SAD HOME-COMING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 15, 28 October 1932, Page 6

SAD HOME-COMING.

LONG AND ANXIOUS JOURNEY. It has fallen to the lot of few mothers to undergo the poignant experience of Mrs A. Mallalieu, widow of Alderman F. W. Mallalieu, cotton manufacturer, of Delph, near Oldham, Lancashire, who recently returned to England from Capetown on the UnionCastle liner Balmoral Castle. Mrs Mallalieu travelled altogether 15,000 miles, during which she attended the trial of a son accused of murder at Maritzburg, South Africa, and then lost her husband by death. When their 21-year-old son, Mr Richard Louis Mallalieu, was accused of the murder of a taxi-cab proprietor at Maritzburg in September, Mr and Mrs Mallalieu sailed for Cape Town with their son, Mr X P. "W. Mallalieu, who had come from the United States.

"It has been a terribly sad trip," Mrs Mallalieu. "We went out under the shadow of the ordeal our son Richard was facing, and though that shadow was happily cleared away the unexpected death of my husband came as a tremendous shock. My great consolation is that he lived to see_ his faith in our son's innocence vindicated."

Throughout the trial in March Mr and Mrs Mallalieu remained in conrt near their son. After the "trial Mr Mallalieu contracted cerebral malaria, from which he died. The body was cremated and the ashes were taken home by the widow for burial at Delph. Mrs Mallalieu stated that her husband went out in the best of health and remained well until he went to Zululand, where he contracted the illness from which he died. She said she did not know what her son Richard's plans were, but she hoped he would soon be coming home. j