Death Idyll of the Forest

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 10

Death Idyll of the Forest

Suicide of Platonic Pair VICTIMS OF THE POISONED PEN Down in the heart of the New Forest, that sylvan retreat of Southern England, a married man and a girl friend, who fled there from the persecution of evil and anonymous letter-writing, shot themselves dead on the threshold of a ] leafy bower that had been their habi- ; tation. | Church goers, tennis players, and j constant associates, though 20 years divided their''ages, they unwittingly | laid themselves open to scandal, and . when the truth was forced upon them, made up their minds to disappear from ! home and friends. i Safe in the seclusion of the trees, they seemingly led a haphazard existfence until the last penny was spent, and then a revolver settled for both the mysteries of death, which the> had often debated in happier days. Intensely dramatic moments invested the inquest. As the proceedings reached an end, a relative of the dead girl brokenly called down the curses of the Almighty on the authors of the anonymous cards, whom he charged as morally responsible for the double suicide. This dual tragedy of the New Forest affords yet another illustration of the injury which a campaign of anony-mously-written scandal can inflict on the sensitive mind. Even now, however, relatives and intimate friends iind it difficult to understand how it could have driven, first to flight and then to suicide, two higlily-intellectual and matter-of-fact individuals such as Percy Reginald Williams, 43, of Norman Road, Thornton Heath and Miss Eleanor Rebecca May Kaenel, 26, of Norbury Road, Thornton. Heath, unquestionably were. The association of these unhappy people was an extraordinary one, quite apart from the disparity in their years. They seem to have had two pursuits in common—literature and tennis. Moreover, both were members of the Primitive Methodist Church in Woodville Road. where Williams, a tall, grey-liaired man. recently tool; up office. Attached to the church was a tennis court, and here the man and girl frequently met in their favourite out-of-door recreation. But it was in the literary circle that they discovered their views of life were very much the same, and that their thoughts travelled along identical lines. For hours

on end these two—one a warehouseman to a whosesale firm in Cheapside; the other a bookkeeper in a dressmaker’s shop in Baker Street—talked earnestly on theology, philosophy, psychology, and kindred subjects that no one suspected would have interested people in their walk of life. Williams, however, was unquestionably a man of deep learning, and there were few of the classics that he had not read. The acquaintances who saw these two on tli© tennis court, in the church circle, going to and returning from their daily work, and paying friendly visits to each other’s homes, never had any misgivings concerning the association. Mrs. Williams herself had no suspicion of scandal; her trust in her husband was implicit; and Miss Kaenel was a girl above reproach. But someone or other looked upon the friendship of Percy Williams and May Kaenel with disfavour; someone or other placed an evil construction upon their constant meetings for recreation or frank talk. The inevitable happened. Those malign messengers of evil—the anonymous letters and postcards—began to appear at the respective homes of Williams and Miss Kaenel. Man and girl were greatly troubled. They met and talked and planned. Then one day, in the middle of August, they disappeared—no ! one knew where. Presently a letter i arrived for Mrs. Williams. It was ; postmarked from Lyndhurst, in the ; Xew Forest in Hampshire. Her liusj band was there, and wanted to see her | badly. Would she come and meet him where the main road skirts the forest—alone? Mrs. 'Williams was late at the appointment, and no husband awaited her. For hours she walked about among the trees and along the highway, and then wept into the town, determined to remain until news, good or ill. of the lost couple arrived. For days and days she stayed, but there was still no word. Late one afternoon a tall, grey-haired stranger, with a young woman at his side, walked into a hairdresser’s shop in Lyndhurst and asked the proprietor if he hact time to trim and dress his companion’s bobbed hair. The girl herself wished to be shingled, and the barber agreed that this was the better treatment for a head that showed traces of neglected care. The man wanted a hair-cut too, but time did not permit. The couple struck the barber as “come-downs” in the world, for the tall stranger’s clothes, good enough in their quality and make, were torn, frayed, and mud-stained. He did not know that the two had lived the simple life, without amenities of ! any kind, in the heart of the adjacent forest. A day or so later the tragedy had happened. Subsequently a woodman. taking a short cut from town to bis cottage. stumbled across two bodies—a girl lying as though in natural sleep, with the right arm across her breast, and the man nearby, a ; revolver still in bis hand. Both were shot through the head, and the decomposed bodies had lain there for days. A doctor, from careful observation!, i formed the conclusion that each had

committed suicide—Miss Kaenel first, and AA illiams afterwards. The medical examination, moreover, supplied no j e\idence that Miss Kaenel was other' than a virtuous girl, in spite of the scandal tongues. The bodies lay at the threshold of a leafy bower, which apparently had been their home in the self-imposed exile. Round about were > scattered newspapers and paper bags. • the dates on the former indicating the length of their life together in this wondrous beauty spot of England, and the latter suggesting that they had depended upon the pastry shops of j Lyndhurst for their sustenance. Before > they took their lives "Williams wrote a j moving last letter to his wife, and Miss j Kaenel to her mother, each protesting > that the anonymous postcards had left j them with no alternative but disap- I pearance from home and friends. c