POIGNANT LETTERS

Evening Star, Issue 18258, 24 April 1923, Page 2

POIGNANT LETTERS

FATHER TO DAUGHTER. SHEILA LOCKE’S CHOICE LONDON, April 7. Poignant letters fiom Mr Alfred Baines, the London engineer, who committed suicide after his seventeen-year-old daughter had been adopted by Air W. J. Locke, the novelist, and his wife, were read at. iho inquest. In them bo tried to persuade his daughter to return. Jins Baines said that his failure preyed on his mind, and his decision to take legal steps to recover his daughter was made when he caw pictures in tho newspapers of “Miss Sheila Locke," Mr Baines pleaded with the Lockes, who replied that the girl was free to decide between them. Tito daughter replied to her father, saying that the Lockes’s homo had been her home since she was four years old, and adding; “I am disgusted at your’ persecution of those I love so dearly. ’ Mrs Baines admitted that the lockes had lavished money and care on Sheila and had taken her to Italy and Egypt. Once when Sheila ojaa ill Mr Locke paid £IOO a week to have the entire wing of the hotel isolated. Mr Baines had always wanted his daughter back, and was passionately devoted to her. A verdict of suicide wdiile of unsound mind was recorded.