COUNTESS’S DEATH

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 259, 29 July 1937, Page 11

COUNTESS’S DEATH

Suicide While Demented London, July 27. The coroner gave a verdict that the Countess of Cardigan, who fell from the seventh floor of the Savoy Hotel, committed suicide while of unsound mind. Her husband stated in evidence that the countess had not quarrelled with him, but left home at Oxford on Julj’ 22 without stating her destination. A letter from her alarmed him, and lie instructed the police to find her. Her mother had committed suicide, and the countess had talked similarly of ending her life. The police stated that the countess engaged a suite’at the Savoy Hotel on July 22, locked the doors, and ate nothing, but repeatedly asked for a drink. The management became alarmed and sent up a doctor on the night of July 23. The countess refused him admission. The police found after the tragedy that the pillows were spattered with blood and the window sill marked with blood. A brandy bottle and several glasses, smashed in fragments, a safety razor blade, and two notes were found on the dressing table. Dr. Moreton declared that the countess’s wrists had been slashed and a piece of glass was found in the stomach.. The coroner stated in his verdict that the countess was quite demented. She smashed things and cut her arm with a razor blade, and swallowed glass. A letter to her husband refers to her affection for him and the children, but shows that she was out of her mind and intended to take her life in circumstances preventing anyone frustrating her.