RECTOR-MAY QUEEN MARRIAGE FAILED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22647, 26 May 1948, Page 5

RECTOR-MAY QUEEN MARRIAGE FAILED

LONDON, May 1. The young bride of a 65-year-old clergyman, the Rev. Thomas Wallace Lurnl), gave evidence at an inquest after Lumb was found drowned in the well at his home, with sacks weighted with stones attached to his neck and left ankle. Lumb, after the death of his wife, married last year 18-ycar-old Joan, who was a corn-man's daughter, a member of the church choir, and the local Queen of the May. Joan today told the coroner that the plublicity surrounding their marriage depressed her husband. They at first lived in the vicarage at Burton Dassctt, but she found it 100 lonely. They moved to Kineton, which worried her husband because he thought he might have to resign if he lived outside his parish, and he hinted at the possibility of suicide. They quarrelled, but not violently. Questioned on behalf of Lumb’s executors, Joan denied that she had tailed as the Rector's wife, but admitted that she had not participated in parish activities. She said she stayed with her parents at Christmts and Easter. She knew before marriage that Lumb wanted a son, but denied telling him she did not want a baby because it would kill her. The coroner rend letters Lumb left, saying he had been indebted to his parishioners for meals during his wife's absence at Easter-time. Another said, "I cannot give my wife all the interests she desires. There is only one remedy and it is hideous.” The coroner returned a verdict of “suicide while of unsound mind.”