Mayfair Man Regains Liberty

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 184, 7 August 1939, Page 3

Mayfair Man Regains Liberty

“SETTLING DOWN TO SERIOUS WORK” Having gained full remission marks for good cnnduct, John Christopher Mainwarning Lonsdale, 25-year-old Mayfair man, who was sent to gaol in February last year for his part in the Hyde Park Hotel jewel robbery, is now a free man. The other night some of his friends gathered in a Park Lane club to give him a reception. But Lonsdale disappointed them. He was enjoying his new liberty in the invigorating air of the countryside outside London. Lonsdale was one of four men sentenced in connection with the robbery. Two were flogged. When Lonsdale was released from Wandsworth Gaol he was one of nine prisoners whose sentences expired on the same day. Ho was met outside the gaol gates by his solicitor, Mr. A. Kramer, and a number of friends.

He looked fit and well, and said he intended to write a book about his prison experiences.

After that he would attempt to obtain a job as a propagandist in political work.

“I have made up my mind,” Lonsdale declared, “to settle down to serious work. Prison has made me physically fit. 77 “I have been heaving coal for the prison stokeholes, and I asked for that job because I realised that hard manual labour would bo good for mo ! I obtained extra allowances because I was doing hard work. “For example, I got an extra half pint of porridge, an extra half ounce of margarine, and four ounces more bread. 7 7 Lonsdale also said he was in Wormwood Scrubs when Harley and Wiliner who were sentenced with him, got the “cat. 77 “I saw them immediately afterwards, 77 he added. “I know that they got all tho lashes they were ordered to receive, they did not flinch. 77 When Wilmer was sent to Wakefield Gaol, which is regarded as a model prison, Lonsdale made a request that he should go there as well. This request was turned down, and Jenkins, the fourth member of tho quartette sentenced for tlio attack on a jeweller, was sent instead.