DIVORCE REFUSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 8

DIVORCE REFUSED.

DOCTOR RESPONDENT. FELL IN LOVE WITH ACTRESS. t MISCONDUCT NOT PROVEN. I Twenty-seven-year-old actress ,Miss Eleanor Fayre—Eleanor Smith-Thomas in private life—was dismissed, with costs, in the Divorce Court from the suit in which she had intervened. She and 48-year-old Dr. Basil Fraser Beatson, Medical Officer of Health to Brentwood (Essex) Urban Council, had both denied allegations of misconduct. The petition for divorce of Dr. Beatson's wife, Mi*. Emily Margaret Frame Beatson, of Martello Park, Canford Cliffs, Dorset, failed, and she was ordered to pay the costs of both Dr. Beatson and Miss Smith-Thomas. Dr. and Mrs. Beatson married in April, 1923, when she was 21. There are three sons, now wards of Court. Mrs. Beatson's ease was that the marriage was unhappy, and in June, 1933, she and her husband separated. In 1936 she had him watched by private inquiry agents, and learned that he was associating with Miss SmithThomas. Mr. Justice Hodson said that in 1935 Dr. Beatson got to know Miss SmithThomas; her mother kept the guesthouse in which he lived. Very soon he fell in love with Hiss Smith-Thomas, and in 1936 was anxious to marry her. At Same Hotel. In August, 193(5, when she was at a theatre at Skegness, Dr. Beateon went to see her, and was given a room next to hers at her hotel. Later, at Skegness, one night he was seen walking from the beach with her. She was almost lying against him, with one arm round him, and he with an arm round her. In December, 1936, when Miss SmithThomas had a bed-sitting room in Graham Street, W., there was a "formidable" incident. For a very long time one evening Dr. Beatson was in this room alone with Miss Smith-Thomas. The lights were turned out, and, subsequently, before he left, she undressed 1 and got into bed. The judge said that Dr. Beatson had impressed him as an honest and intelligent witness; Mins Smith-Thomas had considerable personality. Her feelings towards Dr. Beatson were not the same as his feelings towards her. She was well able to take care of herself, and did take care of herself. She no doubt enjoyed the admiration and friendship she received, but in his opinion the matter went no further than that. Counsel were: For Miss Smith-Thomas, Mr. Graham Brooks; for Dr. Beatson, Mr. H. I. P. Hallett; for Mrs. Beatson, Mr. Roland Oliver, K.C., end Mr. Walter Frampton.