Evening star., 1938-07-24

IN 1888, in the frenzied gold-rush town of
johannesburg, South Africa, c. Aubrey
. Smith, Is, native of London, was pro-
nounced dead. Newspapers throughout the
British Empire published fattering obituaries.
This was young man of note.
Funeral plans were made. Then the corpse
embarrassed doctors and editors. He began
to breathe again.
That dead" youth celebrated his seventy
fifth birthday on Thursday and is still young
enough to require oldish makeup for many of
his parts He played the grandfather in
Little Lord Fauntleroy' and in 'Wee Willie
Winkie," the kings staunch friend in The
Prisoner of Zenda," the kindly priest in THE
Hurricane and the father in -Four Men and
a Prayer" He is playing captain of the
Hollywood Cricket Club team did you know
there was one?) which won twenty-three
matches out of thirty-two last season, trounc-
ing, among others, two crack Canadian
elevens. And, just this summer, on visit to
England, he was made Commander of the
Order of the British Empire
No man has enjoyed richer experience in
the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.
He was born in Finsbury Square, London.
and speaks in accents of breeding plus
Cambridge.
When Aubrey was almost two years old.
Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. In
hiseghth year the Franco Prussian War ended.
That same year Aubrey, strictly against
orders, tagged some older boys down to the
Thames and tried to swim. They dragged him
out for drowned But he was hard to KILL then
as later.
c. Aubrey Smith today remembers the ex-
cited babble in London when German boots
clomp-stomped through Versailles. He recalls
even more vividly the spanking he harvested
when his father decided the culprit wouldn't
die from that forbidden Thames swim!
DR.. Charles John Smith, his father, re-
garded healing more highly than he did
money. Nevertheless, sacrifices put young
Aubrey through Charterhouse, one of the
great English public schools" and through
Cambridge, where he took the first part of the
degree of Bachelor of Medicine. Most sons are
launched to follow their fathers
Il wanted an army career" he says, but
for that, in England, more money was re-
quired than my father could muster. And six
long years still loomed before could hope to
be full-hedged doctor"
Aubrey starred in mathematics and cricket.
Finishing Cambridge, he was captain of an
Al-England cricket eleven. 1t was composed
of four amateurs - Aubrey was one - and
seven professionals. They toured Australia in
triumph, invaded South Africa.
Johannesburg was mad boom city of tin
shacks A man staked off bit of ground, and
there was shareholders company.
-Four of us from the cricket eleven caught
the fever We drafted on England and bought
membership in the Johannesburg Stock Ex-
change
The crash came - but Aubrey was out be-
fore it struck.
There was no drainage, scant good food,
poor disqualification. We all contracted ty-
phoid. l added pleurisy and pneumonia, and
they pronounced me dead.
My friends were asked to decide between
quick burial that afternoon or delayed one
next morning They chose morning. 1t was
bit of bother to everyone when displayed
signs of life.
Back in England after his recovery. young
Smith became an Instructor in school pre-
pairing youths for the army. At Cambridge he
had been figure in amateur theatricals. Now
a friend offered him role in touring