LOST GIRL’S MIND A BLANK.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20254, 24 July 1937, Page 16 (Supplement)

LOST GIRL’S MIND A BLANK.

Found Sobbing Outside Home of Fiance’s Mother.

While a beautiful ti-year-old soeiety girl is slowly recovering under j oare from what appears to be loss of i memory, a puzzling mystery regarding her awaits an explanation, says a London paper. It is hoped that a specialist's report will assist In throwing light on what happened to Mias Diana (“Didl”) Battye, during the eight days she was missing. Miss Battye, the fair-haired daughter of Mrs Leonard A. Haokett, the woman air pilot, is a society photographer’s model, and was to have been engaged shortly to Mr Michael Asquith, the Oxford undergraduate •on of Lady Cynthia Asquith. Consternation was oaused by her •n&ocountable disappearance one afternoon after leaving the home of her friend. Viscountess Long, in Oxford Square, where she was on a visit. A country-wide search began, Sootland Yard circulating a message to •very polloe station in the country. Officers watched the ports, airports, and main-line 'termini, while others spent days in interviewing (people for dues. Their Inquiries were complicated by the receipt of anonymous letters before Miss Battye vanishedlOne of these was typewritten on a hall-sheet of notepaper. and was found In Miss Battye’s red handbag whioh she left behind at Viscountess Long's bouse. “You Have Been Warned.” It was dated April 21, 1987, and read: —“You were seen In Brighton last night. You have been warned before." Miss Battye, It was ascertained, had been in Brighton on the night referred to in the letter. It was also revealed during the •eareh that on Coronation Day Miss Battye was attacked in the street by a man and slightly out ovor one eye with a razor. In their anxiety to end the searoh. Miss Battye’s relatives and friends enlisted the services of several clairvoyants. including an export from Paris. As the result of their statements places on the North Devon coast were visited without success. Miss Battye was found early on the eighth day after she disappeared on the steps of Lady Cynthia Asquith’s house in Sussex Place. Regent’s Park.

She was sobbing and hysterical, and her crying was heard by a Mr Seale, who lives next door. Hs looked out of his bedroom window and saw the girl sitting on the steps. Running downstairs, he carried her to the front door of Lady Asquith's house. She was taken Inside and put to bed. Her mother, who had taken a flat in London so as to be able to keep better in touch with the inquiries that wers being made, was told, and hur«ried to her daughter’s bedside. A telephone call was also put through to Mr Miohoel Asquith at Oxford, and he came to London by oar. By the time he arrived at his mother's house Miss Battye was sleeping, for, under the instructions of a dootor, she had been given a sleeping-draught. Mrs Hackett stated: "When my daughter was found she seemed to be suffering from loss of memory. She had obviously undergone a very severe mental strain —and Just didn’t seem to remember anything. “It was Impossible to ask her what had happened. She was Just right out. In a Different Dress. “She knew me, and 1 stayed with her because I seemed to bo able to keep her quieter than anyone else. She was In a terrible state of nervous up-

set. “Furthermore, the dress that she had on was a different ono from that which she was wearing when she disappeared. “It was one which I haven’t seen before, and so far as I know it was not her own. “So far she has not been able to tell us anything." Mr Hackett said his step-daughter remembered everything up to certain point on the day of her disappearance. “She talks." he said, "quite normally about tile early part of the afternoon. She remembers well leaving Lady Long’s house and posting a letter to Mr Asquith. Then, she says, she wag going to a shop in Oxford Street. She is able to talk about her movements up to the time she got to the shop, and she knows why she went there. “After that, she says, she remembers nothing. Something appears to have happened to her at that point. "She doesn’t remember getting baok to Sussex Place. “It is obviously a ease for a specialist.”