PERSONAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 276, 1 May 1915, Page 8

PERSONAL.

Air. Arch. Guthrie-Smith, a Poverty Bay sheep-farmer, is now a private in the British Army in France with the Army Veterinary Corps, looking after the sick and wounded horses from the front. The Rev. George Bond, one of the, oldest members of the Methodist Ministry in New Zealand, is retiring after fortyfour years of active service. He was presented with an illuminated address and a cheque for aver £!)0 at Auckland on Monday night. Mr. John M'Kenzie, of Te Wliiti, Wairarapa, died on Friday night, at the age of eighty-six a fortnight after the death of his wife. He arrived in New Zealand by the Blenheim Castle in 1840, and had lived at Te Wliiti for sixty years pa 4. He left nine sons and four daughters. Included in the list of military officers who have passed the recent examinations are Second-Lieutenant V, J. B. Hall, New Plymouth; L. I. Gilbert, 11th Regiment, Rewa Rewa; J. C. Morrison, ll.th Resiiment, Rewa Rewa; C. Mcintosh, 11th Regiment, Rewa Rewa, and E. O. N. Robinson, 11th Regiment, HaMr. James McVeagh, of Eltham, accompanied by Mrs. McVeagh and family, went north by the Rarawa last "night. It Is the intention of Mr. McVeagh to settle in Auckland, where he will practice his profession. Mr. McVeagh will still retain hra interest in the Taranaki business, which will be known as McVeagh, Morrison and Stewart, Mr. A. A. Stewart having been admitted into partnership. ! Mr. J. F. MacMahon yesterday receiv- ! Ed news of the death of his brother, James, who succumbed to pneumonia in a rivate hospital in Sydney. Mr. James MacMahon, who was a partner with his two brothers in various theatrical and kinematograph enterprises, was widely known in Australasian theatrical and journalistic circles, and was greatly esteemed for his kindly nature and upright character. He was 55 years old. — Auckland wire.

Captain H. J. J. ("Jack") Walker, of Auckland, who has been killed in action, was a prominent athlete in Auckland when he was attending King's College!, Wfrile at King's College Captain Walker qualified for a lieutenancy in the British army, and was appointed to the Ist Royal Warwickshire Regiment, then 'stationed at Bombay. In Bombay Captain Walker was a prominent, foot'baller and hockey player, and he left there for England with his regiment shortly before the outbreak of war. Captain Walker served in the war since the first British troops participated, and in addition to being mentioned in despatches he was promoted from the rank of lieutenant to captain. Captain Walker had several friends in Taranaki.

A name carrying historic memories occurs in the published final list of appointments of officers in the Fourth Reinforcements at Trentham. One of the young subalterns in the mounted rifles is Ferdinand von Tempsky Kettle, of Napier, who is the grandson of that celebrated soldier of fortune, Major von Tempsky, about the most picturesque figure amongst the white forces in the Maori Wars of the sixties. Major von Tempsky, who fell to a Hauhau's bullet at Te Ngutu-o-te-Manu, in the Taranaki bush, in 1808, came of Polish stock and in his early life was an officer in a Prussian cavalry regiment, but from all accounts the rigid methods of army service even in those times proved distasteful to him, for he soon cast off the Bhackles of European militarism and sailed for Central America, where he found guerilla fighting more to his liking, just as he revelled in the free-and-easy style of warfare in which he was given full play in the Forest Rangers in New Zealand. Now his grandson buckles on his sword to help in Britain's battles against the nation which gavu Von Tempsky his schooling in the fighting trade.