Final years
From 1940 until 1944 Gethin was Lieutenant-Governor and Secretary of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and subsequently a
Commissioner. The Management of the Royal Hospital is placed in the care of a Board of Commissioners headed by Her Majesty's
Paymaster General. The Board includes the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, both very senior and distinguished retired Army
Officers of General Officer rank or above. Additionally there are several Specially Appointed Commissioners who are, like
Gethin, mainly retired senior Army Officers.
Gethin never lost his love of football and he presided at the meetings of the Army Football Association while he was at the Horse Guards. He also played golf and regularly competed in the Army Golfing Society's annual meeting. He was reported to have won a West Byfleet golf competition [The Sunday Times, 8 March 1936] and reached the final of the army competition at Royal St George's, Sandwich, losing only on the 21st hole [The Sunday Times, 25 & 27 April 1939].
Ethel died on 13 July 1950 at The Sarum Nursing HOme, Winchester [Winchester 1950, 3rd qt], aged 72.
On 13 November 1958 Gethin set sail from Southampton aboard the Hessenstein, stating that he intended to live in Hong Kong for at least a year; his son, John, and his family had gone there a few months earlier and Gethin presumably went to join them. However, I was told he spent his retirement years living at Alton, Hampshire; he was of "West Dene Beech", Alton, when he died on Monday, 14 November 1960, aged 81 [Alton 1960, 4th qt].