Lovers Shared A Grave

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 201, 26 August 1939, Page 9

Lovers Shared A Grave

A POIGNANT tragedy following a lovers' tiff was echoed in a double funeral when a young man and girl were buried side by side in the same grave at Fulham Cemetery. Their mothers, who are both widows, attended. The couple were: Frederick Lewis Stunt, 22, film studio camera man, of Fulham, and Miss Phyllis Hall, 22, a 6ft 2in tall shop assistant, of Fulham. The two had been close friends for five years. Miss Hall had left her home to go to her work place at Kensington, but never arrived there. Her brother then found her at home in a gas-filled room. Not long afterwards Stunt called at the house and was told what had happened. He went away in a state described by Miss Hall's mother as "absolutely demented." The tragedy was completed when Stunt was found gassed in his saloon car on Coast Hill, Westcott, near Dorking, Surrey. On his knees lay a photograph of his dead sweetheart. Stunt was to have been called as a witness at the inquest on Miss Hall. It was revealed at the proceedings that she left a note for him saying: — "Darling Freddie.—l cannot live with-

out you. I have loved yon since the first day I met you. Please forgive me. —Phyllis." A statement made to the police by Stunt a few hours after his sweetheart died, was as follows: — "I last saw her' on Sunday evening and was with her from 6 to 11.30 p.m. We quarrelled over little things, but it was quite all right when we parted." From a letter addressed by Miss Hall to her mother the coroner read the extract: "This is the best way out. It was my fault." Mrs. Mary Handler, Miss Hall's mother, told the coroner: "Her letter to me explains the reason why she took her life." The verdict on Miss Hall was that she "committed suicide while the balance of her mind was disturbed." At the inquest on Stunt P.C. Ruffle said one door of the car was locked and windows were sealed inside with adhesive tape. A rubber hose connected with the exhaust pipe was passed into the car through a small opening. Arthur George Stunt stated he saw his brother on the evening before his death, when he was in the best of spirits. Asked by the coroner, Mr. G. Wills Taylor, if he was blaming anybody, the brother replied that he was not, because he did not know what the quarrel was about. A verdict of "Suicide while the balance of the mind was disturbed" was recorded.