Obituaries Australia

The death occurred today of Lord Headley, who was in his 80th year. Lord Headley became a Mohammedan in 1913—the year in which he succeeded to the title—and was president of the British Moslem Society. He was married three times. His second wife, who died in 1929, was Mrs. Barbara Baynton, the noted Australian novelist. She was the mother-in-law of the Commonwealth Minister in charge of Trade Treaties (Sir Henry Gullett).

Lord Headley, who was known to Mohammedans throughout Britain and India as Saifaraman Sheik Rhamuatulla Farooq, performed the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1923, and so became entitled to the prefix "El Haj." He was the only member of the British peerage ever to set foot in the Holy City of the Mohammedans. Lord Headley was active in the move to build the Mohammedan mosque in England.

In 1925 Lord Headley was approached by a group of rich Albanians, who asked him to become King of Albania. He refused the offer.

"I told them." he is reported to have said, "that if they would guarantee me £100,000 and £10,000 a year. I would consider it. The Albanians want an Englishman, a peer, and a Moslem. They will not have anyone else."

Lord Headley was a distinguished civil engineer and for many years was engaged in foreshore protection works in England and Ireland. He was educated at Westminister and Trinity College, Cambridge. After he left college, he was engaged in educational work, and for two years was editor of the Salisbury Journal, at Westminster, He published many books on civil engineering, and several on boxing and the art of self-defence, in which he was keenly interested.