Milestones, Oct. 30, 1944

Married. British Army Major John Jacob Astor, 26, youngest son of out spoken Tory M.P. Lady Astor (without her approval) ; and Anna Inez (“Chiquita”) Carcano, 23, vivacious daughter of the Argentine Ambassador to Britain; in London.

Killed in Action. Army Captain Alexander M. Patch 3rd, 24, West Point-trained only son of the 7th Army’s Commander Lieut. General Alexander Patch; while assaulting an enemy position in France.

Killed in Action. David, Lord Davies, 29, reputedly richest man in the British Army, Major in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, coal, banking, and railroad heir of the late, liberal 1st Baron of Llandinam; in the European theater.

Died. Nell Brinkley, 56, creator of the supercute Brinkley Girl (darling of the Hearst Sunday supplements for 30 years), veteran courtroom sketchmistress ; in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Died. Colonel Deneys Reitz, 62, bald, bold, Boer-born High Commissioner for South Africa, autobiographer (Commando, Trekking On); in London. Afrikaner Reitz escaped from the British to Madagascar after the Boer War, returned from exile at the invitation of his good friend Jan Smuts, fought with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in World War I, became omnipresent in South African public life.

Died. Richard Bennett, 71, famed actor, father of Barbara, Constance and Joan; after long illness; in Los Angeles. Indiana-born descendant of a line of Methodist preachers, he was brilliant in many hits (Barrie’s What Every Woman Knows, Howard’s They Knew What They Wanted, Anderson’s Winterset). Like his good friend the late John Barrymore, he was a notorious eccentric (his alleged favorite sport: frightening Boy Scouts). He characterized himself as “an honest actor within my limits, counterfeiting as conscientiously as I know how the spurious creatures of the drama.”

Died. John Stewart Bryan, 72, scholarly publisher of Richmond’s News Leader and Times-Dispatch, onetime president of the College of William and Mary, Harvard University overseer, Southern Railway director; of pneumonia; in Richmond.

Died. Irving Patrick O’Hay, 74, dashing, Irish-born soldier of fortune and race horse trainer, self-styled “apostle of discontent”; of a heart attack; in Taos, N. Mex. He once complained that it was hard to feed himself between wars, was presented with the only gold meal ticket ever issued by the New York Society of Restaurateurs.