HIS ONLY WAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 168, 6 October 1927, Page 7

HIS ONLY WAY

PEER’S PAGE BOY AND THE “DARK SPACE” BEFORE HIM “I am taking my life because .1 find no other way out of this dark space before me,” ran a sentence in a letter left by Walter Griffin, a page-boy employed by the Marquess of Ormonde at Gennings, Hunton, near Maidstone. Griffin, who was 19 years of age, shot himself in his bedroom, and at the inquest a verdict of suicide was returned. Griffin left two letters. One ran: “I have had my share of the troubles and worries of this wicked world. I have tried to please people, but have had nothing in return but unhappiness. I think it far better to take my own life than to be a worry to other people and bring only unhappiness to myself. “I have not led a wicked life, so peril a.ps the Almightly will overlook this last sin of mine.” In another letter, referring to Lord Ormonde’s butler, Griffin wrote: “Do not blame Mr. Bolton. It is a.ll my own fault. I can only reget I never listened to his advice before it was too late. I-Ie has done what very few other men would have done for me.” Mr. Bolton said Griffin was under notice to leave, but there was no particular trouble, and everyone was kind to him. , Some books the boy had been reading were produced by the coroner, who remarked that they were “rather low down.”