GAMBLER’S £10

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 March 1933, Page 4

GAMBLER’S £10

SUICIDE FOLLOWS £60,000 LOSS. LONDON, January 19. A rich timber merchant’s £60,000 losses in gambling at Monte Carlo were mentioned at an inquest at Paddington on Arthur Henry Whittingham (51), who was found dead in a gas-filled room in an hotel at Lancaster-gate. Mrs Wilhelmina. Whittingham told the coroner that her husband had been a very wealthy man, and had led rather a. gay life. He lost a. considerable amount, of money, including £60,000 at Monte Carlo, more than two years ago, and since then had been in difficulties. Mrs Whittingham stated that she separated from her husband by mutual arrangement, and last saw him alive at. Christmas. He wrote to her asking for £l.OOO, and said that if she did no! give it to him there was only oim way out. She sent the money, but subsequently he made further ap- ' plications, which, she added, she had to refuse. Mr Oddie: Who is Rita? —My daughter. He has left a letter addressed to her with £lO in it. Will you see she gets it ?—-Yes. ■ Tile Coroner, recording a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind, said: "Ho had run through £60,000 in gambling and led such a. life that his rwife became separated from him. When he lost his money he applied to her for assistance, and she gave him assistance, until she had to refuse. "The letter ho wrote reads: 'I am finished. All tho fight has been knocked out of me. Day after day I have tried to get a job, but the outlook is very black,’ and so ho goes cm obviously very depressed about his position.”