DRAMATIC DISAPPEARANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8347, 6 February 1913, Page 8

DRAMATIC DISAPPEARANCE

OVER CLIFF IN BLAZE OF FLASHLIGHT. JOINED FANNY GRIMES ABOARD THE BALLARAT. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received February 5, 3.23 p.m.) LONDON, February 5. The villagers at Hunslet are incensed over the report that Albert Knight, vicar* of Christ Church, Hunslet, has left the country under an assumed name. It was hrst stated that Knight had fallen over Flamborough Head, and for three weeks the villagers were indefatigable in their search for the body. Knight was very popular, and was a cricketer, footballer, and boxer. Lately ho treated hfs wife violently, and behaved queerly. On January 18th he compelled her to, accompany him to Bridlington, whence they tramped six miles through mud and fog to a dangerous cliff. Knight then told her he intended to disappear. He carefully E repared the scene, leaving his umrella and camera on the cliff. He then departed, after instructing his wife to go to the nearest farmhouse and say she saw him fall over. The wife was not aware of Knight’s intentions. She was simply terrorised. She did not know of his relations with a school teacher. It is believed that Knight and the school teacher sailed in the steamer Ballarat under assumed names. Knight was highly strung, and was an emotional preacher of the Revivalist type. Ho raised the number of his congregation from a score to 600 during his ministry. Details of his flight were carefully planned from the time he dramatically disappeared over the edge of the cliff in the blaze of a flash-light, wherewith ho pretended to take a photograph, until ho joined Fanny Grimes aboard the Ballarat. Knight’s hair was ent unusually short the day before he disappeared. His marked attention to Grimes caused gossip, dividing the congregation into two groups, one defending the vicar and the other full of misgivings. The gossip was silenced upon Grimes qutting Leeds in September for the 'South of England, but it was renewed again in the, autumn, and the antagonistic portion of the congregation demurred to Knight’s taking six weeks’ vacation despite his wife’s objections. The “Yorkshire Post” states that Knight sailed for Australia accompanied by a female Sunday school teacher.