PEERESS' TRAGIC FATE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 October 1920, Page 6

PEERESS' TRAGIC FATE.

- MAID UNABLE TO HELP. ' Tragic in the extreme was the fate which overtook the Countess of Dudley, wife of a former Viceroy of Ireland, and deprived English society of one of its l'Urest beauties. As reported briefly by cablegram, she was drowned while bathing at Rosmuck, the Connemara seat of the Dudleys. Owing to the peculiar circumstances of the affair the coroner decided that no inquest was necessary. The Countess, it appears, travelled from London on the day before her death, and proceeded to Galway with the morning mail. She detrained at Recess and drove to Screebe Lodge, the residence of the Earl of Dudley, arriving in the forenoon. She was remarked to be looking in excellent health and spirits. Having partaken of lunch she wrote some letters. It was an unusually warm afternoon and she decided to have a bathe from a little jetty in Camus Bay, a wild and rock-bound inlet of the Atlantic, at the back of the lodge. She was not an expert Bwimmer, but was very fond of bathing, and could swim moderately. Her maid, Miss Norman, who had been in her service for a year, accompanied her to the water's edge and watched her take a lifebelt before plunging in. She swam about 30 yards from the jetty, still holding on to the belt, and appeared to enjoy her bathe immensely. After remaining in the water a considerable time, she suddenly threw up her hands and sank. There was no warning except, a tremor of the body and the throwing up of the hands. Only the lifebelt remained to mark the scene of the tragedy. Horrified by the swiftness of the tragedy, Miss Norman screamed far help, and the caretaker at the lodge put out in a boat. Assisted by some men working in the grounds, he recovered the body in a few minutes, but the countess was then dead. • Dr. Kennedy O'Brien, who arrived soon I afterwards, certified that death was due j to natural causes, the collapse in the! water being brought about by heart failure. The Ros.rnuck police conveyed this information to the coroner for West Galway, who did not deem an inquest necessary in the circumstances.