JUNGLE TRAGEDY

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 February 1935, Page 4

JUNGLE TRAGEDY

MAN SHOOTS HIS SISTER. Suddenly entering the line of fire, the wife of an Irish International Rugby player was accidentally shot dead by her brother in an Indian jungle a few weeksi ago. The tragedy occurred in connection with a .shooting party near Bareilly, in Kashipur, the victim being Mrs. Withers, wife of Lieutenant H. C. C. Withers, of the Royal Engineers. Mrs. Withers, who was 30 years of age, had only been in India a month. Mr. and Mrs. Withers were invited by Mr. Barrack, resident railway engineer at Bareilly, to join a small hunting party expedition, and with' them was Lieutenant Macleod, Mrs. Withers’ brother, who is in one of Sikh regiments. While the shoot was in progress, Airs. Withers received a shot in the chest and died almost imhiediately. Lieutenant Withers is the son of .Lieutenant-Colonel Withers and Mrs. Withers,, of Dorchester. By a tragic coincidence Mrs. Withers has shared the fate of her father, who was shot many years ago. “Mrs. Withers was a member of a wellknown Scottish family, the Macleods of Skye,” Lieutenant-Coloner Withers related iu an interview. “Her father, Duncan Macleod, owned coal mines in India, and he was shot dead by a native, when his daughter was an infant. This is the tragedy of the Macleods. Mj' son’s wife had been in India only a month. She sailed from England last October.” Lieutenant Withers, who played Rugby for his country in 1931, is a member of' the Blackheath Club, and has played for the Army.