ROMANTIC WEDDING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 53, Issue 251, 4 August 1933, Page 3

ROMANTIC WEDDING.

DICKEN'S GREAT-GRANDSON. BRIDE'S DISLIKE OF PUBLICITY. At Brompton Oratory, London, on June 2, 20 members of the family of the famous novelist, Charles Dickens, attended the wedding of his greatgrandson, Mr Ilobin Dickens Bourehier Hawksley, grandson of Sir Henry Dickens, formerly Common Sergeant of London, and of the late Bouchier Hawksley, who was solicitor to the late Mr Cecil Rhodes. The bride was Miss Dorothy North, an whom the bridegroom had met at a dance at; Fulham last January. She was then in domestic service, and refused to leave a mistress she had faithfully served for six years until a long notice had been given. That notice expired only on May 30, and the wedding was arranged for the day before the Whitsuntide holidays began. The wadding, which was a quiet one, took place at noon, two hours beforo the time publicly announced. The courage of the bride had failed her when she heard that great public interest was being taken in her marriage and on the morning of June 2, she went to the Oratory to ask that the wedding should take place earlier. Immediate preparations were made for the ceremony, and when the press photographers and reporters arrived shortly before two o'clock they were told that the wedding was over. On the bride's arrival at the Oratory for the wedding, the presence of a young man, who, as she said, "looked like a photographer," caused her to slip into tho church by a side entrance. She left with her bridegroom by the ■same door. Mr Hawksley, is a Catholic and his bride who was a member of the Church bf England, has been received into tho Catholic Church. Lady Dickens and Mrs Hawksley, mother of the bridegroom, attended the wedding. At the time her son's engagement was announced Mrs Hawksley had said: "1 have no old-fashioned ideas about my future daughter-in-law's position. The fact that ishe is a girl of strong character and a hard worker gives me every reason to welcome her in my family. Such girl must make a good wife." There was no reception and almost immediately the bride and bridegroom left for Brighton, where the honeymoon was spent. Among the wedding gifts were a Sew first editions of Dicken's works, a present from Mrs Hawksley to Jier son's wife.