TRAGEDY OF LOST MEMORY

Evening Star, Issue 19000, 23 July 1925, Page 1

TRAGEDY OF LOST MEMORY

ST. HELENS MAX’S DEATH FEE SUM ED.

In tho Probate Court, London, before Mr .Justice .Swift, an application was made on behalf of the wife of Mr George Plows, formerly of St. Helens, to presume, his death on or about December 18, 1923.

Mr Acton Pile said Plows was a dork employed by Frodlc. Brown and Co., builders, St- Helens, and ho disappeared on November 26, 1923. Nothing was heard of him until December 20, 1923, when Mrs Plews received an unaddressed letter, which bore the Torquay postmark and date of December 18. Tho letter ran :

“ My dear, I have just remembered who I am and am horrified and amazed to find myself in Torquay. How long I have been here or how I got here, I have not tho slightest idea. ... I can only imagine my memory lias been playing tricks with me again. It has returned to me, : and what to do I don’t know. I cannot face returning to St. Helens, and so far as I can see the only tilling 1 can do is to go off. I am distracted and terribly tired, so I shall take the only course open to me, aiid quietly slip off tho rocks below the Imperial Hotel here. Don’t grieve—you will be better without me.”

Subsequently, said the counsel, near the spot mentioned in the letter wgre found Plews’s overcoat, gloves, and watch and chain. On previous occasions he lost his memory. His estate was worth £450. His lordship granted the application.