The news that Major Ronald Gartland, M.P., is not, as
we so long hoped, missing and probably prisoner but dead will leave many hearts sad. Ronald Cartland was one of the most attractive, as he was one of the most promising, of the group of young Conservatives (Conservative more for need of some party label than because of any opposition to Labour or Liberals) who took Mr. Eden as their leader after his resigna- tion from the Foreign Office and were ready at any moment to form a political bodyguard for Mr. Churchill. He was a man of peculiarly high principle and of strong religious conviction. Readers of The Spectator knew him without knowing it, for he contributed the column on "The Week in Parliament" for many months till he was called up to serve with his regiment, the Anti-Tank Corps, in which he advanced rapidly from lieutenant to major. He was last seen in the Flanders fighting of last May, and was thought to have been taken prisoner. He was 33.
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