EARL OF MEATH DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 792, 12 October 1929, Page 11

EARL OF MEATH DEAD

FAMOUS AS THE FOUNDER OF EMPIRE DAY (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 10 a.m. LONDON, Friday. The Earl of Meath is dead, aged 88. A British Official Wireless message says the Earl of Meath was famous as the founder of that movement for thinking Imperially which resulted in May 24, the Birthday of Queen Victoria, being kept as Empire Day. The suggestion that this day should be devoted to this purpose, he first made to Joseph Chamberlain when the latter was Colonial Secretarv in 1902. Lord Meath was also closely identified with many religious and social movements, including the Boy Scouts and the Church Army. Reginald Brabazon, twelfth Earl of Meath, was educated at Eton and in Germany, and was in the Diplomatic Service. He devoted a long and busy life to philanthropic and social work. A strong Imperalist, he strove for recognition throughout all the Empire of an annual Empire Day, and for the systematic teaching of patriotism in the schools. A sometime Senator of Southern Ireland, he was also Chancellor ol: Ihe Royal University of Ireland.

Lord Meath married in IS6B Lady Mary Jane Maitland, who died in 1918. A son was killed in the war. The heir to the earldom is Lord Ardee, the earl’s son, who was born in 1569. At one time he was in command of the Irish Guards in the Great War.