SHATTERED ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 June 1921, Page 5

SHATTERED ROMANCE.

WIQ.OW SEEKING A HUSBAND. BHIP’S FIREMAN A SUITOR. POSES AS NAVAL HERO. i A strange sto y of the abrupt ending of a widow’s romance and the duplicity of a ship’s fireman who posed as an ex--1 leu t er. ant-commander in the Royal Navy, and wrote letters in the name® of fictitious women, was unfolded in the Auckland Police Court on Monday. Leslie Douglas Stewart Murray, aged 35, appeared before Mr. J. W« Boynton, S.M., to answer charges of having ob* tained £4O, and having attempted to obtain £2O from Margaret Wilson by, means of a false pretence. The complainant, a young widow, stated that about the end of last January she in-; serted a matrimonial advertisement signed “Romance” in an Auckland newspaper, receiving 38 replies. One pf them purported to be from a woman signing herself Margaret Bannister, introduced her to a man called Douglas Kingston, whose address was Box 1234, G.P.0., Wellington.

A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION. The letter was produced in Court. was dated from the s.s. Tofua, and read as follows: Dear Romance.—Your re newspaper of yesterday and to-day» There is a gentleman of my acquaint*! ance to whom you can, if you wiehJ send this .as a letter of at least part of it. He is Mr. Kingston (sub-lieutenant-comman4ftlig R.N.), D. 5.0., D.S.Q., but he was martial led and dismissed a year ago fois hanging a German submarine comm&fi-' der during the war. It is a long storyA and he will tell you it himself. He< writes the most delightful letters, and is the nicest boy you ever met. But? I’m married and on my way to England. I wish I cobld stay and linng him to you, for I know he would at least interest you. There is not a corner of the earth in which he has not travelled. Of course, he has his failings, but he does not drink (“beyond a brandy and soda with a friend worth having one with,” to quote himself), and he does not gamble. But thia J will tell you, he was something more than intimate with a well-known London actress. But ho left Ixmdon after his court-martial (you know what actresses are. . .). But he is mighty independent. His father was a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery—killed in the war—and hia eight uncles, all brothers and army officer®, were also killed. He was an only child, . . Wishing you the best of luck. —Yours sincerely, Margaret Bannister, 19, Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, London, S.W.

P.S.—Mr. Kingston’s address is Box 1234, G.P.0.. Wellington He writes away for his letters. . . . The silly, wandering, restless thing.

MORE LETTERS AND A MEETING. Witness said that, in reply to her letter, site received a letter from Kingston, who wrote from Geelong, Victoria. He said he was an ex-naval officer. They corresponded a good deal, and he spoke of coining to New Zealand. Then the letters ceased, but in their place she received letters from a “Nurse Crawford,” in Sydney, containing the information that Kingston had been assaulted in Centennial Park, and was being nursed by the writer. Kingston's correspondence was resumed. He said he had no money, and was coming to New Zealand. A few days later he rang her up on the telephone, and she met him outside the chief post office. They met nearly every day, and as he said he hadno money she gave him £6. He asked her to marry him, but she told liiire. to wait. He told her of his’career in the navy, and of h s dismissal after a court•mart'ia). After that" incident *ho related how he had had numerous offers of monav from sofiotv ladies in Tendon. She believed him. He did not mention that he had over been a ship’s fireman or greaser, but said lie was an intimate friend of the captain of the Tofua.

AX ADVAXCE OF FORTY’ POUNDS.

- Later accused showed her a letter from a friend in Wellington offering him a position at £4 a week. lie would, he said, send her his wages to bank. On his representations that there were good opportunities for making money in the business ho was going into, and that he had no money to invest, she advanced him £ 4f). She believed hijn to be genuine. He left for Wellington, but soon wrote again for anotlier advance, thia time £2O. Owing to information she had received, however, the money was not sent. •

Detective Fitzgibbon said that accused, was arrested at Wellington. When interviewed he admitted his name was not Douglas Kingston, but refused to say what his name was. After investigations witness obtained a certificate ■of marriage between Leslie Douglas Stewart Murray and a girl at Lv ttelton. Accused then admitted that that was his name. In a statement, he then made, accused said he was born in Dunedin, and went to sea in 1901. Tn England he-joined the 6th Dragoon Guards, and served in India and South Africa,, leaving the army in 1910, and returning to New Zealand in 1918. He went to sea again as fireman and greaser. On January 3, he. was married at Lyttelton, at the registrar’s office, telling tlie registrar and his wife he was an ex-naval officer. He had not lived with his wife since. He had never been jn the navy. He was a fireman on the Tofua at Auckland when he saw an advertisement in which “Romance” wished to meet a “tall, educated gentleman of about 3§.” He wrote the letter signed Margawet Bannister. Bannister was p fictitious person. During the shipping strike he was in Sydney, and w-rote the letters purporting to be from the nurse Crawford. They were false. On arrival at Auckland he still led Mrs. Wilson to believe he was an ex-naval officer. The statements he had made and the letters he had written about the position in Wellington with a Mr. White, on which he had received £4O from Mrs. were false. Accused pleaded guilty, and was com* mitted to the Supreme Court for sentence.