SHATTERED ROMANCE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 212, 2 June 1921, Page 7

SHATTERED ROMANCE

WIDOW SEEKING HUSBAND

SHIP’S FIREMAN POSES AS NAVAL HERO

A strange story of the abrupt ending of a widow’s romance and the duplicity 11 of a ship’s fireman who posed as an ex-lieutenant-commander in tho Royal Navy, and wrote letters in the names of fictitious women, was unfolded in the. Auckland Police Court on Monday, states the “Herald.” Leslie Douglas Stewart Murray, aged 35, appeared before Mr. J. W. Boynton, S.M., to answer charges of having obtained a£4l), and having attempted to obtain «£2O from Margaret "Wilson by means of a false pretence. Tho complainant, a young widow, stated that about tho end of last January she inserted a matrimonial advertisement signed "Romance" in an Auckland newspaper, receiving 38 replies. Ono of them purported to be from a woman signing herself Margaret Bannister, and introduced her to a man called Douglas Kingston, whose address was Box 1234, G.P.0., Wellington. , Tho letter was produced in court. It was dated from tho s.s. Tofua, and read as follows:— “Dear Romance, —Your advertisement re newspaper of yesterday and to-day. There is a gentleman of my acquaintance to whom you can, if you wish, send this as a letter of introduction, or at least part of it. He is Mr. Douglas Kingston (sub-lieutenant - commander, R.N.), D. 5.0., D.S.G., but ho was court-

martialled and dismissed a year ago for hanging a German submarine commander during the war. It is a long story, and he will tell you it himself. He writes the. most delightful letters, and is the nicest boy you ever met. But'l’m married and on my way to England. I wish I could stay and bring him to you, for I know he would at least interest you. There is not a corner of tho earth in which he has not travelled. Of course, he has his failings, but he does not drink ('beyond a brandy and soda with a friend worth having one with,’ to quote himself), and he does not gamble. But this I will tell you, he was something more than intimate with a well-known London actress. But he left London after his court-martial (you know what actresses are. ... ). But he is mighty independent. His father was a, lieuten-ant-colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery —killed in the war —and his eight uncles, all brothers and Army officers, were also killed. He was an only child. . . . Wishing you the best of luck. —Yours sincerely, Margaret Bannister, 19 Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, London, -S.W.

“P.S.- —Air, —Kingston’s address is Box 1234. G.P.0., Wellington. Ho writes away for his letters. . . . The silly, wandering, restless thing.” Witness said that, in reply to her letter. she received a letter from Kingston, who wrote from Geelong, Victoria. He said he was an ex-naval officer. They corresponded a good deal, and he spoke of coming to New Zealand. Then the letters ceased, but in their place she received letters from a “Nurse Crawford,” in Sydney, containing information that Kingston had been assaulted in Centennial Park, and was being nursed by the writer. Kingston's correspondence was resumed. He said he had no money, and was coming to \!ew Zealand. A few days later he rang her up on the telephone, and she met him outside the

Chief .Post Office. They met nearly every day, and as he said ho had no money she gave him .£6. Ho asked her to marry him, but she told him to wait. He told her of his career in the Navy, and of his dismissal after a court-mar-tial. After that incident ho related how he had had • nume’rous offers of money from society ladies in London. She believed him. He did not mention that he had ever boon a. ship’s fireman or greaser, but said he was an intimate friend of the captain of the Tofua. Later, accused showed her a letter from a friend in Wellington offering him a position at <£4 a week. He would, he said, send her his wages to bank. On his representations that there were good opportunities for making money in the business he was going into, and that ho had no money to invest, she advanced him .£4O. She believed him to be genuine. Ho left for Wellington, but soon wrote again for another advance, this time, -C2O. Owing to information she had received, however. 1 , the money was not sent.

Detective Fitzgibbon said that accused was arres'ted al Wellington. When interviewed lie admitted his name was not Douglas Kingston, but refused to any what his mime was. After investigations witness obtained a certificate of marriage between Leslie Douglas Stewart Murray and a girl at Lyttelton. Accused than admitted that that was his name. In a statement ho then made, accused said he was born in Dunedin,

and went to sea in 1901. Tn England he joined the. 6th Dragoon Guards, and served in India and South Africa, leaving the Army in 1910, and returning to Now Zealand in 1918. He went, to sea again as firema n and greater." On January 3 he was married at Lyttelton, at tho registrar’s office, telling the registrar and his wife he was an ex-naval officer. He had not lived with his wife since. He had never been in the Navy. Ho was a fireman on the Tofua at Auckland when he saw an advertisement in which 'Ro-

mance” wished to meat a "tall, educated gentleman of about 35,” Hs wrote a letter signed Margaret Bannister. Bannister was a fictitious person. During the shipping strike he was in Sydney, and wrote the letters purporting to be from the nurse Crawford. They were false. On arrival at Auckland he still led Mrs. Wilson to believe he was an ex-naval officer. The statements he had made and the letters he had written about tho position in Wellington with a Mr. W'hite, on which "he had received Aid from Airs. Wilson, were false.

Accused pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence.