PERIL OF DRESS CLEANING

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1936, Page 4

PERIL OF DRESS CLEANING

WOMAN DIES AFTER EXPLOSION LONDON, January 1. Mrs. Betty Dickson-Smith, the 22-year-old wife of Mr. J. A. J. DicksonSmith, of Rothwell House, Chobham, secretary of the Chobham Cycle Polo Club mid a motorist well known at Brooklands, died in Woking Hospital yesterday following an explosion at her home. Her clothes had caught fire and she had been blown through two rooms.

Mrs. Moon, a friend, who was with Mrs. Dickson-Smith last night, said that she was taking some stains out of a dress with petrol in the kitchen, and attempted to light the gas stove before the petrol fumes had evaporated. Both she and Mrs. Moon were flung by the force of the explosion through the kitchen and dining-room.

When Mrs. Moon jumped to her leei. she saw Mrs. Dickson-Smith in Hames. She made frantic efforts to smother them with curtains, and jumped with her through the diningroom window into the garden.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dickson-Smith, who was reading in the drawing-room, heard his wife’s cries, and tried to roach her, but found his way blocked by a portion of the ceiling of the hall and dining-room, which had been blown down. He broke down the din-ing-room door just, as the two women jumped out of the window. An accomplished amateur actress. Mrs. Dickson-Smith had recently appeared in a play which raised a large sum of money for the hospital in which sho died. The cycle polo match between Chobham and an All. England; team at Chobham, which should have been held to-day, was cancelled in consequence of her death.