A MISSING BARONET.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 July 1922, Page 10

A MISSING BARONET.

ROMANCE IN REAL LIFE. LEFT HOME IN A RAGE. FORTUNE AND TITLE AWAITING. Fourteen years agb Claud .Rivett-Carnac, the only son of one of England’s oldest families, flung out of his home in a rage, and "swore he would never .go back. He has kept his word, for from that day to this his family has had no word from him. And thus again real life- has’ supplied the elements of a romance as interesting, asstrange, as any woven. in< the imagination I of 'makers of fiction. ; For there; Was realromance in the- story told? by Mr: VernonC.. Rivett-Carnac; of-Auckimiil, a cousin of? the missing man; As boys, the cousins attended an English' school: together, thehe their paths in life separated, and. .now, orc behalf of a-sorrowing mother in England,: Mr. Rivett-Carnac is trying to find oute whether his cousin, has at any time been, known to have found his way to New Zea* land, a-country where so. many. • a wanderer has found?a new identity, and buriedthe associations and memories of other daye< A FORTUNE AT STAKE. The reason that information as to the wanderer’s whereabouts is so urgently desided is not merely a sentimental one, -for it involves a fortune and a title, a fact of which the missing man is possibly unaware. For he is now Sir Claud James Rivett-Carnac, fourth baronet, his father having died a year after he left home so unceremoniously, and on his discovery depends the whole of the baronetcy fund, as well as. the interest on the money that has accumulated in the past 14 years. If he be dead,. another cousin, William Percival Rivett-Carnac, will fall heir to the title. The family is of Norwegian origin, and traces an unbroken male descent from Thomas Ryvet, of Fritton, Norfolk, 1272. Sir Thomas Rivett, of Stowmarket, enter.tained Queen Elizabeth in 1578. The surname of Carnac was assumed 120 years ago, by direction of General John Carnac, commander-in-chief of the forces in Bengal, asd the name Rivett-Carnac is one of the ’oldest and best known among Anglo-Indians to this day. SERVICE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Such is the family history of the missing baronet. The details of his life that are known to his relatives are full of interest. While still a lad, he made his first break from the ancestral roof, went out to South Africa, and joined the Cape Mounted Police. He served throughout the Boer War, and holds the South African medal with five clasps. He was known as a typical dare-devil Britisher, reckless, unafraid, the type of gentlemao-adventurer who may be met with in every corner of the world’s wayback places. On one occasion, in South Africa, he took a dare to jump his horse over seven bullocks standing abreast, and did it. This was vouched for by a fellow trooper who saw the jump, and whom Mr. Rivett-Carnac met afterwards in Fiji. , Tn 1908, the young man returned, to England for a short time, and then the incident occurred which sent him furiously from his home, a world-wanderer. Since then, from time to time, word has come, indirectly, of his restless passing from one country to another, from South Africa to Buenos Aires, from Mexico to San Franciscp, where, indeed, he is stated to have married an actress. This information was contained in a Sunday newspaper which chanced to reach his mother in England, and was the last direct information received, although men have spoken of meeting him, or someone like him, on the Pacific Coast, and later at Hudson Bay, in Canada’s dark and frozen northland. / A MOTHER’S APPEAL. A few months ago, his mother, Lady Rivett-Carnac, Sloane Street, told the story of her son’s appearance to the London Press, in the hope that some time, somewhere, news might reach him that he was urgently wanted to return. “He is, dr was, an extremely handsome man,” she said, “dark-haired, and of medium build. But no one can tell what he looks like now. All the information we have been able to. obtain is ancient, history. His -whereabouts since 1916 remain a mystery, and it is news of the years since then that we are seeking. The difficulty is that he may not want to be found, as he left home in a rage. We shall be most thankful if any news of my son can be obtained, for' his disappearance has .caused us many years’ sorrow and anxiety.”