KNIGHT’S SUICIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 October 1931, Page 7

KNIGHT’S SUICIDE

EVIDENCE OF FIANCEE. Sir Henry Roland Murray Bourne, a retired civil servant, was found shot dead in the bath at. his fiat in Grove End Road, St. John’s Wood, London. The tragedy was not. revealed till the inquest, at. Paddington, W. A verdict of suicide while of unsound mind was recorded. A police constable said that Sir Henry was sitting in the bath in his pyjamas. There was a revolver in his right hand. Mrs. Christobel Hopton, a sister, said that her brother had been depressed following an attack of influenza in April. He was also worried because he was lonely and had nothing to do. He lived alone in his flat, having recently divorced his wife. Winifred Dundervale, of Peinbridge Villas, Bayswater, W„ said she was engaged to Sir Henry. They were to have been married in July. She last saw Sir Henry at Eastbourne. He then appeared to be fairly well, although she knew that he had had insomnia, for the last few months. The Coroner: Was there any financial trouble? Miss Dundervale: He had an overdraft at, the hank, and I think that worried him.

The Coroner: Was there anything in the nature of a quarrel?—No. Miss Dundervale. said that. when Sir Henry left her at Eastbourne he did not. say when he would see her again. Sir Bernard Spilsbury, who made a post mortem examination, said death was caused by a. gunshot wound. The bullet had entered the mouth, fracturing the. skull. The coroner said that. Sir Henry had overdrawn at. his hank, but. it was not of’ a serious nature. He believed that Sir Henry was contemplating marriage for the third time, and had seen his fiancee only the day before the tragedy. “I think he was suffering from post-influenza depression,” said the coroner, “and in a moment of intense depression he yielded to a sudden impulse to take his life.”