MISSING PASSENGERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 131, 4 June 1943, Page 5

MISSING PASSENGERS

LONDON, June 2.

The Douglas passenger plane operated by British Overseas Airways, lost while flying from Lisbon, Portugal, to Foynes, Ireland, is believed to have been shot down by a Nazi machine. Besides the well-known English actor Leslie Howard, the passengers, included Mr. Alfred Chaenhall, a director of Omnia Films, and Mr. Stonehouse, a director of Reuters in 1 Washington, and his wife.

Messages from Lisbon say it has been learned that the Douglas plane was shot down while over the Bay of Biscay. Among the passengers were three small British'children.

' Mr. Leslie Howard arrived at Lisbon last Thursday on a lecturing tour under the auspices of the British Council. He i had postponed his return to England in order to be present at the Lisbon premiere of his film "The First of the Few," in which he played the part of R. J. Mitchell, designer of the Spitfire. The lost plane was a Dutch X.L.M. airliner operating for British Overseas Airways. The weather in the Bay of Biscay was rough, making difficult the search for survivors, who may have escaped in rubber dinghies.

Leslie Howard was one of the best known stage and film actors of this generation. Born in London in 1893, he served in the Army during the Great War, and made his stage debut in "Peg o' My Heart" after his discharge in 1917. and his first appearance in New York in 1920.

Some of his most,famous roles were in ''Mr. Pirn Passes By," "Her Cardboard Lover," "Berkeley Square," "The Animal Kingdom," and "The Petrified Forest." He entered the films in 1930 and speedily won fame. His pictures included "Outward Bound," "Smilin' Through," "Berkeley Square," "Of Human Bondage," "The Scarlet Pimpernel," "The Petrified Forest," "Pygmalion," "Gone With the Wind," and "Intermezzo." His only son is serving in the Royal Navy and his only daughter was married last year in Britain to Captain Dale-Harris, of the Canadian Army.