NELSON BRIDE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 19

NELSON BRIDE

RECEPTION ON AN ISLAND

(From "Tho Post's" Representative.) LONDON, August 11.

Features novel, attractive, and picturesque attached to a wedding which was solemnised at an old village church in Berkshire on August 7.

The bride, Miss Kiti Colin Carnp-bell-Smith, belongs to Nelson. She is the elder daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. Campbell-Smith. The bridegroom, Mr. Cecil Gervase Hope Gill, is well known in the British Consular Service. He was Consul in Addis Ababa throughout the late war, and now he is in London taking a special course at the Imperial Defence College, an which is bestowed upon only a limited number in the Consular Service. Mr. Hope Gill is the elder son of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Hope Gill, D.D., British chaplain at Hyeres, formerly of India, and Mrs. Hope Gill.

Friends, had-decorated the church, using marigolds of orange and lemon colours, with fresh bracken fern. To the outside of each pew, with its door, was attached a posy of yellow flowers tied with a bow of ribbon. This was the bride's idea, and a very dainty one. For the marriage ceremony the bride and bridegroom stood beneath a bell of yellow and golden flowers, and there, facing each other, and without the aid of the Bishop, who married them, or of the vicar (the Rev. E. M. Thorp), who assisted, each, recited to the other the promise to be true the one to the other. This act was spontaneous and most unusual. Then the Bishop pronounced them man and wife.

THE BRIDAL PROCESSION.

The bride, in the absence of her father, came with her uncle, Mr. D. Stewart Smith. She wore a dress ox rich bronze-gold splayed satin with quilted skirt and bouffant quilted sleeves. Down the back of the dress there was a long procession of' tiny buttons. The skirt was long and trained. The veil of gold silk-meshed net was held by a water-lily headdress, and a spray of large white water lilies was carried. Water lilies have probably never before been chosen by a bride for herself and her attendants; they were very delicate and effective. The bride's ornaments were a gold Abyssinian (Addis Ababa) bracelet worked with elegant and giraffe hair, and an old chased gold and diamond engagement ring.

Three bridesmaids followed, wearing widely-flared lime-green "whorled" slipper satin, entirely plain, with fortybuttoned backs. Each had a fanpleated headdress of green tulle fastened with a cluster of yellow water-lily buds, and each carried a spray bouquet of water lilies of a pale yellow shade, with foliage. These attendants were Miss Alison West-Watson (daughter of the Bishop of Christchurch, who was unable to attend, being in Edinburgh for the Faith and Order Congress), Miss Ann Twigg (daughter of 'Dr. Garnet Twigg, formerly 'of Hawke's Bay, and Mrs. Twigg)', and Miss Margery Hope Gill (cousin of the bridegroom, daughter of Surgeon-Captain Herbert Hope Gill, R.N.,. and Mrs. Hope Gill, ' of Kingswear, Devon). The best man was Mr. Geoffrey Allchin, M.C., of the Foreign Office: the groomsmen were Mr. A. Campbell Wright (cousin Of the bride) and Mr. Evan Hope Gill (cousin of the bridegroom). Mr. D. S. McShane (Tauranga) was at the organ. From the church it was only a short distance to the historic Old Priory and Manor House Fish-Ponds, which were lent by Mr. W. Hartley Russell. There had once been a monastery on the site, and from the secluded picturesque ponds the monks obtained their fish. At one period courties from the Court of James went there frequently. It was at these fish-ponds that Swift courted Stella, and Bolingbroke lived at the Manor House.

Guests on arrival were received by Mrs. D. Stewart Smith and Mrs. Hope Gill. Passing on through woodland scenery they found the bridal party established on a small island in a pond whereon were blooming many pure white water lilies.. To this spot the guests were piped by a woman of the woods, enveloped in a gipsy shawl. Reflected in the clear water on a brilliant summer afternoon, were the five people awaiting the guests. It was a pretty picture. The bride and bridegroom stood upon a Maori mat, said to have been given to the bride at her christening by a Maori chieftainess, who then named her Kiti. Guests went in single file along the narrow path to offer congratulations, and on their return each one registered a name in a book—a wedding present—which will be an interesting reminder of the people who were there. On the mainland in the distance •from the island could be seen the refreshment tables1, with attendants wearing florally printed overalls."and scarves of vivid- green as head-dresses. Overhead and all round were huge trees, mainly oaks. After many photographs had been taken of the island setting, the bride and bridegroom joined their guests ■ ashore, and the bride cut the cake—square in shape instead of round—with her husband's sword. The toast of the bride and bridegroom was proposed by Judge Hume Barne, from' Cairo, an old friend of the latter.

The bride and bridegroom left by car for a motor tour in Scotland and Ireland. Until the end of the year they will be in London. Later Mr. Hope Gill expects to be sent to Consular posts abroad, particularly in the Near East and the Mediterranean. The bride went away in an olive-green coat frock with ci-ushed strawberry tievest, and a flat Chinese hat.

The guests were mostly friends of the bridegroom from the Foreign Office and Alexandria, but among the New Zealanders were Professor T. H. Easterfield. Mrs. and Miss Easterfield, Dr. and Mrs. S. A. Gibbs, Mrs. Jennings (Takaka), and Mr. McShane.