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About The Oregon daily journal. (Portland, Or.) 1902-1972 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1915)
THE OREGON SUNDAY JOURNAL, PORTLAND. SUNDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER 28, 1915. t ssm will wir England Ariciser r With Every House of the Nobility in Mourning, and Each Report From the Front Bringing Dread Ne ws of Death, the Proud Families of Britain Face Extinction. At the Present Rate of Fatality Titles With the Exception of Mere Infant Holders May Be Abolished Before the End of the Great Conflict. sty's : V&i " f. ,-'-' K t "f r ' " , . I -C " V" - C &',? ,'X ' I - r ''' '''' ''' '"' I r ::?:: -I ' 'f V -;-;- ,;? ;'-,' J ,v 1-'. Zj 9 : . A5 r.iv- .'- f "i. J:-:-K":-'Kii-.l . v .' in; : 4 Since Lord de Freyne fell in battle the beau tiful Lady de Freyne is receiving the con dolences of an England thatojkce snubbed her for her girlhood's position as barmaid. Ilngness to "face the music" In that un pleasantness did much to win back for him the favor of his fellow aristocrats. When he married Miss Hilda Cooper, daughter of the Baronet Daniel Cooper of New South Wales, all the peerage re joiced. Now that he is dead in the trenches of the Coldstream Guards his father, the Earl of Ranfurly, looks to Northland's baby, born last May, for a successor. Lady Guernsey, wearing widow's weeds for the gallant Lord Guernsey, who died the other day at Neave Chap pelle, watches the health of her 7-year-old son the more closely now, lor 11 ne snouia meet with disaster the r. ACKER than the mourning that drapes every house of British peerage are the doubts and fears that are mounting in the hearts of Albion's nobility. Is this the last of the lords? Will the nobility of England be wiped from the face of the earth? Six peerages have extinction staring them in the face; thirty heirs to titles are dead on the battlefield; fifty sons of great English lords have fallen before the mis siles of the Teutons; 213 peers and 424 sons of peers are in the trenches. They were officers, and English officers have died in thousands during this war. The old lords and their wives shudder when they read the words of Dickens which describe the ruin of Dombey and Son: . "The year was out and the great house was down." The house1 of Ribblesdale "is down." The son and heir of the old, old lord lies dead and tinburied between the opposing trenches in Flanders. The boy, upon whom the name of Lincolnshire depended, is gone and his 70-year-old father is broken. The baronies of Stamfordhani, Playfair and Knaresborough have lost their only pos sible helrff. The other day the lawmakers discussed the advisability of removing the ban upon woman's assumption to the title. So frightened are the nobles that they are in sisting that the ancient law which hands the heirdom down to the nearest male rela tive, scorning all feminine claimants, shall be repealed. The suffragists, still anxious and intent, despite their patriotic desertion of mili tancy, see in this probability their long sought opportunity for legislative position. For after the bestowal of titles upon women the natural consequence will be the filling of the house of lords with .feminine representatives. Many of them look still further Into the future and see the day when not even the house of lords will be in existence, when even feminine titleholders will be absent tn the United Kingdom, for with the male heirs gone it is scarcely possible that the Lady Guernsey is widowed. her husband having been among the first noblemen to fall in the war. throne will create enough new lords to fill the vacancies, and it is scarcely probable that the women titleholders will marry beneath them in an attempt to perpetuate the class. American girls of wealth and social po sition see in this doom of the young Brit ish aristocrat the end of international mar riages. The bluest blood of Europe, they say, will come no more to the rich Ameri can families for its wives, and foolish American daughters will look no' longer to England for husbands. The Goulds and the Vanderbllts and the Thaws may stand out as the last fashionable American fam ilies to send their daughters Into the titled houses of English and continental countries. A German newspaper says that the Prussian aristocracy was created In war and would die out in war. Bussia, Austria, Italy, all have sent their princes. - their dukes and marquises into the war with almost the same thoroughness as that dis played by Great Britain. Seven Peers Perish. Upon a smaller scale the fatality among British nobles was true in the Boer war. Then scores of young officers died, their rate of demise being in proportion far greater than that of the enlisted men.' Already seven British peers have died in Flanders or in the Dardanelles. Lord Petre is gone, Lord Annesley, too; also Lord De Freyne, Lord Kesteven, Lord Con gleton. Lord Ila warden and Lord "Brad bourne. Lady Petre at home nurses the very little Lord Petre now. Lady De Freyne forgets the stormy domestic days that her Impetuous husband caused. Eng land forgets his romantic, reckless career and its anger at his marriage with the bar maid and his act of making her Lady.De Freyne. He atoned by his brave death in Flanders. Viscount Northland, too, has cleared away all the scandal which clung about his youth by -dying at the front. In his care less days be became involved in a sensa tional breach of promise suit with -Daisy Mirkham, the actress, but his cheerful wil- body of the eldest return. Should Roland, the remaining son, fall the house will die. The Duchess of Beaufort has received word that her son, Captain De Tuyll of the Tenth Hussars, is dead. Captain Douglas Kinnaird, eldest of the two sons of Lord Kinnaird, has fallen, and his younger brother, in whom the fate of the title lies, is in the thickest of the fighting. The list might run on and one so long as pages could be cut to print them. Cam bridge and Oxford, where the youth of royalty has been educated, are prac tically empty. The brave attempt of arristocracy to conduct "business as usual" is a pathetic affair since the flower of its young manhood is gone. "Whom will our daughters marry?" tha ladies are asking. Daughters of the peerage have been obedient to the calls of duty. They have '.ss.:'.V.W.