PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

New Zealand Tablet, 5 June 1919, Page 37

PEOPLE WE HEAR ABOUT

Rev. William Hickey, Bishop-Coadjutor of ’i Providence, U.S.A., succeeds the late Bishop Lowney. He will be Auxiliary Bishop to Bishop Harkins, now in advanced years. He was formerly rector of St. John’s Church, Clinton, Mass. Rev. William Turner, D.D., recently appointed Bishop of Buffalo, U.S.A., has been Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University, Washington, for many years. He has written several books. Brooklynites who have visited the Catholic Summer School are acquainted with him. Bishop Turner has a brother a professor in St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie. He succeeds Bishop Dougherty, now Archbishop of Philadelphia. Mgr. Bickerstaffe-Drew, who is well known to many thousands of readers under his pen-name of “John Ayscough.” is retiring from service as an army chaplain. Mgr. Bickerstaffe-Drew has spent more than 30 years in the British Army, being appointed actingchaplain only two years after his ordination to the priesthood in 1884. He was appointed six years later a regular chaplain, and was stationed at Plymouth for seven years. In 1889 he was made senior chaplain to the garrison at Malta, and 10 years later was appointed senior chaplain at Salisbury Plain, a post he held until the outbreak of the war, during which he served in France, being twice mentioned in dispatches. Six* James Eric Drummond, who has been appointed first secretary of the League of Nations, at a salary of £SOOO a year with a similar amount for expenses, is a Catholic.- He is the son of Viscount Sti’athallan, and half-brother and heir-presumptive of the Earl of Perth. He is 43 years of age. Educated at Eton, he entered the Foreign Office in 1897, and in 1903 was received into the Catholic Church at Downside Abbey. A year later he married the Hon. Angela Mary Con-stable-Maxwell, youngest daughter ; of the 11th Lord Herries. Sir Eric was made a K.C.M.G. in 1917. Among previous appointments held by him were those of precis writer to Sir Edward Grey, private secretary to Mr. Asquith (Prime Minister), to Sir Edward Grey (Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs), and latterly to Mr. A. J. Balfour. The Catholic Church in Scotland recently lost one of the most interesting members of her priesthood through the death of Canon Stevenson Lyle, of Peebles. He was a saintly man, quiet and unassuming, and most zealous for the salvation of souls. Canon Lyle, who was a convert to the Catholic Faith, was ordained in 1889, and began his career as a priest in Scotland as a curate in Falkirk under the late Mgr. Grady, V.G. From Falkirk he was transferred to the pastoral charge of Hawick in 1892. Thence he passed to the more important charge of Peebles, which ,he held .for the past seven years. A short time ago he was raised to the dignity of a Canon in the Cathedral Chapter' of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. Canon Stevenson Lyle had many warm friends among the priesthood of Scotland, and his funeral was attended by clerical mourners from many parts of the country, and leading non-Catholics of the district assisted at the obsequies. ' The New York Sun reports that Judge John J. Goff has retired from the Supreme Court, after 23 years’ service, on passing the age limit of 70 years, and now takes his place among the official referees. Judge Goff was born in Co. Wexford in 1847, and as a boy was a play-fellow of Parnell. Emigrating to America in

his 16th year, Goff became noted as an amateur boxer, and subsequently passed for the Bar, proving himself a successful criminal ;lawyer,. and (being regarded as “one of ; the most merciless cross-examiners New York had ever seen.” He was later, elected Recorder. In r - 1906 he was elected judge on the Tammany ticket. -i In- this capacity he presided at. many - famous trials. ' Always enthusiastic in Irish affairs, he took a deep interest in those suffering for political offences in the Old Country, and was one of the committee which arranged for the escape of John Boyle O’Reilly from Australia. He was a strong supporter of, the Parnell movement, and his services were always at the disposal' of the Irish leaders visiting the States. '' : •'