Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstra81821920roya).pdf/23

 OBITUARY

Mr. Hale, who retired from the F. M. S. Civil Service in 1911 after twenty-seven years' service, died on April 8th in his sixty- fifth year. He was one of the earliest surviving members of the Society and contributed several notes and papers to early numbers. his principal contribution being on "Folk-lore and the Menangkabau Code in the Negri Sembilan" Journal XXXI. He always lamented with that delightful candour which characterized him, that his literary talent was untrained: but for all that it was a very genuine talent. Had "The Adventures of John Smith in Malaya" been written two centuries ago, its author would have ranked with Defoe. Hale had an extraordinary faculty for vivid detail.

Less than a fortnight before he died. he wrote me a letter full of his usual enthusiasm for Malaya and his abundant interest in life and enclosing a photograph of himself as a private in the Kent Volunteer 'Fencibles. For me as for many others it was a pleasure to have known him and served under him.

R. O. W.