Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-04-10
Son of Owner of WOrld-F amous Yacht.
Lord Wilmington, Comes to Washington

dead upon the battlefield. and the
then American ambassador at Berlin.
James w. Gerard, instituted the most
searching inquiries in all the hospi-
tails. internment camps and prisons
In Germany on the chance that he
might have been picked up by the
Germans and carried off into captivity.
1t must be remembered that in the
bursting of the shells, many of the
attacking party, and sometimes the
wounded lying on the ground, were
| literally blown to pieces TO such an
extent that it was impossible to re-
constitute the fragments Of human
remains. or to establish the identity
of the dead. 1t is probable that some
such cause as this that led young
Gerald Freeman Thomas to be first
gaZetted as missing" and then two
years later to be judicially pronounced
as dead.
His brother, lingo, who likewise
served during the closing years of
the great war and who is now TWEEN
ty-fve years of age, is the only sur
viving issue of his father who be-
longs to family that has been set
tied for about 100 years in Sussex to
enjoy the big fortune derived from
large estates in Antigua, and other
| islands of the West Indies. In fact.
Lord Willingdon's family has been
established at Ration Hall in Sussex,
not far from Eastbourne, since the
| latter part of the eighteenth century.
Lord Willingdon's father was an off,
Ger Of the rifle brigade. and his
mother. daughter of that first
Viscount Hampden. SO long speaker
of the house of commons, and who
was also twenty-fourth Lord Dacre.
Lord Wilmington. who must now be
man Of about fifty. is very rich on his
own account and also through his mar
riage, and is a great cricketer, having
captained both the Eton and Cambridge
University elevens. He was A. D. c.
| to his father-in-law, Lord Brassey,
| when the latter was Governor of Vic
| toria; served as major of the Sussex
Yeomanry throughout the South Afri-
can war OF quarter OF century ago:
was raised to the peerage by Edward
VII: was appointed to be a lord-in-
waiting to King George on the nomina-
ton of Premier Asquith, and has now
been serving out In India since 1915
| first Of all as Governor of Bombay, with
| its population of some 30.000,000 and
| after that as governor of the still more
densely populated and difficult Presi-
| dency of Madras. During this decade
both he and Lady Wilmington, the for
mer Marie Brassey of the voyage of
| the Sunbeam" have entertained with
| the utmost hospitality, alike at Bombay
and at Madras-not merely hundreds,
but even thousands of American visitors
| to India, some of whom Will be therefore
interested to learn of the arrival OF
young lingo Freeman Thomas in the
! United States.
| There are many of the readers of the
| f'Voyage Of the Sunbeam" who will
wish TO know what has become of this
world famed yacht of that enthusiastic
yachtsman, who founded, edited and
published, regardless of cost. that
| standard work among shipping men
known all over the world as the NAVAL
Annual" At the outbreak Of the great
war Lord Brassey put the Sunbeam at
7! the disposal Of the government, and the
| venerable yacht and its veteran master
were engaged in hospital service across
| the channel taking out medical stores
to France and bringing home the
wounded. Then Lord Brassey took her
| out for Red Cross work service to the
Dardanelles, where she was actively en-
gagged in transporting the wounded of
| the disastrous Gallipoh expedition to
| the hospitals of Malta and Egypt
Finally in 1917 the old earl. then in
his eightieth year, navigated the yacht
] out to Bombay, and. concluding his
4 yachting days were over, he made
| gift of the boat to the Indian govern
ment for use as a hospital ship. AS
such she is still af1oat conveying medi
| cal stores and the wounded and sick be-
| tween Bombay and Mesapotamia. or
rather, should say. up to the northern
! end Of the Persian gulf.