LITE CABLE NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 March 1932, Page 3

LITE CABLE NEWS

YEARS OF ANGUISH. SEQUEL TO ZEPPELIN RAID. LONDON, March 14. Fifteen years of untold anguish and years of stern battle to keep her little home together have been endured by a woman just because the War Office says she is not a widow. 1 She and all who know her, and knew her husband resolutely maintain that she is. Private A. Ilollindrake, of HeptonstaJl, near Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire was serving with the York and Lancashire Regiment in a training camp in County Durham in November, 1915, when Zeppelin raiders came over the North Sea. The troops were ordered to seek cover. Private Hollindrake is believed to have run in the direction or a river which was then in spate His companions were of the opinion that he missed his way and fell into the river and was drowned.

The War Oirice posted the missing soldier as a deserter. But nothing has been hoard of him since, and all efforts to ascertain on what grounds the War Office based their dfecison have been of no avail. Since 1916 Mrs Follindrak'e lias received no allowance or pension. As she is not officially a widow The cannot even draw a little sum of money —it was £4O in 1916—which stood in her husband’s name. If she desired she could not get “married” again.

The poor woman says she is convinced that her husband was accidentally drowned. She quietly but proudly: “I am certain my husband would never have deserted me.” Members of the local branch of the British Legion are concerned about Mrs Hollindrake’s predicament and are taking steps to have her widowhood established in a court of law.

TANGLED WEDDING. BEST MAN’S NARROW ESCAPE LONDON, March 3. The tale of a tangled "..wedding in which the best man-had tlie narrowest of escapes from marrying the bride was told by a Gloucestershire clergyman. The clergyman performeu the wedding ceremony. He Was not previously acquainted with the bride or the bridegroom or any of their friends- At the end of the service the party went to the vestry as usual to sign the register. “Now the 3 ’ bridegroom,” said the clergyman when the bride had signed, and a man stepped forward. The clergyman looked at him;; perplexed. ‘‘No the bridegroom, please,” he insisted. • “But I am the bridegroom,” said the man. The clergyman felt.'that life was becoming 'altogether too puzzling. .“You did not answer the questions in the service,” he said. “Oh,” said the bride and bridegroom together, “we thought the best man.had to do that!” The tangle was rectified by the Daily returning to the church, where the ceremony was repeated, with the bridegroom taking bis proper part. Then the register was duly signed,

BIGAMIST TERRORISED. WRATH OF SECOND “WIFE” PARIS, March 14. Marie Joseph Ritz, a bigamist it. Paris, who has just been aequited by the Seine Assize Court, deserves r place in the judicial annals on at least two accounts. In the first place; he will probably be the last bigamist to lie tried in France by an Assize Court. ' A law is being passed making bigamy a simple offence instead of a crime tints materially reducing the possibilities of punishment. A s ec '- ond point is that this bigamist o( 62 decided to brave the wrath of the law rather than that of his second “wife.”

Ritz left his real wife in 1913, after 18 years of marriage. After serving with distinction in the war he fell in love with Mme. Martineau, whose life history included two divorces. She insisted upon his marrying her and, on finding that his first marriage had not been entered or his identity papers, he went through tile ceremony. Some time ago. after a domestic quarrel, he walked int« a police station and asked to he arrested for bigamy.

Evidence was given at the trial that Ritz had treated hi s real wife very generously, sending her money from time to time.