MODERN ENOCH ARDEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13146, 7 April 1906, Page 2 (Supplement)

MODERN ENOCH ARDEN.

SUPPOSED DEAD HUSBAND

RETURNS :TO LIFE.

TATTOO MARKS LEAD TO IDENTIFI-

CATION

It was in many respects'in-remarkable„ story which .was told during the hearing of 'the action brought by Mi'. James Gilby Vokins, .son of the well-known picture dealer, of King-street, St. James', for a declaration of the nullity of his marriage with Annie Doreen Grace Burrows'. The case was commenced some!, time ago, and was not resumed until recently, when the lady admitted that : the, man whom she saw-some years after the marriage was her first husband, Captain Guy Burrows, who she had thought. had died in Africa. Mr. Willock, for petitioner, explained on the former occasion that the parties were married in 1903. They had met two years previously, and shortly before the ceremony respondent told petitioner that her former husband was Captain William Guy Burrows, at one time of the 7th' Fusiliers, (lie son of General' Burrows, of Leamington, that that marriage had been an unhappy one, that he had gone, to Africa at her expense, that she had not heard of him for many years, and that she had seen an announcement of his death in a French paper. On April 29 last husband and wife were together at Mr. Vokins', sen.', place of business .in .King-street, St. James', when a letter was received by the wife and handed to petitioner. It was from an inquiry agency. He went out and saw a, man, who told him that Captain Burrows had turned,up, adding, " The man who married your wife, though she may have thought him dead." The man asked for money, and was given ss. Mr. Vokins believed it was a put-up story, and was doing all he could to protect his wife, who said the man referred to could not be Captain Burrows. Subsequently a letter was received from Mi% Thomas Beard, a. solicitor, who wrote that he had been instructed by Captain Burrows, and respondent again said she thought it a try-on. A second letter was received from Mr. Beard, saying that he had been instructed to institute divorce proceedings, in * which Mr. Vokins was to be cited as co-respondent. The matter was placed in the hands of Messrs. Dod, Longstaife, and Co., solicitors, and an appointment was made for a meeting at their office. Captain Burrows came with a friend named Hedley. Petitioner was there, and so was respondent," with her sister and her solicitor. « Mr. Longstaifo asked Burrows if respondent was his wife, and he replied, : "Yes," saying that they were married at the Marylebone Registry Office in 1899. M'r. Hedley said he also had no doubt about ,it, as he had known her for several years. Mr. Longstaft'e asked the wife if that was true, and she replied, "I do not know him," but when Burrows and Hedley left she remarked to her sister, "Well, he js altered very little." Mr. Longstafi'e asked her if she still persisted in her denial, and, she answered, "Well, no ; but at the .time I married Mr. Vokins I thought he was dead." In the witness-box the lady denied that she made any admission or anything that might be construed into an admission that the man who was there present was her first husband. When the. case was now called on Mr. Eldridge, for the lady, said that since the adjournment Mrs. Vokins had had an interview with the gentleman who persisted that he was Captain Burrows. Mrs. Vokins had stated that her first husband had tattoo marks on his arm, which she described, and at the interview the captain bared his ami, and his wife had no difficulty in identifying the tattoo marks upon it. She was now satisfied that he was the man she married nearly 17 years ago. Under these circumstance's, added counsel, his client could not offer any further opposition to a decree of nullity. "Mrs. Vokins was then called, and told how she met Captain Burrows on January 10. Was that man your husband? ■—Yes.' Did you also see the tattoo marks on his arm''Yes. Are you quite satisfied your husband is alive?— Yes. The President then granted the decree of nullity of marriage. ■ .. ; . ' •■