SHIPBOARD AFFAIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 195, 7 November 1927, Page 16

SHIPBOARD AFFAIR

WIFE FORMS A NEW ATTACHMENT ARMY OFFICER’S DIVORCE Having formed an attachment for another man while returning to New Zealand, Flora Macdonald Sinclalr-Burgess changed in her manner toward her husband, William Livingstone Hatchwell Sin-clair-Burgess. A S a result, her husband obtained a decree nisi before Mr. Justice Reed on the ground of his wife’s misconduct with an unknown man. It was stated by Mr. E. H. Northcroft, for the petitioner, that his client was an army officer, residing in Wellington. He married the respondent in 1921. In July, 1925, she visited England and it was upon her return that she told him of her attachment for another man. A few days after her return she asked if she could go to Australia and, thinking it would cure her of the infatuation, he allowed her to go. He had no idea that she was going to meet the co-respondent there. She left a letter for the petitioner’s sister, saying that she had fallen in love with a boy of 25 and had lost her affection for her husband. She admitted that she was to blame and described her husband in Chaucer’s words as “A parfait gentle knight.” He was, she added, all his sister thought of him, and more. Petitioner later received a letter from his wife in which she referred to a man named “Jerry,” and said she hoped to obtain employment in Sydney. He persuaded her to return, but she only stayed with him for 10 days and then went to her mother. In October she sailed for England, the petitioner paying her fare and arranging to support her for six months and to stop the allowance if she did not return. The respondent wrote from London asking to divorce her and making the necessary admissions. She refused to come back to him.