THE LOST SHEPHERD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 263, 29 March 1913, Page 9

THE LOST SHEPHERD

VICAR WHO BKCAAIK NOTORIOUS. I huJiilou, February 5. On Saturday evening, January 18, the Rev. Albert Knight, the good-looking and highly-popular vicar of Christ Church, Hunslet, in Yorksliire, was supposed to have met his death by falling over the 200 ft dill' just north of that east coast landmark, Flamborough Head, in the presence of his wife. The news of his death was announced to his congregation by the curate next day in church, and a memorial service was duly held by the Bishop of Richmond, assisted by a galaxy of ministers from all parts of Yorkshire. Few, if any, then apparently doubted that Mr. Knight was really ili'ad, and a vigorous and unremitting search for his body Was kept up for miles along the coast until Monday last, February 3. Then came a sensational development. The Chief Constable of Leeds issued a statement to the effect that there was little doubt that Mr. Knight had left the country under an; assumed name, and was on his way to Australia. The Chief Constable apparently would have permitted the vain search for the supposed corpse to continue, but for the fact that it entailed danger to the searchers, and he refused

to disclose the nature of the information which led him to arrive at the conclusion that Mr. Knight was still in the land of the living, and en route for the Anti•podes. Naturally, under these circumstances those who accepted the Chief Constable's conclusions became busy with conjectures as to the cause of Mr. Knight's deception. That it was not on account of any financial trouble in connection with church matters seemed clear from the statement made by the Christ Church curate. Mr. Cobbett'. who said the church books were in perfect order, and that there was about £4O owing to the vicar. So the tongue of scandal began to wag furiously in other directions, and "cherehez \:\ femme" became the order of the day, though there were many of Mr. Knight's parishioners who refused to believe that he had played such a cruel and contemptible trick'upon them !as to "fake" a tragedy. They were, however, not left long in suspence, for widespread enquiries on land soon produced pretty conclusive evidence that Mr. Knight was alive, and the clues discovered being swiftly followed up, led to the conviction that the missing vicar had travelled to London, joined a lady there —a Miss Grimes, it is alleged—and had sailed for the Antipodes by the steamer Port Lincoln. <■

.Mrs. Knight, upon whom sympathy had been poured as a sorely stricken widow, was then tackled as to the truth of the very-circumstantial tale she had told concerning her husband's fall over the cliffs at Flamborough. She had acted the part of the grief-stricken widow most excellently, and there were, so far as the casual student of the case could see, "no holes in her tale." But she made no bones, about confessing that the alleged "fatal accident" was carefully arranged by her husband, who had terrorised her into becoming his accomplice in the cruel fraud he proposed to play. From all accounts Mrs. Knight's life with the vicar had not been all sun-' shine and honey for some time past. He had been "very queer in his behaviour" (which may mean many things), and on the day of the "accident" he is said to have used "very strong threats" against his wife; in point of fact, he compelled her to go with him to Brid-

lington when she was afraid everything wbs not right. There was. it seems, no sort of struggle between them, but he told her he wanted to disappear, and that she must assert that she had seen him fall over the cliff. She had no idea why he wanted this to be done, but she was terrorised into fulfilling her part in the drama. As was evident by the mark of footsteps and the umbrella, he went close to the edge of the cliffs, having evidently made careful preparation for the scene he intended to enact.

Having done tins, and left his umbrella, with part of his photographic equipment, he returned and went his way, giving her instructions to go to the* nearest farmhouse and report him as being lost. This was the last Mrs. Knight saw of her husband, and the last, she knew of his whereabouts until lie had actually sailed for Australia. She is left practically without means. Mrs. Knight had the strongest objection to the photograph of her husband being published, and objected to the memorial service being held, urging that her husband bad the greatest horror of funeral ceremonies; that he would have wished nothing at all to be done m the cireumstnnc.es. Friends who saw her were deeply impressed by her evident anguish. Thev thought, quite naturally, that it meant she had in fact seen her husband go over the cliff: whereas it was a token of terror, and of her knowledge that she was being forced by him to do what nothing but fear would have induced her to do. She had. it appears, been in a highlv-norvous state for months—a state which seems to have been induced chiefly by the "dear vicar's" conduct. Whatever we mav think of the part nlnved bv Mrs. Knight in this wicked fraud, there can onlv be one opinion about the ex-vicar of Christ Church. His nnrishioners have certainly sustained no loss, and the church will be well rid of a man who could stoop to «nch cruel deception. There was no necessity for if. XVihodv could have prevented Mr. Knight from going awnv if he wished to do sn. FTe was not wanted bv the nolice. and be was free to po to Australia or anvwhere else that lie Tf Mr. Knight had quitted bis home quietly and left the traditional note on his dressing-table, probablv no one would have tried to track him. and his escapade would have passed practically unnoticed bv the Press. As it is he will find when he roaches Austral-'-that the sensational tale of his "death" has preceded him. and has created (li«r<> a most uncongenial atmosphere for himself and his light o' love. (Mr. Knight and Miss Crimes landed at Melbourne last week, after undov'oi'vv a great deal more humiliating publicity than even the writer of the above imagined when writing the above report on the sth of last month).