SUICIDE IN A CAB.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9141, 9 May 1908, Page 6

SUICIDE IN A CAB.

A poignant love tragedy Las been revealed by the death of a young medical student, Mr Geoffrey Neville, in St. Mary’s Hospital, to which he was brought one night recently with a bullet in his head. He hailed a cab at the Marble Arch, and told the cabman to drive to Brcadburst Gardens, Hampstead. When he arrived there, the cabman waited, but his fare did not descend. Ho looked through the trap, and saw a huddled up figure in the cab with a revolver in the hand, and found that his passenger had shot himself. The cabman had not even heard the sound of the shot, but bethought the report came from the engine of a passing motor-omnibus. He drove Mr Neville first to a doctor, then to St. Mary’s Hospital. The pathos of the tragedy lies in the fact that Mr Neville shot himself on what was to have been his wedding day. He had been engaged for two years to Miss Marian Gertrude Fergnsson. Notices had been given in the Kensington and Hampstead registry offices, and he had spoken to some of his fellow-students at the Middlesex Hospital of his hopes and of the happiness he expected in married life. Mr Neville was the stepson of Major Prynne, of the R.A.M.0., stationed at Gibraltar. He was a young man of studious disposition, and because he feared that his marriage might interfere with his reading for the final examination, he postponed the marriage nntil next: year. But, as usual, love was stronger than prudence, and on January 6th, notice"of marriage wasgiven at the Kensington registry office. I

Mr Neville and Miss Fergusson gave particulars for the filling in of the form. She gave her own age as 22, and Mr Neville said that he was 23. When the usual fee of Is was--asked for, Mr Neville said that he had left his purse at home, and itwas Miss Fergusson who paid. During his love-making the young medical student had told Miss Fergusson that on his 24th birthday he would inherit" a fortune, but that until then he had only a small income of his own and an allowance from his parents. But on the very eve of the wedding day a Hampstead lady, standing “in loco parentis” to the young man, discovered the well-kept secret. She* visited both registry* offices, and clared that Geoffrey Neville was a minor. He had, she said, made a false statement to the registrar. Instead of being 23 he was not yet 21 years old. Furthermore, the lady explained that if Geoffrey Neville married he would be penniless. Ho had no income except the sum hjg parents allowed him. The allowance would be discontinued if the mar rjage took place. Letters passed between her, Mr Neville and the'parents at Gibraltar.. Finally, on the wedding day itself, the following telegram was sent from Gibraltar: —“Parents refuse consentto marriage of Geoffrey Neville, !medical student, who is a minor.” i A “caveat” was issued announcing that the marriage could not take place. Meanwhile Mr Neville must have learned what was happening. Ho left his Hampsetad boardinghouse on the morning of his wedding day, apparently to call on Miss Fergusson. yi He never came. She waited, and finally, becoming anxious, drove to Hampstead. There she found a letter saying: “In a few hours I shall shoot myself, as I affi a worthlessfellow.” A revolver belonging to another lodger was missing.