ROMANTIC MARRIAGE.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 231, 12 September 1922, Page 7

ROMANTIC MARRIAGE.

Halfway through her eventful military career Madame Kassovskaia temporarily left the field and returned to the concert platform in order to raise money for her regiment, which was then on the verge of starvation. She raised £25,000 by this method. Returning to battle she was wounded so badlv on the last occasion that her life was despaired of. With hundreds of others in a similar plight she’- was packed on a Russian refugee ship and despatched to Mudros island for treatment. While lying off the island she met her present husband, then employed in the British diplomatic service. He came upon her lying on the forecastle head of the steamer with her wounds gaping open, and nearly dead from starvation and exposure, as no blankets had been supplied to the travellers. The youthful Scot rendered what immediate aid he could, and afterwards when she landed helped materially’ in restoring her to health. Then he got orders to depart for Britain, but the young Russian lady was not disposed to go without him, and they were married in a romantic manner on the quarterdeck of H.M.S. Dublin. From Mudros she travelled to England and Scotland, where she again sought the concert platform, with successful results. JOINS UP WITH PRINCESSES. Prior to entering the Don Cossack Army, Madame Kossovskaia had married a young Russian composer, who was becoming famous before the war broke out, but who did not survive in it. A year after a child, Eugenie, was horn, and the little girl died of starvation while her mother was enduring such terrible hardships in battle. In 1917 Mrs. Mclntyre joined the White Army, and with her went five Russian princesses, one of whom was a niece of General Hindenburg, by name Marie Bokh. The unit to wnich she was attached was known as the “Death’s Heads.” on account of that emblem being on their uniforms. As a soldier she had her hair shaved clean, and throughout the campaign she carried a little bottle of poison—which is now in her possession— to end her career in case she fell into the hands of the Bolsheviks. While thus employed she learned that her original husband had been captured and hanged in another part of Russia with several other of the educated class of the country. On arrival in Britain she could not speak English, though she was conversant with most of the Continental languages, but she has since made herself proficient in it. Her present husband is also a linguist of repute. The young couple are proceeding to Brisbane, where relatives of Mr. McIntyre reside.