Evening star., 1923-12-19
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

BX THE MARQUISE DE FONTENOT.
Coincident with the reports Of the
sale by the Countess of Bathurst of
| the London Morning Post, which she
/ inherited from her father. the late
| Lord Glenesk, and of which she has
been the active and energetic ad-
ministrator since his death. comes the
announcement OF the engagement Of
her eldest son, Lord Apsley, to the
very wealthy Miss Viola Meeking.
Lord Apsley, who has been associ-
ated with his mother in the control
of the Morning Post, has been fire.
quent visitor to the United States,
is we'll known in New York and
Washington, is conservative member
of parliament from Southampton and
won both the distinguished service
order and the military cross, as well
as the French Legion of Honor, by
gallantry at the front in France
, and afterward under Field Marshal
Lord Allenby in Egypt and in the con-
quest Of Palestine.
t*f
The late Lord Glenesk, who
throughout the greater part of his
life was known as Sir Algernon
Borthwick, and who had inherited
the Morning Post from his father,
the close friend OF Napoleon IIIs
both prior and subsequent to his be-
coming emperor. left the paper to
his only daughter with a testament
ary clause prohibiting it's sale to any
purchasers unless approved of by the
conservative and unionist party or
H. l,;-
tion that, in keeping with it's his
tory, 1t should always remain the
sorgan Of the conservative party. 1t
is said, at the time of writing, that
the purchaser thus approved is a
Rupert Beckett, who Is chairman of
the company owning the Yorkshire
Post, one of the oldest established
and most influential organs Of the pro-
. vincial press.
Rupert Beckett, who is member of
the old banking Arm of Beckett &
Co. of Leeds, Is married to a daughter
OF Lord Berkeley Paget. is brother
of the late Lord Grimthorpe. and
hse vef g the ehafmos
of that peers wife. who was Lucy.
only child of William Tracy Lee of
New York. So that Rupert Beckett t
, is the uncle OF the present haIf-
American Lord Grimthorpe.
y =
With regard to Lord Apslev's fan
Gee, Miss Viola Meeking, she is
the daughter OF the late Col.
Charles Meeking, who had inherited
a colossal fortune from his father,
Charles Meeking, head Of the great
retail clothing business bearing his
name in the Holborn region of Lon
don. founded just 200 years ago.
Col. Meeking, on succeeding to the
Holhorn Circus emporium, sold it to
Messrs. Thomas Wallis & Co., re-
| tanning a large interest in the new
arm. Col. Meeking. who was an en-
thusiastto yachtsman and a member
~ the Royal Yacht Squadron, was
twice married and by his first wife
| he had three sons, each Of whom
died a violent death, predeceasing
him. and an only daughter, mar
/ ried to Gen. the Hon. Sir Henry
: yarde Butler, son of the second Lord
.yChurston. In his sixty-second year,
Col. Meeking contracted a second
| marriage with very pretty and
| CHARMING F'renchwoman, Sybille De-
dons de Pierrefeu, sister of Count
jacques de Pierrefeu, long time
| resident of New York. Toward the
close of his life the colonel devel-
ioped. as a septuagenar1an, symptoms
of senile decay, and when he died.
at his London homo in Berkeley
Square, Of q sudden heart failure. his