ACTOR’S SUICIDE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1939, Page 12

ACTOR’S SUICIDE

NO “MICAWBER” LIFE The phrase, “1 will not continue to live like Micawber.” was contained in a letter written by Patrick Montgomery Cover. 34, an actor, on whom the Paddington coroner, Mr. Ingleby Oddie, recently returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind. Gover was found gassed in his room at Notting Hill. W. He was wearing a civilian gas mask, to which was attached rubber piping connected with a gas tap.

His letter, which was read by the Coroner, stated: I have no work; I have no prospects of any work. 1 have no money—but 1 have at the moment no debts. 1 will not continue to live like Micawber, and I will no longer delude myself with the fiction that I will ever make a success at my job. I could hardly earn bread and butter, and I am too old to get another job.

Mr. Oddie said that the letter also requested him to state publicly that Cover’s brother and sister had always shown him great love. Cover knew they would assist him. but he was too proud to borrow money which he saw no prospect of returning. Charles Cecil Cover, civil engineer, of Bullingham-mansions, Kensington, said that his brother, who had been out of work for a few weeks, was inclined to be temperamental. The Coronor: He had no real ground for taking his life? —No, except that he felt he was not getting on and not really making a success of his job. on which he was very keen. He was in a state, no doubt, of great depression. Mr. Cover added that his brother had an understanding with him that whenever he was hard up he should ask for help, but he was of a rather proud nature and loathed the idea of sponging. Mary Scotman, housekeeper, said that when she went up to Cover’s room on Tuesday morning she found a note which read: “Please sit down and prepare for a slight shock. By the time you read this letter 1 shall have left this world. Sorry to have caused you this annoyance.’’ Mr. Oddie said that it could not be true that Cover was too old at 34 to get another job. He was evidently an intelligent man. “I should think he was a great reader.’’ added the Coroner. “He was a normal-living man, but took himself too seriously and exaggerated temporary troubles.”