PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 126, 18 November 1911, Page 4

PERSONAL.

A Berlin cablegram states that the Kaiser is indisposed, suffering from a cold. The Rev. T. G. Hammond, who has been on an extended visit to Australia on deputation work, has returned to the Dominion. The Dunedin Star very much regrets to learn that Mr. A. R. Barclay's health has taken a turn for the worse, and that he has been ordered away. ' Feilding's oldest settler, Mr. Richard Bowler, passed away yesterday mornirtg at the age of 91 years'. Mr. Bowlfr was the third person to settle on the Manchester block in the early 'seventies, and he has resided in Peilding ever since. He leaves a family of six.

The death occurred ou October i of Dr. Joseph Bell, a distinguished Edinburgh surgeon, with whom many New Zealand students have been associated, in his seventy-fourth year. Dr. Bell, who was the representative of a worthy line, pos-. sessed a strong personality, and he was understood to have been the prototype of the immortal '-Sherlock Holmes" of Sir A. Conan Doyle. Indeed, he possessed the faculties of penetrative observation and rapid deduction in a remarkable degree. His ancestors were landed proprietors in Dumfriesshire from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and leaders of the Clan Bell in the Border times. Of the celebrated line of Edinburgh physicians of this ilk, Dr. Benjamin Bell, born in 1740, was the founder, and his fourth son, Dr. Joseph Bell, was the grandfather of the surgeon whose death occurred last month. The late Dr. Bel! held high positions in demonstrative and clinical surgery, contributed extensively to the literature of the profession, and was editor of the Edinburgh Medical Journal. He was chairman of the University Conservative Association, and senior elder in St. George's United Free Church. In 1805 lie married .Miss Edith Erskine Murray, who died in 1574. Two married daughters survive; deceased's only son, an officer in the Seaforth Highlanders, died many years ago.