DEATH OF JOHN I. FOX

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3575, 14 December 1926, Page 2

DEATH OF JOHN I. FOX

SAD END OF WELL-KNOWN FARMER.

Auckland, Last Night. A three days’ search for John Ignatius Fox, who disappeared from his farm at Henderson last Wednesday, culminated in the finding of his body in the Henderson Creek on Saturday afternoon. The deceased had recently leased a 20acre property in the Henderson Valley and lived there with another man. His wife is absent from the Dominion on ’holiday, and his son is a pupil of a Southern college. In the absence of his companion last Wednesday, the deceased disappeared, leaving a note indicating that ho contemplated committing suicide on account of aspersions which had been cast on his loyalty during the late war. Until his disappearance Fox.had given no indication of worry. At an inquest held yesterday, medical evidence was given lo the effect that death prodnbly occurred on Wednesday. A letter was produced in which the deceased stated that, although lie had been awarded damages in a libel action, originating in the Waikato, he believed that his friends viewed him with suspicion on account of the allegation that he had been a German spy. He mentioned the names of two British officers who, he said, .could dissipate the stigma. The Coroner (Mr. F. lv. Hunt, 8. M.) returned a. verdict that the deceased committed suicide while suffering from depression. Fox was a naturalised Austrian and was horn in Vienna in 1878. His family name was Fuchs. Educated at Oxford, lie was a prominent Fabian, and a frequent guest of the Countess of Warwick. He was acquainted with IT. G. Wells, G. K. Chesterton, and Bernard Shaw,, and as an associate of the British Labour Party he stood for the Reading Division against Sir Rufus Isaacs, now the Marquess of Reading. He enlisted with the British section of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1914, and served in Egypt and Gallipoli, returning to England in 1920. He established a club for disabled New Zealanders in London. After lecturing in military camps, lie came to the Dominion and settlpd near Fcilding. He was secretary for the Wellington Returned Soldiers’ Association, and later on organiser for the Dairy Farmers’ Union. The late Mr Fox was a curate in Fox ton many years ago.