POOR GIRL'S ROMANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 10 (Supplement)

POOR GIRL'S ROMANCE.

WON ENGLISHMAN'S LOVE

AND GREAT RICHES.

HOMES LOST IN TWO WARS.

Born in poverty in 1853, Mrs. Anna Lingling, widow of Mr. Frederick Edward Lingling, who was an English engineer, haß died in Vienna after an adventurous career. She is reputed to have been Austria's richest woman at the time of her death. Her father was a carpenter named Wolka, who came from Bohemia. Her mother was a Croat. The family lived in the greatest poverty. When Anna was 11 years old she had to go out to work for neighbours. As her parents were unable to keep her, it was decided to send her to Vienna. With her uncle she made the long journey on foot. Her shoes hurt her, so she hung them round her neck, and tramped barefooted. One day, in Vienna, when coming out of a dance hall, she met the young Englishman, whom she, eventually married, a gas-works engineer. Lingling was anxious to marry the fair-haired girl, but his family removed him to another post in Russia, 'where he remained for two years. Later, Lingling persuaded his mother to consent to the marriage, and took Anna to London, where they were married. Turned Out of Home. Lingling became a gas-works manager in Norfolk. The young couple paid a visit every year to Bruck, where Mrs. Lingling had provided for her old father. She made liberal gifts to the poor of her native place. j Even during the war she managed to send money to Bruck, via Switzerland. Mr. Lingling died in London six years ago. His widow returned to Bruck, where she bought a large house. She had become very wealthy, devoted henelf to works of charity. A friend of Mrs. Lingling, now in London, tells' of her early days of poverty. In 1866, when Austria was attacked by Prussia, the whole Wolka family were turned out of their home and had to live on the pigs' leavings, whilst the house was occupied by soldiers. Mr. and Mrs. Lingling were in Austria on holiday at the outbreak of the war. When they found that England was not on the Austro-German side they made their escape, returning to in 1915.

Owing to memories of her childhood during the Austro-Prussian War, Mrs. Lingling disliked the Germans.