People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 24 July 1913, Page 41

People We Hear About

Colonel Patrick Aloysius Kenna, V.C., one of the bravest Irishmen in the Army, won the jumping contest for officers at the Military Tournament in London on May 31. The King and Queen witnessed the competition, the King himself ■>-■ being donor- of the prize cup. . '. " ' . •".,;.- ' ( ' Catholic candidates (says the Southern Cross) headed the Senate; poll in three States—viz., : Senator O'Loghlin (Labor) in South Australia, Senator Russell (Labor) in Victoria, and Senator Keating (Liberal) in Tasmania. Catholic candidates were second on the poll in Queensland and Western Australia. ' **;

The death of Lord Ashbourne and the succession to the title of his son, the Hon. William Gibson, brings another peerage to the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom. It also furnishes the House of Lords with, another Nationalist peer. ; Already Lord Emly and Lord Macdonell are members of the Upper House,; but neither of them is quite the vigorous and comprehensive Nationalist that the new Lord Ashbourne can claim to be. :C

The death of The O'Clery, calls attention to the fact that there are quite a number of gentlemen who use the peculiar form of designation which denotes the headship of an ancient Irish sept (says the Catholic Herald). There is The O'Kelly, The O'Donoghue of the Glens, The O'Donovan, The O'Grady, The_:o'Gorman, The O'Conor Don, and The MacGillicuddy of the Reeks. Scotland has, of course, a similar survival in The Mackintosh, The Maclaine of Lochbuie, and other jealously preserved instances.

The late Lord Llandaff wrote his will on a sheet of foolscap, and, though he was admittedly an accomplished lawyer, he failed to observe the formality of having an alteration attested by witnesses. As a result, an affidavit of due execution of the will was necessary before the will could be admitted to probate. The estate has been sworn at £106,991. In his will Lord Llandaff desired that his niece, Winifred Berthe de la Chere, should go through all his MSS., burning unread all those marked 'To be burnt unread' and all locked MSS. books.

Coventry Patmore once confessed that Mrs. Meynell, sister of the painter of the ' Roll Call,' had falsified the assertion of his that no female writer of our time has attained to true distinction. Not only has she attained to true distinction, but in a review in the Pall Mall Gazette, Mr. J. L. Garvin, a man of great literary ability, though his political views are of th* chameleon order, expresses the conviction that ' By her best, Mrs. Meynell is far the first of living poets.' 'She is,' he says, 'classic by acceptance of law in thought and form, yet as unexpected in the many movements of her mind as if, like the questing romantics of the new paganism, she pursued freedom for its own sake.'

The list of honors conferred by the King on the occasion of his birthday contained no new peerages. There were three additions to the Privy Council, seven baronetcies, and twenty-six knighthoods. The new knights include Sir A. J. Home, an ex-president of the Royal College of Physicians, Ireland. The new knight was educated at Clongowes Wood College, a wellknown Jesuit institution. Major-General Luke O'Connor, who was made a K.C.8., is the only living Victoria Cross-man who has risen from the rank of private to that of General Officer. Sir Gerald Strickland, K.C.M.G., Governor of New South Wales, has been made a G.C.M.G.; Mr. Michael Francis O'Dwyer, C. 5.1., a Knight Commander of the Star of India; Sir Lomer Gouin, Premier of the Province of Quebec, a K.C.M.G.; and Count de Salis, his Majesty's Minister to Montenegro, a K.C.M.G.