WIFE OR WIDOW.

Taihape Daily Times, 8 February 1919, Page 6

WIFE OR WIDOW.

__, o; COLONEL'S NULLITY SUIT AFTER HASTY MARRIAGE Haw a colonel married the supposed widow of a private who was .afterwards discovered to be alive was fold in the Divorce Court in London, when Colonel Douglas SapTe was granted a decree of nullity of his marriage on December 29 last with Emily Isabella Williams. Petitioner said that he had known the respondent for sonic years. During the war ho served in France, Gallipoli, and Greece, and early in 1916 he hud a letter from the respondent saying that she was about to be married. She married Thomas Rees Williams on April 29, 1916, and 'Williams, being on active service, he (the petitioner made" her an allowance to help her to keep the home together, She was employed as'a mannequin in the West End.

On November 2, 1917' said the colonel he received a telegram from her “Tommy killed Wire return please Going Wales, back to-morrow.” He sent money, and subsequently he saw Mrs. Williams to London, when she said she had received news of the death of Williams at the front.

He made inquiries at a casualty station, and was told that it was believed that the man was a casualty, but the report was of a very uncertain character. Afterwards %e proposed marriage to the respondent and wrote;—

“Let me know what sort of a date

is in your mind. In any case, you must at once get proof of poor Tommy’s death so as to make that certain.” In her reply the respondent said: “I will, of course, make sure of Tommy’s death, but I know now that it is quite official.” Later, she told the petitioner that Williams’ mother in South Wales had the official '' record and would not part with it. She showed him letters of condolence that she had received on account of jher iiusbhind’s supposed heath. In the belief that Williams was dead, the petitioner went through a ceremony of marriage with her.

The evidence of Thomas Rees Williams, taken on commission in hospital was to the effect that he was a soldier in the Civil Service Rifles. He married the respondent at Barnes, her maiden name being Shepperd. He was not aware that he had been reported to be dead, or that his mother was under the impression that he had been killed.