RONALD POULTON.
[To TER EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] Sin,—Lieutenant R. W. Poulton Palmer, Royal Berkshire Regiment, the Times describes him as, and adds that he was probably the greatest Rugby three-quarter-back of all time. He was; and he was much more. At Rugby, at Oxford, at Reading, be concerned himself intimately with the lot of his less fortunate countrymen. " As a captain," says the Times, "he was a born leader." And to many of us it seemed that he was born to lead on fields other than those of international football. For recently he had inherited the position of a great captain of industry ; while he had to the full that sympathy for Labour which comes from practical experience in the shop and long-enduring friendships begun in boys' clubs, in mean streets, and cemented in many an August camp beside the sea. With him are buried hopes that will surely rise again. Indeed, his death is but a reminder of the abiding miracle. This young man had all the world can give —fortune, fair renown, excellence in the field and in the schools, the love of all who knew him, the respect of all who did not, and opportunity. He gave them all gladly, dying that the world might live, in the spirit of the man he was not ashamed to call Master. In our minds he leaves a fragrant memory, in our hearts a splendid hope.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
ALFRED OLLIVANT.
8 Bickenhall Mansions, Gloucester Place, W.
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