroplane. During the war she was keenly interested in the career of the admiral.’’ When I left the old lady had finished her letter and could- be heard in next room giving clear instructions about its postage.”