SIR ABE BAILEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1940, Page 7

SIR ABE BAILEY

FAMOUS SOUTH AFRICAN DEAD. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) CAPE TOWN. August 10. The death has occurred of Sir Abe Bailey. South African millionaire business man. politician and sportsman. Sir Abe Bailey was a prominent figure in South Africa, where he owned large interests. He had a chequered career in many ways. For his part in the Jameson Raid, he received two years' imprisonment, but after his release he became one the leading business men in the country. He also became one of South Africa’s leading politicians, representing the Transvaal electorate of Krugersdorp in the Union Parliament from 1910 to 1924, when he was defeated because he sided with the Imperialists against the Afrikanders. He served throughout the Boer War. receiving the King’s and Queen's Medals with six clasps. During the Great War he was Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General with the Union of South Africa Forces in East Africa and was mentioned in dispatches. Sir Abe first married Miss Caroline Paddon in 1894, but she died in 1902, leaving him with a son and a daughter. Nine years afterwards he married the Hon Mary Westenra, only daughter of the fifth Lord Rossmore, and they had two sons and three daughters. He was a close friend of Cecil Rhodes, and later, of Botha and Smuts. It was for his help in relation to the establishment of the Union that he was knighted, receiving his title z in 1911 and being given a baronetcy in 1919. Sir Abe was aged 75 years. In recent years he lost both legs, but made a good recovery. He raced horses in South Africa for 48 years and for 40 years in England. He was a member of the Jockey Club and the M.C.C., and a I founder of the Johanesburg Turf Club. His horse Tiberius won the Ascot Gold Cup in 1935. In jesting allusion to the amputation I of his legs. Sir Abo Bailey claimed to I be the only person who had one foot planted in England and the other in I Africa.