TRAGIC SUICIDE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 48, 19 November 1937, Page 11

TRAGIC SUICIDE

Man's Devotion to Children Gilbert Henry Dopson adored the two jhildren of the people with whom he todged — Molly, aged seven, and Mona Blanche, aged 10. He nsed to play with them, show them games and tricks, laugh and romp with them . . . and they danced for him, for they were talented children. Then they died in a fire from which he tried frantically, but in vain, to save them. Four days later he died, too — by suicide in a canal. •He could not bear to live after they had gone. i Jumped from Window. In his own words, this was the last he saw of the children he loved, before the fiames engulfed them at the home of their patents at Oxford, England, Mr. and Mrs. Mfred Gibbons — the former a well-known radio entertainer. "I ran into the kiddies' room. It was full of smoke. Mona was standing in the middle of the room. "I said to Mona: 'Try to be a good girl for a moment.' I smashed the window, called for help, then went back and jumped from my own window for aid because the staircase was ablaze." His tragic story, so full of drama and terror, was read in the cairn atmosphere of Oxford Coroner's Conrt at the ! inquest on the two children — and on ! himself. "I, could not throw the children out of the window," his statement went on, "I was afraid I would hurt them. I I thought my best plan was to get the | fire brigade. "ivhen I got back to the house 1 went up a ladder but could not get in. "I called out 'Mona, Molly,' but there was no reply. "I thought probably they had got out o£ the room." Dopson was commended for his efforts by the jury, who returned a verdict of accidental death on the children, adding that the parents, who were away at thje time of the fire, had taken all reasonable eare in leaving 'them. 'On Dopson the verdict was one of i jsuicide while the balance of his. mind Iwas disturbed.