PADRE ORDERED OUT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22406, 13 August 1947, Page 5

PADRE ORDERED OUT

FACING BIGAMY CHARGE MENTAL BLACKOUT? LONDON, July 26. The Bishop of Sodor and Man, the Rt. Rev, J. R. Strickland Taylor, has instructed 36-year-old ex-R.A'F. padre, the Rev. C. M. C. Lamb who is awaiting a charge of bigamy, to leave his parsonage in the Isle of Man with 12 days. The Bishop’s letter recalled that Lamb's license had been revoked, ending his occupation of ihe parsonage, and added:— “The Lord Bishop appreciates fully the unfortunate position you are in, but feels that this has not in any way hindered you from making preparations for vacating the premises.” Lamb claims that while suffering a black-out he married an ex-WAAF, Joan Boddie, who bore him a child. The black-out had been due to a mental condition which had caused him to be invalided home from Malta in 1943.

Joan Boddie, however, points out that 2i years of married life with Lamb was a long time for a black-out to last. She said she had found out that he was already married when she was having the baby. She wanted to forget the whole thing and did not want him punished. “But I’m livid,” she said. “His parishioners are raising a subscription for him. He gets £650 a year. I dreamt of being a happily married woman. Now I have to scrimp and save from my earnings”