AN OLD MASTERTONIAN

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10291, 20 July 1911, Page 3

AN OLD MASTERTONIAN

MR EDWARD WYL'.iE.

HIS DEATH IN A LONDON HOSPITAL.

Writing in the "Hindu Spiritual Magazine" concerning Mr EI ward Wyllio, a fowner resident of \1 asterton, Mr James Coates, Ph.D . F..4.5. says:—

From time to .time have c-vno notices of spirit photographs obtained through the mediumship of Mr Edward Wyllie, notably .by ;hus« reliable investigators, J. J. Uovse, editor of "Two Worlds"; Mr G. I* Young, president of the Spiritualist Society, whose headquarters is Glasgow, and Mr James Coates, all testifying to the reality of his gifts. It was not known that Mr Wyllie'is health was in the precarious state that was followed by Ms death on April 10th, and Mr Coates' sympathetic and interesting article concerning him is inserted with much .satisfaction-. % Mr Coates says :

As it has fallen to my lot to record the arrival in this country from the United Spates of Mr Edward Wyllie, it is now mine to make the fact of his departure from this life in his sixty-third year known to our readers. Mr Wyllie passed to the higher life on April 10th. He hod been in delicate health for some time, and his eyesight, which had been failing when he came to Rothesay, caused him much trouble, as much as his work indicated, and latterly incapacitated him. He suffered great pain at times, but he plodded on as long •as he could. Suddenly (Mr Wyllie was taken, ml for the worse, and being in the London district was removed to the Hampstead! Hospital, where he had every care to the end. He passed away peacefully, cheered by the loving care of his brother, Colonel Wyllie, who was tmremitting in. his- attention.

Although, little over a month with us during September and October in, Kothesay, it was long enough for us to appreciate his quiet heroism and his genuine Ibut fading (medical gifts. That he was a most gifted psychic I possess the most reliable evidence; Ithat he was a .sadly abused man, on-, account of his gifts, I also know. From experimentation in our home, I gleaned a keen insight to his character and defects, and our sympathies, unasked, went out (to ham. j That he had hoped for a cordial reception and fair play in the Old Country I also know,; but I grieve J te_think he had liitle of either. His general reception, with notable ex- | ceptions, wasi one of chilling reserve and suspicion, more detrimental to ; the exercise of his psychic gifts than ! our harsh climatic conditions, from which he also suffered greatly. Coming from the summer land of California, although in moderately fair health when he arrived in Rotthesay, he soon suffered severely from the cold weather, and almost perpetual rain and fog, which he experienced during his stay in Glasgow. There he had an attack from his old enemy, malarial fever, contracted many year® ago, and in Edinburgh he was again attacked with influenza, and he went an invalid to Manchester, and never really recovered.

As a medium I often wondered how he succeeded in getting result® ) when our local photographers, as j well as those in Glaisgow, refused to take portraits.

Mr Wyllie, after an eventful and 1 most varied life and considerable j prosperity, till lie 'became a medium, j was at the zenith of bis power, as i a psychic, when ho lost all isave bis life and his meditwnship at the great San Francisco earthquake. Due to that and the exposure and hardships in the public park, Mrs Louie- Wyllie, his devoted wife, died shortly after- | wards, and all -trace of his sou, Willie, was lost since the disaster. Mr 1 Wyilie, although he concealed the I fact, it is .evident never got over the j mental shocks sustained. j '' Be ' concealed his ill-health arid ' circumstances to the last from his relatives, and wrote a pleasant leetter to -his sister- a short vtatme before his last attack. Throughout all Ms trouble he remained the quiet sufferer and the gentleman. He showed, the qualities of the hea*o and the soldier characteristic of his people. Indeed, j had his lot heen different, he might have held His Majesty's commission. He was of the Scotch family of Wyllies, who, as statesmen and soldiers, have.: (been connected with I India for over a'hundred years. The I late Lieut.-Colonel Sir H. iCurzon j Wyllie,-K.C.1.E., C.V.0., .who was j shot in London, was iu& cousin. Mr | Wyllie was iboni in Calcutta in 1848, j Ms father being the late Colonel Boh- ] er.i Wyllie, of Elderislie, North Devon, who was for many years Military (Secretary to the iGoyernment of In* dia. , His brother, Colonel Wyllie, although retired, holds a commissioni in the • British. Army.- Another brother, an artist of ability, resides'in Newark, New Jersey. I understand 1 that he has two sister® living,' one of whom I know was deeply attached to Mr Wyllie, and it is from her —from her affectionate letters to Mrs Ooates— I learned the particulars of her hrother's cutting off.