BAN ON A COUNTESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19780, 29 October 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

BAN ON A COUNTESS.

NOT TO DRIVE A CAR. THREE YEARS' SUSPENSION. A fine of £2O arid disqualification for three years from driving a motor-cai was lately imposed in London upon the Countess of Kinnoull, who was summoned for driving in a dangerous manner. A constable gave evidence that, while he was standing at night near a barrier put across a street to keep people back owing to the collapse of two houses, he heard a car draw up, and an argument talcing place. A man complained to witness that ho had been nearly knocked down whereupon the countess told the man, "Oh, you go to h—," and the man, turning to witness, remarked, "There you are, constable, that is the fourth time she has said that to me." The magistrate: Did she seem sober ? Witness: Yes. He added that Lady Kinnoull drove her car at a very fast speed down Upper James Street, and scattered pedestrians by twice circling Golden Square. When witness stopped her she gave no explanation why she went twice round the square and contended that she could not have been going fast, as the car was only in first gear. It was submitted on behalf of the countess, who was, not present in court, that she had not been travelling at a fast speed, but that there had been something of an argument over an unjustified remark that the man made to her. Several previous convictions for motoring offences were proved against Lady Kinnoull The countess, before her marriage to the earl in 1923, was Miss Enid Margaret Hamilton-Fellowes. She is a granddaughter of the late Sir Frederick Wills, the tobacco magnate. Shf inherited last year from her mother, lAis. HamiltonFellowes, of Tangley Park, Worcester, a fortune of more than £1,000,000. The countess is an enthusiastic airwoman. A son, who was born in 1525, died at the age of three months..