SUICIDE OF MR. WALTER MONTGOMERY.

Auckland Star, Volume II, Issue 567, 3 November 1871, Page 2

SUICIDE OF MR. WALTER MONTGOMERY.

Our readers will be grieved to hear Mr. Walter Montgomery, the well-known actor, shot himself on the Ist of September, at Shelley's hotel, Stafford-street, London. He was married but two days before the sad occurrence, at St. George's, Hanover Square, to Miss Laleah Burpee Bigelow, an American lady. The shocking incideuts concerning the suicide our readers will learn from the sub joined report of the coroner's inquest. At the Gaiety Theatre, a week or two since, he uppeared in his favourite characters — Hamlet, Othello, Sir Giles Overreach, Louis XL, Orlando, Romeo, and Claude Melnotte. Mrs. Montgomery was the lady who, being announced in the bills as "alady* her first appearance," played Pauline at the Gaiety during the deceased's brief management. On September 2 the inquest was he d before Mr. F. S. Langham. Mr. Henry Melton, hatter, said: I knew the deceased, Walter Montgomery. I saw him on the day he was married, and he then appeared in an excellent

state of health and spirits.—The Coroner: Did you know anything likely to annoy him ? —No. Nothing that was likely to weigh on his mind, calculated to induce him to destroy himself?— Nothing. Has. he ever exhibited any svraptoms of his being overtaxed ?—- lie has. Has he had any engagements lately?— No, only the Gaiety. He lost a great deal of money by that theatre. The losses were irretrievable, and that might have possibly acted on his mind. I never heard him threaten to destroy himself.-■* My opinion is that his mind was overtaxed 5 that he was a man of great genius; that he was capable of going through the labour of six men ; and that he was highly excitable. Mrs. Montgomery, the widow of the deceased, who was, a°s might be expected, in a sadly agitated state, said : Last evening, at a quarter to 11,1 was in the front room of our lodgings lying on the sofa, my husband being in the bedroom, looking over the contents of a box for some clothiDg, as he said. He had been poorly and depressed before. I had noticed it particularly during the past two days, but during the last six weeks he had been depressed. Having had losses connected with the GaietyT supposed to be the cause. The Coroner : Had he ever threatened to destroy himself?—No; but he had expressed himself to the effect that such might be his end. Did you thiuk that the depression was of such a nature as to act on his mind, and cause him to become of unsound mind ?—I do. He was in low spirits till yesterday afternoon, and he then had a change, and became bad. He said, " Oood bye," and.on my going.into the room he was gone. Did you hear the report, of a pistol ?—I did. I did not know before that he had a nistoh I screamed lor Mrs. Shaw, the landlady. Except his losses, 1 know of nothing to have caused him to do it. —Dr. Hardinge said : I was called to see the body of the deceased. It was warm, but life -was extinct. I saw blood on the shirt, and there was blood oozing from the mouth, and a wound into which *-I could intrude my finger in the roof of the mouth. On holding a post mortem examination, found that the ball had passed to the forehead, and rebounded to the back, lodging in the brain. The ball was completely flattened. Death must have been instantaneous, in consequence of its dividing a large vessel. The act must have been the-act of the deceased himself. The Coroner: The evidence shows that at the time the de eased was in an unsound state of mind, and I shall advise the jury to return a verdict to that effect. The jury at once returned a verdict in accordance with the coroner's suggestion The remains were interred at Brompton Cemetery on the sth September. A number of Australians attended the funeral.—European Mail, Sept. 8.