EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2412, 9 December 1880, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE.

The suicide which took place at Quorn recently (says the “ Warrnambool Standard”) was a singular one. Mr James Trimmer, bank manager there, was on the point of being married when he was suddenly seized with an overpowering idea that he was not able to keep a wife. This so preyed upon his mind that he blew his brains out. Among other letters he left the following addressed to the general manager of the National Bank of Adelaide : “ Quorn, 19th, 6 a.m. To the manager of National Bank Association, Adelaide. Dear sir,—Remorse having seized me at the position I occupy in regard to Miss Creelman, I cannot bear to live longer. Never again sanction the marriage of an officer with a salary less than £250. Had you refused me you would have saved my life. I leave everything in order. Not one penny is missing. I desire that you will administer my estate. Sell the piano, on which I have paid £l7 15s ; and I have £47 in the Bank of South Australia, where my life polic}' for £SOO lies also. After all the estate is realised, please invest all the funds, including the insurance money, in the bands of three trustees for the benefit of Harriet Euphcmia Creelman (to whom lam engaged) for life. All the goods ordered from Bignell and Young and others can be returned. 1 owe Richard Smith, Mount Arden, £5 Gs; Greenslade, eight weeks, £10; Woodman, on piano, £11; and a few minor claims. May God have mercy on my soul. Have messages of farewell sent to all my relations.— Yours faithfully, lost through remorse, J. Trimmer.” The young lady to whom he was engaged was a daughter of Dr Creelman, who resided in the SouthEast for some time, first in Penola and afterwards at Kingston. To her he wrote saying that he felt for some time past that his income was not sufficient to marry on, thinking of which he had passed several long and sleepless nights till remorse seized him. He trusted she might live to marry a good man. That deep as his love was for her it could not keep him from fhe act he was about to commit. That he could not see the world any more, for it seemed to mock him, and he was a lie to it all. He finished by saydng he had left his insurance monej to her, and signed himself, “ Your broken-hearted and deeplyloving James.” The jury found, “ That the deceased, James Trimmer, shot himself while in a state of temporary insanity.”