-Y. -l i ''J t ' .. ' ' '; t , a f. .:-:;.::5: " - Tk tJ - s - I i L - J a ,(' P;: V ' y , v f , V 'V- ' l 4 " v " Xy v , "- '' , T t x t VV V x v - " A ' ' 4 - . y . 4- .-v-.iijf V V II k 7 V Lady Petre is left with her infant son to uphold the family name. 'A 1 ::. Viscountess Northland has lost Viscount Northland, who was the only son and heir of the Earl of Ranfurly. Earl Compton, heir appar ent to the title of North ampton, who lies dead on the field of honor. Above, Lord Annesley; below, Lord Petre. Earldom of Aylesford would become ex tinct The old Earl of Erne died at the be ginning of the war, weakened by the shock of the opening thunder. A few days later his son. Viscount Crichton, died from wounds, and now his grandson', an 8-year-old boy is the titleholder. Viscount Monck, aged and at ' death's door, has seen his son brought home from the front and put to rest in the ancestral tomb. His 9-year-old grandson is now the heir. Nobility in Thick of the Fight. The young Earl Compton, heir apparent of the Marquis of Northampton, has per ished along with almost all of the Royal Horse Guards, who left London in August, 1014. Lord Redesdale has buried bis efd est son and heir and has. Spartanlike, sent his other four sons Into the slaughter. " Lord St. Davids saw his two sons leave for France, and, a few months later, the How Great Houses of Albion Have Suffered Five peerages face extinction, as the only legal heirs of Ribbles dale, Lincolnshire, Stamfordham, Playfair and Knaresborough arc dead in the trenches. Seven peers have fallen at the front Lords Petre, Annesley, De Freyne, Kesteven, Congleton, Hawarden and Bradbourne. Five titles now depend upon infants because of the slaughter of the adult heirs : Northland, Aylesford, Erne, Monck and De Ramsey. Among the most prominent titles that will vanish should the heirs be killed at the front are Beaufort, St. Davids, Kinnaird and Northamp ton. Over thirty heirs to famous names and over fifty sons of famous lords are dead. Two hundred and thirteen peers and 424 sons of peers 'are in the trenches. There are practically no men of the nobility in their eligible years who are not facing death. Every great house is in mourning. MMMWVWVMWW hitherto married, with few exceptions, within the sanctioned circle of aristocracy. Scores of them married the young nobles in khaki a few days before the troop ships sailed. "But," plead the mothers again, "when the young heroes are all gone, then who will there be , for our daughters' hus bands?" If the war persists, say English Jour nalists and statesmen, some new mode of succession must be established, else the British lord, oldest of nobility's clan and stancbest representative of the faith, of the blood, will have perished from the earth. At the death of Lord Kesteven in the Balkans the barony of Kesteven becomes extinct and the title of the baronetcy goes to William Henry Trollope, nephew of the first Lord Kesteven, a man of 60 years. The transference of title in this case Is the only one so far that has resulted in an older man succeeding one of the younger gen eration. Lord Kesteven was only 24 years of age. He was moved to the Balkans from the Dardanelles with the Lincolnshire cavalry regiment in which he held the of fice of captain. Being a peer, his death has attracted much comment throughout England and driven home upon the aris tocracy the truth of its perlL The house of De Ramsey has lost Its Lady Annesley, the beautiful and talented wife of the slain Lord Annesley, was one of aristocracy's boasts. heir In the death of Csptalu Fellnwes of the First Lift; tiuardX In Flanders the young officer died from disease contracted in on hour of physical exhaustion follow ing the strength-taxing resistance of Teu tonic attacks. Ills father, the aged Lord de Ramsey, is nearly SO years of age, blind and near death's door himself. Captain Fellowes' son, a baby of 4 yrars, is the prospective successor to the title. The Earl of Dunraven and Mountearl has his only son and lielr at the front now In the thick of the fighting. Captain Rich ard Wyndham Quin Is In the greatest dan ger and the earldom faces extinction should he fall. George Lambton. brother of Lord Dun ham, is dead In France. Lord Vernon is lying at death's door in GallipolL, His only brother and his heir, Francjs Venables Vernen, is on board one of the warships of Admiral Jellicoe in the North Sea, while the second heir, Richard Venablcs-Vernon, is a dispatch bearer for General French at the front, a position of extreme hazard. With its three male members in the fight ing the gravest concern is felt over the fu ture of the house of' Vernon. Admiral Sir Richard Poore, himself In the active service, has lost bis son and heir, Roger, Poore, In the fighting in the Dar danelles. The young man fell In the Gal llpoli massacres, as have so many of Eng. land's best From Oxford comes the report that nearly 800 of Its students who enlisted have already fallen and that over 100 more are missing. The university has only a few members now. The recruiting took - the best blood -first, consequently the historic academic halls are empty. Those who are left have none of the famous Oxford spirit, but are slow and saddened. " Copyright WUw by J, ttlexi J