DEATH IN LONDON

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23434, 25 August 1939, Page 10

DEATH IN LONDON

DOMINION NOVELIST EFFECT OF GAS POISONING (Received August 2*l, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 24 The death in tragic circumstances occurred to-day of the New Zealand novelist Miss Iris Wilkinson ("Robin Hyde"). She was found by a friend suffering from gas poisoning in her London home. Oxygen was administered without avail. The High Commissioner for New Zealand, >Mr. W. J. Jordan, had visited Miss Wilkinson on Monday and found her depressed and anxious to return to China., where she spent some months in the war zone. Mr. Jordan offered to help .her return to New Zealand. Miss Wilkinson was weli-known in New Zealand under the nom-de-plume Robin Hyde, as an authoress and poetess and magazine contributor. Her books comprised "Passport to Hell," "Nor the Years Condemn." "Journalese,'' " Wednesday's Children," "The Godwits Fly," Check to Your King" and "Dragon Rampant." At the time of her death she was under contract to publish two more novels. M iss Wilkinson left New Zealand in January last year with the intention of proceeding, via Shanghai, Kobe. Vladivostok and the Siberian railway, to Russia, and thence to England. From May 27 until July 1 sho was missing in the interior of China. The Japanese authorities began a search for her and discovered that she was last seem leaving Hsuchow on donkey-back for the north-eastern front, which was overrun by Japanese troops retreating from Langfeng. After a long and arduous trip Miss Wilkinson arrived at Tsingtao smd was forwarded io Hongkong, where she arrived at the beginning of July. At Hongkong she was admitted to hospital suffering, from nervous prostration. Miss Wilkinson's parents live in Northland, Wellington.