ELOPED WITH MANX GIRL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15551, 7 March 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

ELOPED WITH MANX GIRL.

EX-ARMY OFFICER'S CONFESSION. Believing that her husband had gone away on business a wife had a severe shock upon receiving a letter from him confessing that he had eloped with a Manx girl, and begging her to obtain a divorce. There was a sequel to the episode in the Manx High Court, when Mrs. Catherine Maud Howard petitioned for a decree of divorce from her husband, Mr. Cecil Harry St. Leger Howard, formerly an officer in a Northampton militia regiment, on the grounds of his desertion and misconduct with Miss Gladys Halliday. Mr. Nelson (for petitioner) said the parties were married in 1897, and there was one child, nine years old. Respondent, at the time of the marriage, was I on the staff of a Paris newspaper. Soon j after the _ wedding the parties became domiciled in the Isle of Man, where they resided together for over 14 years up to September 29 last, when respondent left home ostensibly to attend to commercial duties in England. On the following day petitioner received a letter from him dated September 30, and written from Liverpool The letter read :— Dear Maud,—You will no doubt be much surprised to receive this letter from me, but after careful considerations I find it will be quite impossible for me to return to you again. You will agree with me that our married life has not been a happy one, and that we are totally unsuited to each other, so I have therefore decided to end the whole matter, and you must not look to me for any further maintenance. H you wish .to take any proceedings against me, to save you further trouble, I may mention that I am staying at this hotel with Gladys as my wife.. I beg of you to divorce me as soon as you possibly can, so that' I can do the Tight thing and marry Gladys. I hope you will forgive me for all the trouble I have caused you. Petitioner, giving evidence, said the SSI refer red to in the letter was Miss Hal.iday, who had been a friend of both parties. Petitioner said she had given her husband no cause for his conduct, and they had always lived happily together. A decree ,T as granted to petitioner with costs, and the custody of-the child.