REJECTED LOVE DRAMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18553, 10 November 1923, Page 3 (Supplement)

REJECTED LOVE DRAMA.

YOUNG OFFICER'S SUICIDE.

SHOT WITH A REVOLVER,

GIRL'S TERRIBLE ORDEAL. Infatuation of a young flying officer for a beautiful , girl, who accepted his friendship but diacouraged his love, ended in a death drama in a Kensington flat,.' Undaunted by the rejection of two previous proposals, the officer made a final call on the lady before sailing for foreign service, and pressed his suit with renewed ardour. ■ >'•■ '•'"'. .';./•. ,'■»- /.-:,. Again the answer was *'No," and to indicate the finality of her decision the girl rose from her seat and I crossed ."> the room. ■'.;. ■;; ;■'>*; ;■*"':*''"';;"'.'"'" "*" V ''.''»■'- "■- ■'•- Immediately there r%,a report of firearms, and the airman, who also had stood up, collapsed with a bullet in his heart at the feet of the horror-stricken girl. That he was prepared for this eventuality is indicated by his possession of a revolver = and 'a - letter of farewell found in his tunic pocket addressed to an invalid mother. The dead man was Flight-Lieutenant Claude Vernon Bucknoll, a 27-year-old R.A.F. officer, stationed at Northolt. For the past month or so he had been very friendly with Miss Grace Chapman, aged 30, the gifted and beautiful daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Chapman, who live in a flat in Iverna Gardens, Kensington. Mr. Chapman is a well-to-do Australian, who spends the greater part of each year on the Continent. Miss Grace is an artist of some renown, whose water colours for the past five years, at any rate, have been exhibited in the Paris Salon. Lieutenant Buckr.cll and Miss Chapman became acquainted a few months ago at the flat of a mutual friend in Kensington. With the young officer it was love at first sight. Shortly afterwards the acquaintance was renewed in the Isle of Wight, whither Claude Bucknell had travelled to visit his invalid mother at Bonchurch, and Miss Chapman had gone on holiday with a friend. The officer proposed marriage and was refused, because for one thing the lady felt their temperaments were unsuited to matrimony. Later, he pressed his suit again, with a similar result. Then Bucknell came under orders for foreign service, and was instructed to sail for Iraq in a fortnight. He determined to make one final bid for the hand and affection of Miss Chapman. Accordingly he travelled up from Winchester, where he was undergoing a special course preparatory to the voyage Fast, and went straight to Iverna Gardens. He was received very, cordially by Mr. Chapman, and accepted an invitation to dinner. "It Was All My Fault.*' When Miss Chapman and Bucknell were alone in the drawing room, the officer again asked his companion to marry him. Again he was met with a kind but firm refusal. Suddenly he half rose from a settee, a shot rang out, and Lieutenant Bucknell rolled over dead at Miss Chapman's feet, with a bullet in his heart. The porter of the flat wa~ hurriedly despatched for a doctor, who arrived within a few minutes, but the officer was beyond his aid. On 'the floor lay a service revolver, and in his pocket, so it is stated, was a letter addressed to his invalid mother, containing the phrase, "It was all my fault?",, ■■■<-. . ~ -.■ -»~~««*~r„.,* So great was the shock to Miss Chapman, a tall, handsome, fair-haired girl, that she was obliged to take to her bed forthwith, and could rive no coherent account of the tragedy. Her father, however, related the circumstances so far as they were known to him. "Lieutenant Bucknell," explained Mr. Chapman, "called at our flat about teatime to tell us he had been ordered to Iraq, and he had oora> to say good-bye. I asked him to have : some tea. but he replied that he had had tea on the train. I then asked him to stay for dinner, as we were having some friends,: and he sat and smoked and talked with me for some time, just in his normal way. He was a quiet, rather moody, young man, but did not seem upset* in any way. Ho was talking to my daughter in the drawing room while I was dressing for dinner. They had been together for v sometime, and my daughter was just making up the fire when he suddenly shot himself through the heart in the chair in which he was sitting. I at once informed the, police, and we sent for 'a doctor, but by the time the doctor arrived he was dead. ':.'. Fits of Moroseness. "We had no reason to think anything of this sort would happen, and my daughter is terribly upset. Lieutenant Bucknell served in the war. He had crashed twice, and bad also .been a prisoner in Germany. Ho was going out to take a responsible position, and had, I should think, very good prospects. I had only met him personally five times, and he had never mentioned his proposal to my daughter to me. My daughter had known him for about two months, and he first proposed about a fortnight ago, but Grace did not think that she and ho were temperamentally suited to each other. .:. "She had almost fallen in Tove with Lieutenant Bucknell when she suddenly discovered that he was subject to fits of moroseness. She has the same trait in her own temperament; it is her greatest worry in life. She thought it unwise for two people similarly affected to link up their lives." According to the statement made to the police by Miss Chapman, Lieutenant Bucknell's tragic act took her completely by surprise. "We both had been sitting talking on the couch," she explained, "and after I had rejected his proposal I went over to the fireplace. I heard him say something to the effect, 'Is that your last word V On . turning round I saw the revolver in his hand and he fired immediately." ' - ; ■ :-'-'-^ v - -■ .