UNREQUITED LOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21224, 2 July 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNREQUITED LOVE.

VICARAGE LOVE TRAGEDY.

YOUNG LABOURER'S DEATH

GIRL'S ROSES ON COFFIN.

Remarkable evidence of a Sussex farm labourer's unrequited love for his vicar's daughter was told on May 23 at the inquest on Reginald Barden, aged 23, of Church Hill, Ashburnham. Barden was found shot dead, with a rook gun between his legs, on the vicarage lawn at Ashburnham, and evidence was given that though he loved the vicar s daughter, Miss Pennington, he had told the vicarago cook that he would shoot h'mself before he would ask the girl's father for permission to pay attentions to her.

Miss Henrietta Thomas, cook at the vicarage, said that earlier in the week she told Barden she thought he was getting too fond of Miss Prnningtori. He gave her the impression he was in love, and a disappointed man She d d not tell tho vicnr about it, as slio did not think it was her business. The vicar tho Rev. C. &. T. Salo Pen nington (to tho coroner): "That was not Lhe reason she told me. She said he would have shot her if she had told me." Giving evidence, the vicar said that h s daughter, who played the organ at church, returned home from a choir practice about 10.20 on tho evening of May 20. Shortly afterward they heard a tapping on the window panel of the front door. Mrs.

Pennington opened the door, but there was nobody there. They were afraid of burglars, and subsequently, while making a round of the house, he saw a ladder leading up to his daughter's bedroom window. When he spoke of go ng for the police his wife would not let him, and nearly fainted. A little later he went to the window again, and to his astonishment the ladder was gone. Shortly afterward a noise like a squib was heard. He slept in his daughter s bedroom that night, and wa3 awakened between 4 and 5 a.m. by the cook, who told him she had found Bard?n's body. The vicar added, " I regarded Barden is a boy of sterling qual'ties, and as far is hfi was concerned if he had come to me and asked me for anything I would hava granted it." Witness said he would have given his consent to Barden paying attentions to his daughter if ho had come '.o him. Barden must have been infatuated with his daughter unknown to him. The coroner, record'ng a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind, said, " This is a caS2 of unrequited love, and Barden was directing his attentions in'o channels in which perhaps he ought not to have directed them. The piobabil ty was ho was off his mental balance when he took his life."

Miss Pennington sent a spray of roses, lilies of the valley and arum lilies to the funeral of Barden.

The spray, which lay on the coffin, was inscribed: "Will sineerest regret and deepest sympathy from Miss Sylvia Pennington 11.1. P."

A special service ordered by the Bishop of Chichester, Dr. G. Iv. A. Bell, was conducted by the vicar of Ashburnham. the Bev C G. T. Sale, Pennington, in (lie tiny church at Penhurst, of which he is also the vicar. Mr. and Mrs. Pennington sent a wreath inscribed " With sincere regret and de pest sympathy." Miss Pennington was not present at the inquest or the funeral. It was stated that she was too deeply affected.