TO GRETNA GREEN

Gisborne Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 10858, 30 March 1929, Page 2

TO GRETNA GREEN

MARRIAGE AT THE "AN YIL

YOUNG lIMNiI (.111! L' I)ECEI YE 1)

A schoolgiTs flight from :i Dublin college, Iu • r ‘‘marriage" at Gretna Green, and tile deception of a man nearly twice her uge to entice her into this ceremony, have ended, in his committal to prison. Cliarles Armitage, of Clough.jordan, County Tipperary, had paid court to a girl of l(> hearing the same surname—Jeannette Maud Olive

In her story Inter in the circuit court nt Neiiagh. Olive admitted she had, told Armitage site loved him, and she know he loved lior, hut at her age she did not contemplate marriage. Last Master, while at College, in Dublin. Armitage tried to persuade her to go io Scotland with him, hut she refused. At Whitsuntide he renewed his pleadings, and bore down the girl’s objections and her wish to consult a priest by threatening, unless v agreed to his'wishes to take his life. Stipulating that her brother Stewart must accompany thorn, the girl left "'Kingstown with’ Armitage after buying, at the batter’s suggestion,, a new hat and coat to replace her college outfit. AT GRETNA GREEN. Rooms were taken in a Glasgow hotel, and on Whit Monday Armitage and thet g'U'l went to Gretna Green, where, over an anvil, in -the presence of two men ail’d a girl, they said . they would take one another for tnan and wife. : “We were told to stand on each side of tile anvil," saidOlive' in her evidence. .“One of the men asked us if: we were 21 days in Scotland, find accused said ho was, and I said nothing.” • t . i Then followed writing in a hook, the preparation of documents by the blacksmith-clergyman, and the information was vouchsafed by Armitage to the girl: “This will enable us to get married later if we want to.” ' Back to Glasgow the couple went, and the girl’s brother . that night sldpt alone in the bedroom lie’ had previously shared with Armitage. They left Glasgow for Dublin on Tuesday, nnd Olive went bank to college again, and Armitage' returned to his home. Her parents heard of what had happened, and were,aghast at what their daughter told them. In the meantime. Olive had been corresponding with Armitage, hut her parents prevented her from seeing him. Tn one of his letters he Said: “You are my wife, and should stand by me.” Ho signed the letter “Your loving ■ husband. Oil aides. • He also said that; ho.,;;,was determined to get lior, even though she turned traitor. Armitage was sentenced- to six jnonths’ imprisonment. and was ordered to enter into ji. Rail at the exjii ration of.his..sentence'. for a period of two years, or 'lq 'be imprisoned for 12 months. '. .