ECHO OF GRETNA GREEN WEDDING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22955, 5 February 1938, Page 11 (Supplement)

ECHO OF GRETNA GREEN WEDDING

the legal aspect of marriage at f Gretna Green the Recorder, Mr. G&rald Doilson, gave an interesting ruling at the Old Bailey, London. Ho decided that a married man who went t through a form of marriage at Gretna (Green-was guilt)' of bigamy though he had no t conformed with the 21 day residential qualification. Remarking that he thought it would be an advantage to have the ruling of a higher Court, he granted an application by the defence for a certificate for leave to appeal. The man.who was •lleged to have committed bigamy, Wil-

Ham Tennant Robinson, aged 34, was sentenced to nine months' gaol. The woman who went through the ceremony with Robinson is Miss Mabel Sarah Gray, linen-keeper at a Southend hotel. Robinson, a married man, was stated to have absconded with £IOOO from a business, married Miss Gray at Gretna, and left her in London after she had given him £4O, all she had in the bank. Robinson has one child— a

boy—by his legal wife, to whom he was married in 1935. Mr. E. J. P. Cussens, defending Robinson, submitted that the ceremony of marriage at Gretna Green was not such a ceremony as came within the provisions of the Offences .Against the Person Act, on which the bigamy charge was based. The Recorder said the point introduced a matter of considerable interest, one which did not appear to have

been touched by any authority tluring the last 65 years. Jt was only because Kobinson chose to make a false declaration that there was no disclosure made of the fact that ho had not lived in Scotland for, the requisite twenty-one days. "J think it is quite immaterial," said the Recorder, "that Robinson had not fulfilled that condition. What was done when the form of marriage was gone through between those two persons P I

"It is said that the ceremony is a casual or lighthearted one. Perhaps they may be lighthearted about such things in Scotland. Although the ceremony may bo brief, it appears to be adequate and sufficient. "The parties joined hands, and accepted each other for a then intended marriage." Clearly it was recognised by the law that this form of marriage was capable of producing a valid marriage. "Jt was astonishing to think that for years marriage of that kind was perfectly legal—making Scotland an even more perilous place for Englishmen than had beeti hitherto realised," commented the Recorder.