BRAVE WIVES

Hokitika Guardian, 29 May 1929, Page 8

BRAVE WIVES

THE CO HR AGE OF WAITING. Behind the glory of the men who risk their lives to hre.ik records and win fresh laurels on the racing track and in tlie air lies the drama of the women who wait. JMajor Seagrave, the world’s speed king, was making his hurtling plunge at 231 miles an hour across the sands at Daytona, and his wife, in the grand stand, covered her eyes with her hands in an agony of suspense. Not till the cheering broke out tha fold her her husband was safe dared she look at the shining projectile in which he had made his great gamble with death. To-day Mrs Seagravo shares in tin honour that is being bestowed upon her husband on his triumphant return home. Hut one can imagine that hei joy is not entirely unalloyed. THE' AGONISING WAIT. All women, mothers and wives whose men flirt with death know the agonies of that wait while fate hang l in the balance and a man’s life turn on the strength of his wrists, tin quickness of his eye, and tiic precision of machinery. Lady Cohham knew it while her hus 'and was writing history in the air, '■() did Mi-s Malcolm Campbell, Mn 1 indborgh, the mother of the Atlantic airman, and a dozen others. For over eight years M.rs Dork Segrave has known the agonies of sus miul uncertainty while her litis band has been racing and break in; s ,•(•(! records. She watched his torn' I’ving dash across the sands at South o o t in l! 1 '? 1 ). wlhoi he broke tiic worldb record for the flying kilometre. All she saw was something red tear ing past at twice the speed of an ex press train. “II made my feel sic!and ill,” she staled afterwards. Then she saw poor Dick Howey, the racing motorist, killed at Boulogne Ill’s car overturned and burst inf* ames. It was enough to shatter the nerves of any woman, yet when her husband wanted to go out to Florida in 1927 to attack the world’s speed record she did not seek to deter him. NIGHTS OF FEAR. But her friends knew what agonies she suffered. Two days after Major Segrave sailed from Southampton came the terrible accident at Bendino Sands when Mr Parry Thomas was killed. “ I would have given anything in the world to have recalled my husband home,” Mrs Seagrave said. For nights on end her fears for his safety were so great that she could iiot go to sleep. Whenever the tele phone hell rang she was afraid to answer it in case it should he a message ol had news.

“L thought once I would follow my husband to America,” Mrs Seagrave said, “hut I lacked the courage. I could not boar to see him risking his life.”

“It is marvellous,” she exclaimed when she was told lie had broken the record. “But I wish he would give it tip. It is difficult to keep a stiff upper lip when your man is risking his life.” When Flight-Lieutenant Webster, the young Air Force hero won the Sell'eider seaplane trophy at the incredHe speed of 281 miles an hour, there were two women in England who waited with their hearts in their mouths for 'ho news that- he was safe. One was his mother ,tlic other was his fiancee, .Miss Enid L. Darnley, of Ipswich. Spectators at Venice saw his senplane whizz round the course like a grey shell from a monster gun. So terrific was the speed that the machine looked like a blurr in the sky. A minute later the news was being flashed to England that he had won the greatest aerial trophy in the world.

His mother shed a few tears , hutpride in her son’s triumph reasserted itself and she was soon smiling. “ i wonderful hoy’”, she said “hut we had no idea he would over bring such fame to us as this.”

No woman has probably had to endure the agonies of suspense and incertainity more than Lady Cohliam, the wife of the, famous airman. Time after time she lias known many anxious hours while he has been blaming new air routes in far-off parts of • the earth. On one occasion when he was flying at Calcutta no news was received of him for four days and serious misgivings were entertained for his safety. Mrs Cohliam—as she was then—was distracted. Then the news came through that all was well. Jh'r husband had had to turn hack on the Ihirma coast on account of a monsoon.

Another time that Cohham was near death was when Arabs shot at his mai lime and killed his mechanic, M,r ott. near Basra. For 500 miles Cobhum had to race through the air at a height of 4000 feet over a wild desert populated by fiercely hostile tribes. All I. ue time ho was haunted by iiie fear that his petrol would give out and that he would have to make a forced landing. Fortunately ,Lady Cohham was spared the agony of knowing of this ■xperionce until it was all over.