AN AVIATOR'S ROMANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 152, 27 June 1914, Page 17

AN AVIATOR'S ROMANCE.

CAPTAIN'S BROKEN AXD Ii'ATAI. FALL, TELEPHONE DIALOGCE, The romance of a broken engagement aud an aviation tragedy was related iv the Chancery I'uurt on.Friday, May loth. Miss j, Derryle Elizabeth Law. au American girl,! sued the executors of the late Captain: Patrick Hamilton, the Army airman killed. on September 0, J0.12, on Salisbury Plain, to] enforce a settlement of £1500 made in her: ■favour. Iv the end she secured judgment lor the amount claimed, with costs. -. They -became engaged iv America, and Miss Law came over with her luotucr to be married to the captain. Finally, however, the engagement came to an end, one. of the most dramatic phases of the affair being the final dialogue on the telephone between the couple. .Miss Law repeated it as follows, in the witness box:— Captain Hamilton: We are no longer engaged. Miss Law: We most certainly arc. Captain Hamilton: All 1 have to live on is a bucketful of debts. Miss Law: It will be a novel experiencefur mc Captain Hamilton: "We cannot possibly marry. Miss Law: It is rather late in the day to say that. You have brought mc away, j from my country. j Captain Hamilton: I must be going, as] I have to catch a train for Southampton. Good-bye. I am very sorry, my dearest. That was the last time, said Miss Law, that she heard from Captain Hamilton. •Mr Terrell. K.C., Miss Law's counsel, | said that, his client, was the daughter of a merchant of Atlanta City who died fifteen years ago. lie left his widow property bringing in £1.200 a year. I When Captain Hamilton met Miss Law i in America he was eugaged iv an enterprise connected with aviation in Mexico, i The young people became engaged to be married, and it. was arranged that Hie weddiutr should take place at Washington. lie then went to Mexico, and from j there wrote lo say that under the new regulations his marriage would prevent his getting promotion in the Flying Force, j He suggested that the marriage should tic ! postponed. The enterprise in Mexico was a failure, j couusel continued. Captain Hamilton j could not get, the money for his contracts, j In the meantime Miss Law bad had to tell j her friends lhat her marriage was post-i poned. She had got. her trousseau. As the life of an airman wns precarious. Captain Hamilton thought it. proper to settle £GOO on Miss Law. The arrangement was that when' they were married in tbe following October, 1012, be should settle the whole of bis property on her. A document with regard to the settlement was signed in the presence of a notary. At the end of the document Captain Hamilton said:—"l have made this settlement lo prove the high regard I have for my future wife." Mr Terrell was about to read letters that pa.sseil between Captain Hamilton and Miss lLaw, when Mr Ckiuson, X.C.. counsel on the other side, said that he would admit the engagement, so that the letters need not be read. "I think it terrible." lie said, "that love letters between these two young people should be read in court." air Terrell went on to tell how Mrs Law and her daughter were welcomed when they came to England by Captain Hamilton's family, who seemed to be under the impression 'that Captain Hamilton was marrying a rich American heiress. Afterwards, however, a determination was come to to prevent the marriage. Tbe result was that. Captain Hamilton broke off the engagement. Cp till March, QIM2, ho had continued to write affectionate letters. •Mrs Law next received a letter from Captain Hamilton's solicitor stating that the captain bad only £7/> a year and his pay. When Captain Hamilton did not call on Mrs Law as She asked him, she said in a note, "Is it that you are ashamed or too much of a coward that. you have not been before?" Ttrc action for breach of promise came to an end when Captain Hamilton was killed in the •following September. iMiss Law then gave evidence. -She Is a prclty girl, slim and dark. It was at Long Island, she said, that she was introduced to Captain Hamilton in .September, 1011. An aviation exhibition was in progress. They became engaged, and, remarked witness, "He said he would always love mc and protect -mc from the world." Miss Law theln described Ihoiw uheycame to "England with Captain 'Hamilton on the Olympic. She and her mother stayed at the Hotel Ttussell. Speaking of a qnarrel she had with Captain Hamilton, Miss Law said it was about his sister Ethel's interfering with their affairs. A few days afterwards there was a reconciliation. They parted on the best of •terms; he kissed her, bnt she never saw him again. On the next day the final telephone convcrsatiou narrated above took place.