New-York tribune., 1919-07-13
Edouard de Billy
Thrown OFF Horse:
Killed in aris
Former French Commis.
siOner to u. S. Victim of
Accident While Riding;
Saw Active War Service

WASHINGTON, July 11.-News Of
the death of Edouard de Billy, for
mer deputy French High Commissioner
to the United States, was contained in
a cablegram received to-day at the
French Embassy from Andre Tardieu.
M. de Billy died, the message said
while riding horseback in the Bois de
Boulogne. He was thrown from his
horse
A message of coincidence was sent by
the Department of State through Am
bassador Wallace at Paris.
Edouard de Billy was Deputy High
Commissioner of the French Republic
IN the United States from Nav Is.
1917. to March l of this year and was
credited with having achieved monu-
mental results in coordinating the
French and American war effort
against the common enemy.
M. de Billy was born in 1866. and
studied at the Ecole Polytechnique.
from which he passed out in October,
1887. He then went to the Ecole des
Mines, from which he was graduated
as an engineer in October. 1889. He
devoted his telents to private enter
prises until lie became Director of
Public Works in Morocco, under Gen
eral Lyautey. When General Lyautey
went to France he was appointed
Deputy Resident General for France
in Morocco.
Al the beginning of the war M. de
Billy was appointed lieutenant of ar
tillery and was sent as liason officer
to the British army. Later he went to
London on a mission for the United
States in 1917, and his work here has
been widely praised.
The French High Commission in this
city, In charge Of NJ. de Billy, occu-
pies four floors of the American Ex-
press Building, at 65 Broadway, and
employed 1,100 persons. 1t had an i'm
ported personnel of 800 men, each Il
about 300 persons recruited on this
side of the Atlantic and the workers
at the naval bases of New York and
Savannah, Ga. Full powers were given
to the High Commission over all the
civil and military missions in the
United States. 1t transmitted instruc-
tions to them and co-ordinated their
rction in relation to the government Of
the United States, as we'll as to trade
and industry generally. There were
ten directors of the High Commission
responsible for the work of it's differ
ent departments.
WILLIAM E. SIMPSON
William Edgar Simpson. sixty-two,
for many years one of the foremost
builders Of drydocks in the country,
died unexpectedly Friday of heart
disease. He was in his Office in the
United States Assay Office, Pine
Street, when he was stricken Mr.
Simpson was born in Boston. His
father invented and built the first
timber drydock in East Boston, Mass
Mr.. Simpson went into business with
his father when he was a boy, and
their lrm, J. Z. Simpson Co., COM
pleted some of the most important
drydock contracts for the United
States government and the British
Colonial government in Newfoundland.
They constructed Drydock No. 2 for
battleships at the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, and other large docks at the
Portsmouth, N. H., Navy Yard, and
for the Newport News shipbuilding
Company. Newport News, Va.
Mr.. Simpson spent much time in
st. Johns, N. F., where he built a
drydock for the British government.
He had visited Labrador and the Arc
tie regions, and wrote many serial
stories and shoSt stories for boys,
depicting life in the North, which
were published in Western periodicals.
He was IN intimate friend of Adolphus
w. Greedy, the Arctic eXplorer