"UNSUITED FOR WAR."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15730, 3 October 1914, Page 2 (Supplement)

"UNSUITED FOR WAR."

AN OFFICER'S SUICIDE

PITEOUS LETTERS. Fe.-eing ho would not be accepted for service in the war, Captain Arthur Sydney Evelyn Annesley, formerly of the Rifle Brigade, who lived in Leinster Gardens, committed suicide by throwing himself under a van in Elizabeth Street, Pimlico.

A pathetic story was told at the. inquest when Mr. William Yorko Scarlett, master of tho Craven Foxhounds, of Hungerford, identified Captain Annesley as his brother-in-law. Captain Annesley, witness said, lived with his mother, the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Annesley. Ho served in the Boer war and left the Rifle Brigade about ten years ago. thinking lie butt none enough service.

William Bradlaw, butler to the Hon. Mrs. Annesley, said that the captain had remarked to him that ho never thought he would live to see a war liko the present one. Last Wednesday witness was trying to get his kit together, and the captain went down to Winchester to the depot of his old regiment, and upon his return ho was still hoping that lie would go on active service. On the same day witness told him that he could not purchase a revolver for him, the gunsmiths being sold out. Captain Annesley replied, "What a nuisance!"

Eye-Witness's Story. Robert Whiting, a carman, of Surrey Row, Blackfriars Road, said that Captain Annesley attracted his attention by the peculiar way in which he was walking. Suddenly ho went down "like a sack" under the wheel of a heavily laden van. Police Constable Cresswell said Captain Annesley's umbrella, silk hat, and a parcel containing a revolver lay in tho road. Fifty cartridges and a letter were found in his pocket.

The revolver found on Captain Annesley was described by the coroner as a heavy

antique weapon. Tho coroner remarked that there was a great scarcity of revolvers in London at present. He read the following letter written by Captain Anneslev to his butler

"Bradlaw,—Please give enclosed to my ir,uther, but after Mr. Scarlett has seen you. Wire to him that an accident has occurred. I have shot myself, as brain has gone with worry.— Anneslev."

There was also a letter addressed to the Hon. Mrs. Anneslev, which ran: —

"My darling mother,—l have been awfully worried about you, and Helen, but I fear my brain is going; quite unsuited for the war now, so please forgive me. I leave everything of mine to you, then to my sisters. You have been an excellent mother to me.—Your affectionate son, Arthur. " The common-sense view of the case, remarked the coroner, seemed to be that the worry and anxiety caused by the feeling that lie was not going to be accepted for servicewhich did him great credit as a brave man-led Captain Annesley to take his life.

The jury returned a verdict of ''Suicide during temporary insanity."