SUICIDE OF MR ARMYTAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10003, 26 March 1910, Page 7

SUICIDE OF MR ARMYTAGE.

! A MEMBER OF THE SHACKLEi TON EXPEDITION. "A CH RMING PERSONALITY." Referring to the death of Mr Bertram Arm.vtage, well known aa a member of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, who committed suicide in the Melbourne Club, the "Argui"' i says:— After leaving the hotel on the Sat- ! urday he went to the Melbourne Cisjb, and tooK up his quarters there. Whenit approached dinner-lime he dressed, and the club valet who brought him hot water shortly before six o'clock was the last to see him alive. He seemedcheerful enough then. At 20 minutes past 6 o'clock there was a loud report. Many members of the club heard it, but all put it clown to a tyre blowing out in the street outside. One of them remarked, "There goes another tyre." It was flot a tyre; it was Mr Bertram Armytage's pistol. The valet heard the report, and traced it to Mr Armytage's room. The door was shut, and he could get no answer. He alarmed Mr Cornnh and some of the members, who rushed to the room. They found the door propped, shut with a chair. This was removed, and inside Mr Armytage wls found dead. He was in full dinner dress. The counterpane had been removed from the bed and spread on the floor. Mr Armylage was lying on this, with two pillows under his head. Both hands were lying at his sides, while, a few inches from his left hand, lay a Colt's patent automatic revolver, with one chamber discharged. A bullet-hole in his forthead showed what had happened. Mr Bertram Armytage was a wealthy man. He was 41 years of age, and married, his wife being a sister of Mrs George Chiniside. She is at present in London. He had a daughter, four year 3 of age. He ha d always been a most energetic man, and was proud of his great muscular strength. One of the aims of his life was "to keep fit." He seems to have longed for something definite to do. He was a splendid shot, and had roamed the word in search of sport, it was this that drew him from the deer-stalking expedition in New Zealand to join the Shackelton Antarctic expedition three years ago. He was a great success with the expedition, earning the praises and con- I fidence both of his chief and his comrades. He was, however,, a most reticent man, shy and diffident, and subject to all kinds of varying moods. Though a charming man personally, / there was always a trace of eccentricity about him. He loved to do things which other men feared. On one oc- ■. casion he paddled a canoe from Me'-- j bourne to Geelong, had it carried across to the Barwon River, and then paddled down the Barwon. across tbe open sea, through the Rip, and right round Port Phillip Bay, to Melbourne. He was educated partly in J Australia and partly in England. In 1855, after three years at the Geelong Grammar School, he went to the Melbourne Church of England Grammar School, and was a pupil there tor two years He left to go to Jesus College, Cambiidee, where be won his oars. He returned to Australia, and was on his father's station Wooloomanata for some years, and afterwards on a station in Queensland. He was always interested in soldiering, and jcined the Artillery in Victoria. After some experience as an arMlleryman, he went to Eng land, and joined a cavalry regiment, tie was in Australia when the Boer war broke out, and he went to Africa as an Imperial officer. There he served for some time, and obtained a Queen's medal with three clasps. After the war he resigned his commission, and spent his time—when not out on sporting expeditions-!:! Melbourne and London He ws-.s equally familiar with and well known in both cities. During his last trip to England his great ambition was to obtain from the War Office a military appointment, which would give him some definite occupation. He urged his South African experience, as well as his share in the Antarctic expedition, in support of this request, but,

though Major-General Sir Edward Button assisted him. he failed. The reply of the military authorities was that he was too old.