Was His Knighthood Barred By Domestic Trouble?

NZ Truth, Issue 1181, 19 July 1928, Page 8

Was His Knighthood Barred By Domestic Trouble?

uiiilnnimiiiilliiirin(iiit[ir<iiHitiminoKiutfHMin»lßUmn«UMniJßii«> |uii""i"iuimmmimmiMiiiMmMnimutimimmmMim«iniiiimmmummM»mm>mitimiMMi»^^^ || \a/HY was Kingsford Smith not given a knighthood I !| VV for his great Pacific flight? Was it because he | 1 was living apart from his wife and confemplatetf divorce I proceedings? The authorities m England look with I disfavor upon the granting of an honor to any man, | no matter how great his work for the nation, who jis separated from 'his wife; and itjs suggested that Kingsford Smith may have been offered a title provided he could overcome his domestic breach. This can only be made good by reconciliation or divorce.

bobbed hair, who said she was Mrs. Ives. He later served divorce papers on Ives. When confronted with Mrs. McKenna m court, he said she was not the woman he, saw. • Ives denied that he had ever committed misconduct. He admitted to Lawyer Dwyer that he knew JVlrs. McKenna's daughter — Mrs. Kingsford Smith, but denied that, ahe had ever been at Maida Vale. Mrs. McKenna frequently, came up iin the packing season to help, as her son, Terry Corboy, worked with him. He denied that any such incident as reported by the, detectives ever took place. On that night he had a bath m the well-fitted bathroom attached to the place. Mrs. McKenna was the only woman on the place. • He threatened to shoot the detectives because they had no right on his p.ro-

p*3i iy, emu no i/uu" . sidered they, were making insinuations against a lady there.

Mrs. McKenna | gave evidence that ' her daughter, .Mrs. • Kingsford Smith, was never at Maida Vale. She hei*self was there on the occasion of the detectives' visit, and that night brought m several lots of water to fill the boiler oh the kitchen range. She recognized the photograph produced as one of Mrs. Kingsford Smith, taken when she was 16, but said that no one would' recognize ' her now by that. . '.'•■■ A second portrait produced was a much better likeness and was taken at the same time. She said she saw and spoke to the law clerk, Davis, who was never near enough to see what she actually looked like. ,•• • . Florence Ives, mother of the husband., said she would never recognize Mrs. Kingsford Smith from the photograph, which to. her looked more like Mrs. McKenna. , Terry Corboy corroborated Ives 1 story, and he, too, said that the portrait would not now identify his sister, who had never to his knowledge been to Maida Vale. Mr. Justice Burnside, m summing up, said that he would not like to say that

Airman's Romance

the photographs* were of the same per- • son. He would like to see the. original. He did not see how they could expect to identify a woman of 27 by the portrait of a girl of 16, and he thought it likely that the carrier, Fawkes, and the law clerk, Davis,. 'had been mistaken. He was not prepared to accept the testimony of the paid witnesses, Lees and Angwin-r-who went to Maida Vale knowing- beforehand what they were expected to find out—without a good deal of corroboratiori, and he considered their story a most unlikely one, silly and absurd m view, of the fact that there was a well-equipped bathroom on f the premises. The Mrs. Smith referred to appeared to be a mythical lady about whom, a lot of suggestions had been made, and, on the testimony, he was not prepared to find Ives guilty of misconduct The, petition would be dismissed. • ■ Tf wn.Q trhiift ntA.-

tioned at Port Hedland that Kingsford Smith . married Miss Thelma Eileen

■•.■ | .tiope vo rD °y ua ~" ! "" " T~ June 6, 1923. The bride's people at that time occupied Meentheena station, Marble Bar, her father, William John Corboy, being well-known as a miner, and hailing from Auckland, New Zealand. Mrs.' Smith's mother was originally Miss Gertrude Helen Jeffries, arid at the time of her marriage came' from. Albany. When Kingsford Smith married he was 26 years of age and his bride 22. „ The couple were married at a registry office m Marble Bar by special license. . From Westralian Airways, Smith and Lieutenant Keith Anderson were engaged on tractor work for some time m West Australia. . They then purchased two Bristol fighter biplanes and flew them to Sydney, where Kingsford Smith met C. T. P. Ulm. ...=.■ Followed their historic record-break-ing flight round Australia and the conception of the plan to fly the Pacific. The story of how they fought against difficulties to accomplish this wonderful achievement is very fresh m the minds of New Zealanders.