A PATHETIC TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1988, 10 June 1919, Page 4

A PATHETIC TRAGEDY.

Not often is such a poignant drama unfolded in the courts as was the ease recently, says the London Daily Chronicle, when permission was asked to presume the death of Mr Harold Sonnies, a wealthy man, who disappeared mysteriously at Bournemouth on Boxing Day. The ease came before the Probate Division of the Court.

In his pathetic letters, Mr Sonnies expressed his intention of drowning, and expressed his fervent wish that the sea would not give up its dead. That dying wish has been fulfilled. Mr Sonnies was father of. Lady Baden-Powell, and formerly lived at Grey Rigg, Park-

stone. Counsel staled that Mr Soarues was staying at Bournemouth with his wife, with whom he had lived on the most affectionate tonus. De was 03 years of age, and had been

suffering from nervous depression and dyspepsia. ITis -wife was confined to her room. The last lime he was seen was on (,'hrislmas Day, at I o'clock in the afternoon, when he went to see his wife, having previously prepared his will, (lie signature to which was witnessed by the maid. lie retired 1o rest about 9 u’cloclCand from (hat lime lie was never seen again. In the morning it was found he had pul on bis trousers, waistcoat and coat, but no collar. All bis money and trinkets were left in the room. Documents left behind showed only too plainly that he bad drowned himself. He left letters for ins son, Captain Soames, and ids dangbiers, Mis Davidson and Lady Badcn-Powell. Tlis estate is wort It £250,9(10. One of the letters was to the maid, Eva'Gale, and read; "For Eva —Do not alarm .Mrs Soames if I have gone. It is only that as opiates can no longer give me sleep, I am mad with insomnia. 1 can no longer be of use to anybody.— H.S." ‘’Goodbye all. Bleeping draughts no good. 1 must try to drown. .Return library book's, as 1 have too many out, and the librarian might suffer.” In another Idler he wrote: ‘•For my dear IVifc. —In ease 1 eati no longer hear the misery of years of nervous dyspepsia and insomnia, I have to take my life when my endurance fails, 1 leave this word of love to you (with my will) to thank you for all yon have been to met in our life together, and to m-k forgiveness for all my shortcomings. "I have borne all my miseries so h-ng a s I fell I could he of any help to you, dearest and best, hut now I fee! (h.al 1 am only a, hindrance, as each year 1 only sink into deep"” •11-health and melancholy. “T am leaving nearly everything to yon, and I know you will dispose of it justly. . . . I Inis! my body may not be found to horrify you, Rut if it is. let it be buried in (he simpled grave. . , . Pitiful, but 1 have faith the Infinite Mercy will gran! me re.-L "I hope to succeed in drowning myself, so as to he no horror to my beloved, and 1 trust the sea will not give up its dead." There was also, said eonm-el. a. dianvand in one entry, dated NV< ■ ■ember tilth, he had writi-m: "I ■cem to have reached the limit of my endurance. When from nervous ■lyspspsia days are droprines.-, and nights bear horror of wailing for dawn, when one’s menial effort breaks before bodily (orlnres, and ■.■ hen one realises one is m> longer any use to others one in in-titled in ending a life that is so helpless. “1 hang as long ;IS I, felt 1 could be of any help to my dear wife in the sad ills Unit have overtaken her, and the suffering she has borne so patiently. Hut my intense sympathy has broken in my longing to assuage her trouble, so in vain. “'For one’s impotence to help —if nly one could hear some for her, if only one could fee! that to sacrifve one’s poor life would really help aggravates one's sadness, and I know only too well tlm ! we live alone and suffer alone. “And. now that my nerve ami digestion and whole bodv leave gone to pieces I am onlv a hindrance. . . . . and 1 think now she is belter without me.” Mr Justice Coleridge gave leave to presume death as from December 2 (itli, 1918.