LORD JELLICOE’S AUNT.

Shannon News, 6 November 1923, Page 3

LORD JELLICOE’S AUNT.

IQ2ND BIRTHDAY PASSED. A LONG-LIVED FAMILY. LONDON, Sept. 13. Miss Catherine Jane Jellicoe’s birthday is an occasion for annual comment regarding her great age, but this year an enterprising correspondent at Southampton has approached as near an interview with Miss Jellicoe as it possible. The result of this interview by proxy appears as an arti-. cle in’ the Evening Standard. In a top-back room of a tall old house in Portland Terrace, Southampton (says the correspondent), an old lady sits *all day ini a wheeled chair looking through ’ her window out to sea. When she wearies she calls for writing materials, and writes laborious but perfectly legible letters to her many relatives, principal among whom in her memories is her “dear nepheAv” Viscount Jellicoe, GovernorjGeneral. of New Zealand,. The old lady is Miss Catherine Jane Jellicoe/ who on Saturday last celebrated her 102nd birthday. I was privileged to peep into the chamber where the old lady has been in with her memories for six years past now. . “Miss Jellicoe sees no one except her very near relations/’ her lady companion told me. So, while the old lady sat in her chair, her snowwvhite head with its strongly carved features, in which one sees at a glance the resemblance of her favourite nephew, bent over some piece of writing, I wa, s tol.d the story of her life. An uneventful life story it is, but sweetened with the memory of good works *and service on behalf of others. Her brother, the Rev. George Jellicoe, of Bassett, Southampton, whom I saw„ gave me an account of this remarkably long-lived family, of whom Miss Jellicoe is the eldest. The white-bearded old gentleman was most anxious in the first instance, that his own age should be correctly stated.

“1 was 93 in January,” he said, “not 92 as ,has appeared in the papers; please put that right. Of course, I shall not live as long as my sister—ob no—but all the same we are a remarkable family. There were seven of us, five boys and two girls. Catherine and 1 are all that remain now. Our father was a manufacturer at Millbrook, where we were all born, and mother was a ‘Lancashire lass’— put that, in. There was John, the Viscount’s you know, lie lived till he was 90 ;Vthen 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 W/bal-ley-Smythe-Gardiner) was 105 when -she died two years Yes, that is something to be proud of. My sister has spent her life in Southampton. Her days were devoted to the church and to philanthropy, and she still takes a great interest in -chufcli work and always reads the parish magazine.” *

“She is quite interested in what appeal's in the newspapers, too,” put in another relative. “In fact, it is remarkable, that all her thoughts ’ate of the present. She rarely speaks of the past.. It is ten year's since she was out of the house, but she knows al] about modern inventions such as the motor-car and the aeroplane. Dufing 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 the next room giving clear instructions about its postage.”