“BLACK ROD” RETIRES

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20284, 28 August 1937, Page 7

“BLACK ROD” RETIRES

PARLIAMENTARY VETERAN MR A. T. BOTHAMLEY’S CAREER ! (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Saturday The! retirement of Mr A. T. Bothamley from the office of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod is announced by the Prime Minister, Mr Savage, and the position has been filled by the’ appointment of Captain Douglas Bryan, of Wellington, who served In Egypt and Gallipoli in 1915, was wounded and returned to New Zealand. From October, 1915, to February, 1919, he served as aide-de camp to the General Officer Commanding the New Zealand Forces. From July, 1919, to November of that year he was attached to the headquarters of the' New Zealand Expeditionary Force In London, including two months with the Fourth Corps headquarters In Germany and thereafter until July, 1920, he was attaohed to the First Battalion, the Queen’s (Regiment, at Aldershot. Mr Savage said Mr Bothamley’s service covered more' than half the full history of the New Zealand Parliament. He had been a Parliamentary since 1871 and also the first and only Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod for 45 years. That meant 66 years' continuous service in all of which time there had not been a blemlsh. A| . Mr Bothamley Is now in his 91st. year. Two of his sons are in the service of Parliament, one as a clerk of Parliament and the other as a clerk assistant to the House of Representatives.