“A FINE TYPE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 4, 26 March 1927, Page 7

“A FINE TYPE”

THE DUKE OF YORK A CHARACTER STUDY On May 20, when the great Parliament House at Canberra, the Australian Commonwealth capital, is opened, a tall, lean, thoughtful-eyed young man will mount the flag-bedecked dais to perform the opening ceremony—the King’s second son, the Duke of York, says the “Sunday News.” He represents in his person the Crown, which is the imperishable link binding the component parts of the Empire more closely than any written bond—for it is a thing of sentiment, a thing of the heart. This is a great adventure for the Duke and Duchess. They h?ve already seen East Africa together. Now they are steaming round the world in the silvery battle-cruiser Renown. They leave England in chill winter. By the time -they step ashore at Portsmouth again it will be high summer. Australia and New Zealand must be interested in the Duke of York as a man, the only married ope of the King’s four sons. He is more self-con-tained than his elder brother, the Prince of Wales; less dashing but more reflective. He has at times a stern look, which is, perhaps, more than half shyness. He does not smile so easily, but when he does it is a charming smile which lights up his eyes at the same time that it moves his lips. He used to be rather shy. His first public appearances must have been a great ordeal for him. But he has grit and nerve. He cured himself of nervousness by application; and now he is cool and he has poise. His speeches are plain and to the point. His qualities are solid ones. The Earl of Strathmore described him in a letter to an old retainer, at the time when the Duke’s engagement to Lady Elizabeth was announced, as “a fine type of the young Englishman,” with “a high sense of duty,” and disclosed the secret that thei Duke had been a devoted suitor for three years—a splendid tribute to his loyalty, and, incidentally, his determined character. A Sportsman He plaved football with the village boys at Sandringham. He learned to ride and acquired a firm seat, which has stood him in good stead in the hunting field. Wing-Commander Louis Greig taught him, as he taught the Prince of Wales, how to win, and how to lose, like a sportsman—the finest lesson in the conduct of life that any English boy can have. He went to Osborne and Dartmouth; passed out; set forth in the Cumberland for his first went to the West Indies, Cop od Newfoundland: and in September, 1914, landed at Aberdeen with appendicitis, an illness which undermined his health for some years. He was on his ship, a sub-lieuten-ant, at Jutland, and won Lord Jellicoe’s commendation. But he had been far from well all these war years, and eventually after one operation and more than one breakdown, he had to give up his naval career and take to the Air Service. “The Industrial Prince” He really began life, in its wildest sense, when he went into residence at Cambridge with his brother, Prince Henry, with Wing-Commander (then Major) Louis Greig in attendance. There he gained the interests which later made them call him “the industrial Prince.” He must have visited hundreds of factories over the length and breadth of the British Isles in the last six years. He has gone down a coalmine, driven an engine, spoken at scores *of working-men’s clubs, schools and public functions. His visits to workshops are never stiffly formal. He talks with the workers, greets old acquaintances, has always a keen eye open for the exService men. It was the Duke who conceived the idea of those remarkable summer camps at Aerodrome, New Romney, where public schoolboys and boys of the working class sleep, play and eat together—one of the many activities directed toward ‘cementing that fellowship between individuals in all walks of industry, irrespective of class or occupation, which is the back-

bone of our Imperial progress” (to use the Duke’s own phrases). He is strong—he once brought down two burly stokers in a football match, with himself underneath. He is agile see him at tennis with the Duchess or Louis Greig. He knows how to take hb own line over country—see him out with the hounds. He is an excellent dancer, who often drops in w ith the Duchess to one or other of the celebrated dance clubs or restaurants for supper and a few foxtrots. Taste in Sport His preferences in sport are for lawn tennis and squash rackets. He practises almost daily and plays a hard game. He used to be keen on cricket —he once did the hat trick by taking the wickets of the King, Prince Arthur of Connnaught and the Prince of Wales on the pitch on the slope below Windsor Castle —but he seldom plays now. He is not so keen a horseman as the Prince of Wales, or so enthusiastic a dancer as Prince George, but he is an expert motorist, a fair shot and probably the best angler in the Koyal Family. IHe is, incidentally, the only aeronaut in the Royal circle. He won his wings—they were not presented to him.