A SECRET MARRIAGE.

Shannon News, 23 November 1923, Page 4

A SECRET MARRIAGE.

POSITION OF “COUNTESS.”

FIRST HUSBAND LIVING,

Romance is piled on romance in the story of the mystery marriage or the eighth Earl of Breadalbane, who died in a Boscombe nursing home last May, says a London paper. The widowed “countess” is now (moved to be no countess at all, but the wife of a photographer named Edwards. Her “marriage” to Lieutenant Campbell; who became the eighth earl, was bigamous. Few people knew that the young earl—he was thirty-seven—was “naar-

In September, 1916, Jain Edward Herbert Campbell, a naval lieutenant, took a pretty musical comedy artist, Marie Laura Reeves-Hunt, to the St. Giles Register Office, Bloomsbury, and married her. , Lieutenant Campbell became the eighth Earl of Breadalbane last October, and Mane Laura Campbell became a countess. They lived together as Mr and Mrs Campbell, and when Mr Campbell, nephew of the seventh earl, succeeded to the title they went to live at Bournemouth, staying in a quiet quarter 'near the golf links. They were known to Bournemouth simp y as Mr' and Mrs Campbell. When the news of their marriage was disclosed later the young countess said she was very sorry that their secret had become known. Now comes the startling denouement, and the story of the bigamous

marriage. ' The “countess,” as a girl, lived in Cardiff. Her maiden name was Marie Laura Hunt. When her mother died the orphan was cared for and broug up by a Mrs* Reeve,, whose name Marie she subsequently adopted. TWO MARRIAGES MADE. After leaving school Marie became a domestic servant in the home of a Mrs Edwards. She was a prepossessing girl, and Mrs Edwards’ son, Beniamin James, fell in love with her.

They were married at a Bristol register office on September 3, 1906. \ They came to London, but apparently their married life was not happy. Ultimately she left her, husband, and went to live in the neighbourhood of Russell Square.

She joined a theatrical touring company, and presently appeared on the boards at the Gaiety. It was at that time she met Lieutenant Campbell, and “married” him» possibly having had reason to believe that her first husband was dead. Mr Campbell was anything but wealthy. He occupied a back bedroom in Bernard Street, ,W.C. “Miss Reeves-Hunt” lodged in the same neighbourhood, at Marchmont Street , A DEVOTED COUPLE. They appeared to be a devoted

couple. As “Mr and Mrs Campbell” life was all roses. They smiled together at hard times. He worked in Woodwicb Arsenal on munitions. Ohe (Jay as the young husband, whose health, was far from robust, stopped down t 9 pick up his pet dog, he had a seizure of some kind. A doctor was called in. was necessary to remove him to a nursing home, and one in Frances Road, Bournemouth, was selected. His mother, Lady Margaret Campbell, frequently came to see him

there. The young wife was constant- » Ily at his side. Devoted to the end, she was grief-stricken* at his death. A distant cousin, Captain Charles William Campbell, inherited the title. Relatives of the late earl began many inquiries concerning. the antecedents of the widowed “countess.” Then came the revelation that the marriage was illegal, and that Mr Ed- > wards, the photographer, is still alive.