Scene in a Church

Levin Daily Chronicle, 27 July 1918, Page 4

Scene in a Church

■■ ♦ — ' PEER ACTS AS PEACEMAKER. A family dispute as to the custody of tho children of a soklior named Atkins led to an unusual scene in Hampden .Church, Bucks, says the "Central News." The soldier had removed the childron from their mother's care, and put them in charge of his mother, who is caretaker at the church. While sho sat at work in tho church, and the children were with her, the mother and two relatives, with- a friend, entered and tried to take the children forcibly. In the course of the struggle a child's perambulator was upset, and children, relatives, friends and others who came to the grandmother's assistance rolled on the floor together. Order was not restored properly until the Earl of Buckinghameshirc had been called in, the vicar's efforts at peacemaking having proved unavailing. As a result, the grandmother summoned Richard Roberts and Ethel Hyatt for assault, and, when tho castwas heard at Great Missenden Petty Sessions, stated that she was struck in the face, with the result that lie r nose bled. The Bench, in bindihg tho defendants over to keep tho peace, characterised the scene as a most disgraceful one.