A LONDON HOTEL TRAGEDY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 12

A LONDON HOTEL TRAGEDY.

MISERABLE END TO AN ELOPEMENT. Two people, says the London Daily Chronicle of December 15, shot them- I selves in the early hour 3 of Sunday morning at the Grand Hotel, Northumberland avenue. The previous Friday a Mr and Mrs Gallway arrived at the hotel and engaged apartments. Although, however, they bore the same surname, they did not stand in the relationship of husband and wife, but in that of urother and sUter-in-law, the gentleman being about 40 years of age and the lady some half a dozen years younger. During Saturday ihey I seemed to be on the best of possible terms, and were chatting and laughing whenever they were seen together either by the guests or the servants at the hotel. Going out in the evening they returned and retired to their sleeping apartment just before midnight, and nothing whatever was observed to excite suspicion that a tragedy was soon to be enacted. Alter the lap3e of an hour a gentleman occupying an adjoining room was aroused from his sleep by a loud report of firearms. There were two shots, separated by a brief interval. I An alarm being raised the hotel servants tri*>d the dour of the room, butdiacovered | it to be locked. As, however, moans were heard within, the door vas forced open, and a terrible spectacle presented itself. Partially dressed, the unhappy cjuple were lying prostate on the fl jor in ! a pool of blood, with a six chambered revolver close by, two chambers having been recently discharged. Both victims were still alive and conscious, but in a pitiable condition. The man was wounded on the left breast, the bullet having penetrated the lung and emerged at the back. The lady's wound was just below the right breast, anid in her case also the bullet had gone completely through the body, tearing through the kidneys on the way. As the critical nature of the case was but too obvious, the unfortunate pair were at once removed on an ambulance to the Charing Cross hospital, and placed under the care of Dr. Ryan and Dr. Pvees, house surgeons, who bestowed every attention upon the patients. Without delay, too, the police were communicated with, and upon an inspector arriving from Bow street Mr and Mrs Gallway made statements which the officer reduced to writing. They unreservedly confessed that they had mutually agreed to commit suicide in \ a certain contingency, arid had carried lout the compact, Mr Gallway shopting

himself first, and Mrs Gallway herself immediately afterwards, with the same weapon. Owing to the fearful shock to j the system they .speedily became uncon- [ aciou-s, bub recovered shortly after. The woman, who waa the worst injured, died in the small hours of Tuesday morning. On being carried out of the Grand Hotel Mr Gall way turned to the manager and said, "You need not trouble about my account. My brother will settle that all right"'—a statement wuich th* j sister-in-law hid strength enough to endorse. The husband of the lady, Mr Colley Gallway, is the Bristol representative of Messrs W. B. Cochrane and Co., stockbrokers, 13 and 14, Cornhill, Loudon, and occupies a good position. Mr Charles Gallway went to live with his brother at Bristol about three weeks ago. He was in a delicate state of health, but speed'ly recovered, and appeared to be on the most affectionate terms with his br ther. I According to information from Bristol, Mrs Colley Gallway left Clifton about, live weeks ago in company with one of her , tive children —Eileen, aged seven years. They proceeded to Edenoridge, near Tun the residence of Mrs Gall way's parents, where the rest of the children had been visiting. She was accompanied as far as London by her brother in Jaw, Mr Charles Gallway. It is further stated that Mr Colley (Jail .ray had been expecting his wife's return to Bristol for some days past ; that on Wednesday, Doc. 4, she wired that she would leave Loudon the next day, but telegraphed later pjost polling her departure, and that on Friday she sent home two of her boys who had come to London, but did not accompany them. As late as Saturday a wire was received from her to the effect that she was to proceed to Bristol that afternoon, and the next news Mr Gallway received was the telegram announcing that his wile was in Charing Cross hospital in » critical state. Immediately on receipt of this he came to London, and waited in the hos pital all Sunday night expecting the end. Just prior to her death Mrs Gil I way made a statement in respect to the circumstances surrounding the tragic fate of herself and Major Gallway, her brother in-law. Her deathbed declaration waa taken down by an inspector of police, in the presence of some members of the medical staff of Charing Cross hospital. It. is understood that the unhappy woman makes reference to a passionate attach merit between her brother-in law and her self.

Speaking of this elopement our London correspondent says:— Domestic tragedies amongst the upper middle classes in England ai-e, all things considered, not numerous, and very few indeed come to the surface. Mrs Grundy is a potent factor in preventing publicity. Lawyers know this. The sinning wives and husbands who get forgiven are far more numerous than those who become divorced. The injured husband thinks of the harm a scandal would do his innocent children; the injui'ed wife dreads the position of a wife who is yet no vvife. So they kiss and make friends, or —pretend to. Then there are the liaisons which never come to light, and which the culprits fondly imagine to he secret. Very often the person most intimately concerned is the only one amongst a tribe of friends and neighbours who doesn't suspect evil. Such adulterous friendships may go on for years, dying a natural death at last. But the worst complication of all is where passion leads two naturally honourable and conscientious individuals to treacherously deceive a third, whom they both love. This is a favourite situation in fiction, but in real life —thank God —seldom occurs. It unfortunately, however, appears to be the probable explanation of the Gallway double suicide which horrified the Grand Hotel guests last Sunday night. Mrs Colley Gallway (now dead) was, as everyone supposed, the happy wife of a Bristol stockbroker, blessed with five children, and apparently much attached to husband and family. Mr Gallway's brother, Major Galway, lived in London, and was on the best terms with his brother and sister-in-law. He had recently been stopping with them on a visit, and naturally had driven and walked a good deal with both Mrs Gallway and the children. After his departure Mrs Gallway and two other little trirls went to stop with relatives in Kent. Mr Gallway expected them home on a certain date, but his wife twice sent a wire postponing her return, though the children and nurse duly turned up. The next thing poor Colley Gallway heard was that the wile he adored and the brother ho loved and trusted had committed suicide together in a bedroom of the Grand Hotel. Why they did it God alone knows. The most charitable supposition is that, having in an evil moment of passion given way to sin, they felt a remorse so grinding that neither were ecpaal to meeting again the man they had betrayed. I fear, however, it is more probable the liaison was of long standing. Again and again the pair had sworn to sin no more—again and again they had fallen. At length, in one of those neurotic attacks which inevitably succeed excess of every kind, the man or the woman suggested suicide. Probably the Dacres' dramatic end gave the cue. " I cannot live without you, darling," cried the middle-aged mother of five children. " Then die with me, my own/ 5 the gallant j major responded. Probably neither of

thorn exactly meant it. But firearms supervening on excitement, whether vinoils or simply sensual, become dangerous possessions at 1 a.m. The half-acci-dental touch of a hair - trigger turns hysterical farce into the direst, grimmest, most realistic tragedy.