SECRET BURIAL

Evening Star, Issue 22004, 13 April 1935, Page 12

SECRET BURIAL

SOCIETY LEADER'S WISH A secret burial was carried out in the Bristol Channel, five miles off the Welsh coast, recently. It was in fulfilment of the wish of Mrs Helena Augusta Wallis, aged eighty-three, of Pbrthcawl, that she he buried at sea. Mrs Wallis, who was the widow of the late Colonel Wallis, of Newport, and had been a prominent figure in Welsh society, died after a long illness.Only those whose help was necessary were taken into the secret, and even then the final plans were not disclosed until the last minute. At her house, Plas Osaf, the blinds were not drawn and there were no external signs of mourning. The master of the steam tug Eagle, of Cardiff, received instructions to berth at the landing stage inside the breakwater.: He did not know the object of his mission, nor did the coastguard. The RevT. Holmes Morgan, rector of Porthcawl, conducted a service at the house and then the hearse, followed by a few; cars, drove along the promenade to the breakwater, where the specially constructed coffin was lowered on to the tug. , ■ Only Mrs Wallis’s son. Major Wallis,of London, her son-in-law. Mr Keye, of Birkenhead, and Dr William Hartland, of Porthcawl, went aboard the tug. A strong wind was blowing when, it hove to five miles out. The captain! then read the service for burial: at sea,and the weighted coffin slid into the deeps of the channel, with sea birds,circling overhead, crying a requiem,Mrs Wallis, who was a daughter of the late Captain Evans, of Newport, spent much of'her early life at sea. She sailed round the world several timet with her father.