People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1915, Page 41

People We Hear About

The Prince of Wales completes his twenty-first year on June 23. * ;'. - "__ ' Mr. Lloyd George celebrated his fifty-second birthday a couple of months ago. It is not very long since that he might have been termed, without any exaggeration whatever, the best-hated man in the- country, condemned to a degree that no other British statesman had experienced since Gladstone. Now he is the idol of thepublic, chiefly on account of the. masterly manner in which he has handled the financial and commercial, crisis caused by the war. Miss Emily Hickey, the convert daughter of the* Protestant rector of Mackmine Castle, Enniscorthy,. County Wexford (says an exchange), has been decorated: by the Pope with the gold cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.. Her grandfather had* also been a Protestant parson.. 1 She became a Catholic seven years ago and has since then devoted herself to social and philanthropic work.. Her book, Thoughts of Creedless Women, has attracted' many to the Church. She holds Cambridge Universityfirst class honors. Last month Princess Mary completed her eighteenth year. It is the age at which young ladies are supposed to matriculate in society (says an exchange). She is now only about six months younger than her grandmother, Queen Alexandra, was when she was married. But most of the Princesses comprised in the Royal Family were considerably older when they entered the bonds of matrimony. The Princess Royal, for instance, was over twenty-two, while. Queen Mary was older still. Apropos of Princess Mary, every first-born daughter of an English Sovereign since the accession of the House of Hanover has married a German Prince with the exception of the Princess Royal (Duchess of Fife), who married a Scottish nobleman, and George ll.'s daughter, who married the Prince of Orange. The London correspondent of the Freeman says that Sir William Robertson, who has just been appointed as Chief of Staff for Sir John French's forces, is a Catholic. Sir William is probably the only General in the British Army who has risen from the ranks. It is rather singular that the recently deceased General, Sir Luke O'Connor, was also a Catholic. Originally a private in the 16th Lancers, Sir William Robertson received his commission while on service in India. Attached there to the Headquarters Staff, he gained entrance by competition. On the outbreak of the present war he was appointed Quartermaster-General of (lie Expeditionary Force, and by common consent his work in securing smooth, plentiful, and uninterrupted supplies to the British troops at the front has been unprecedented in its success and has shown an amazing grasp of detail and administrative ability. By appearing recently at the Mansion House and singing at the concert organised by the Lady Mayoress in aid of the Belgian refugee fund, Sir Charles Santley created what is certainly a record for any British singer (says a writer in a Home paper). One who made his first appearance in London in the year when Queen Victoria's youngest child was born may be held to have earned his rest; but, in spite of his eighty-one years, Sir Charles, when asked to sing for this great cause, readily consented. Needless to say, his reappearance, together with his old confrere, Mr. Edward Lloyd, who is seventy years of age, aroused the greatest enthusiasm. What wonderful veterans they are ! And when Sir Charles acceded to an encore and, with his old verve and inimitable humor, sang ' Simon the cellarer,' I thought the applause would never end. Chatting with Sir Charles afterwards, in the artist's reception room, he remarked, with a twinkle in his eye, that a man, like a woman, is just as old as he feels. 'I am really not eighty-one/ he said; ' I am only thirty-four,' and indeed his vitality and energy" compare well with a man of that age.