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Extract from the "Hongkong Telegraph" of 2nd October, 1906.
THE LATE CAPTAIN BARNES-LAWRENCE, R.N.
And still the tale of the typhoon's victims is not told, for, as will be seen by the announcement in another column, there is yet another victim to be added to the list of those who have lost their lives as a result of that storm's ravages. We speak of the Hon. Captain Barnes-Lawrence, R.N., who, for the past three years, has been our respected and highly-esteemed Harbour Master, and than whom we venture to say, a better or more efficient officer has never filled that onerous position.
With all the multifarious business and the ramifications of his department, visitors and callers found him, at all times, ever the same genial, courteous gentleman, ready to listen to reports, to hear complaints, to attend to suggestions, and to give advice upon all matters pertaining to mercantile marine affairs, whether the giving of such advice came within his province or not.
In all such matters he was most approachable, and no one seeking his advice or assistance was ever "sent empty away." As a Harbour Master, he lent a ready ear to all suggestions and considered them and their practicability, being never above accepting a hint, even from the layman and outsider, if it tended to benefit harbour conditions; and many an improvement in the mooring accommodation, the lighting at night, and the new piers, are due to his foresight and thought for the benefit of the mariners frequenting this harbour, as well as of the port itself.
He never lost sight of the fact that the port of Hongkong was the first port in point of tonnage in the British Empire, and that he was the Harbour Master of that port, and he recognized that it behoved him to maintain the traditions of the harbour over which he, in a manner of speaking, ruled.
And it was in the strenuous exercise of his multifarious duties—some, even, self-imposed duties—that he contracted the illness that proved his undoing, and removed from our midst one of our ablest and most popular officials.
His motto appeared ever to be "ask not another to do that which you can do yourself," and so it was that, after that dire and dreadful typhoon of the 18th September, desiring to make up his reports and gather all the data possible from his own personal observation, and although he was even then in but indifferent health, he made a complete tour of inspection of the harbour proper, viewing the wrecks, making inquiries here and there, and gathering all the facts as they then could be gathered.
But, unfortunately, the Colony was not free of typhoons, and Capt. Barnes-Lawrence caught a bad chill, upon which dysentery supervened, and although he stuck to his desk and to his duties, with all the hardihood of a naval-trained officer, he was at length forced to admit himself beaten, and nine days ago it was announced that the Harbour Master was indisposed and unable to attend the office for a day or two.
And that was the beginning of the end. Daily inquiries were made at the Harbour Office, and by telephone at his residence, and daily they became, to his friends, more disheartening, though no one dreamt of a fatal termination of his illness then, so that when it was announced this afternoon that the Hon. Capt. Barnes-Lawrence had passed quietly away at 1.50 p.m. to-day, it came as a great shock, and on all sides expressions of the greatest regret were heard.
He was a friend to all, and everyone who knew him, in business or in social life, felt himself at once his friend. As a marine magistrate, he appeared to be admirably—aye, and more than admirably—fitted for the position, with all its heavy responsibilities, and many a mariner, this day afloat on many seas, has to thank him for the salvation of his position and the saving of him from doing foolish things, which would have left him to become stranded, a loafer and beach-comber in this Colony, but for the good advice of their friend the Harbour Master.
Many a one will remember how, when called upon to try sailors for various breaches of the Mercantile Marine Laws, he would call them into his private office, and there talk to them—not as Magistrate to accused—but as man to man, and only when they persisted in their refusal to return to duty, would he put them on their trial in open Court.
Captain Barnes-Lawrence had seen much service before he retired from the navy, having been in the punitive expedition up the Gambia River in 1876; on the Somali Coast, with the naval expedition in the Kaffir War, throughout the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, his services being also lent to China. His last post, before transfer to Hongkong, was that of Captain of the Port at Gibraltar.
A good, true, and honourable gentleman has gone from amongst us, and many will mourn his loss. To his bereaved wife and family, the greatest sympathy will be extended in this their hour of sorrow.
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