DIVORCE FOR COLONEL

NZ Truth, Issue 1146, 17 November 1927, Page 10

DIVORCE FOR COLONEL

His Wife's Love for Young Man She Met On Voyage

A QUOTATION FROM CHAUCER

(From "N.Z. Truth's" Special Auckland Representative.)

"This will come io you as a shock hut you will, I know, come up to scratch and help Bill all you can lam leaving to-day, sailing by the Marama. Coming out from England I met and fell m love with a boy of 25 .' . . / have told Bill I have np words except m the words of Chaucer, *Heis a parfait gentil knight. ' BUI was all you have thought him and more. — Flora."

THESE words, written by his wife, X Flora Macdonald' Sinolair-Burgess,

, ' . to his , sister, meant for Colonel William Livingstone Sinclair -Burgess tbe end of his domestic happiness. An office? of His Majesty's Forces stationed m New Zealand, Colonel Sinclair-Burgess petitioned Judge Reed last week for his freedom from Flora, his wife, on the grounds of her misconduct with a man known to him only as "Jerry." / , v In his dpenlnar remarks to the Judge, Lawyer Northcr,oft told the story of a romance that commenced aboard ship bound from England to New Zealand, of the wife's confession .to her husband and his fruitless, attempts to hold her

The Colonel's Lady

Colonel Sinclair-Burgess , and hia wife were married m England m. 1921. It was m 1925, when the colonel was stationed m - New Zealand, that his wife went home to England on- a visit and returned the following June. Her attitude was then strange towards her husband. The first inkling of .the real trouble came when the wife • admitted that' she ■ had formed an attachment for a young man who came out to New Zealand m the flame ship. His name, she told her husband, was Apparently husband arid wife-rafter talking things - over— came to some understanding and for a little time their lives went on as usual.

Very shortly after her return, however, Mrs. Sinclair-Burgess asked her husband to consent to her going on a trip to Australia for a change. He gave, his consent. . , HJaflrßt indication that his wife did not intend to return to him came when he\ perused a letter she had left addressed to his sister; , ' In this she made ' quite clear the depth of her feelings for the. unknown lover; who had travelled out In the same boat from England with her. ■■■. To his Bister, she referred to her husband: "He is a parfalt gentil krilght.", ' ! Convic^lbh grew when he received a letter from his wife written In Sydney. "Bill dear," It ran, "I just want you to know that ; Jerry Is on the Port Campbell and is filing at dawn. "She will be m Austrtilla for about ten days, but for everyone's sake I decided that he must leave

Sydney, for this is the easiest way." Colonel Sinclair-Burgess immediately wrote to his wife and pressed her very strongly to return to him*

He was successful to the extent that she did return to him, but after stay> ing two days she went to her mother's home.

"I have gone. I cannot go through another day such as yesterday.- As 1 told you, I have lost all feeling for you. Please believe me — this is final." Flora Sinclair-Burgess left this letter for her husband when she' departed the second time. , •

Later it was suggested that she should' go to. England. "Colonel Sin-clair-Burgess," said Lawyer Northcroft, "had lost patience with his wife and when this trip was suggested he agreed to pay her passage and to provide for her for six months, but at the end of that time— if she did not return to him — her supply of money would be cut off." . .

/ Mrs. Sinclair-Burgess left New Zealand on October $ and m February, 1927, her husband received two letters from her. The first, written on February . 21, from Temple Chambers, Temple Avenue, London, read: "Bill, my dear, I

want you

. vorce me. You remember our ; discussion at Point Jerningham. . j . .

"For myself, I will never marry again. . . The iman I love Is a boy m years and apart from that fact 1 have decided the difference m our years makes the question of marrying beyond the question.

"I have been a wife In the truest sense of the word and I will continue to be so- until life ends it all. I hope you will be happy In your freedom." The second letter, written a day later, mentioned the posting of the previous note and 'said: "The wording is purposely crude and compromising so that a- lawyer -can.- Understand.'? . Continuing, , the wife wrote: "I have put up a fight against things, but. have ■'given myself .wholeheartedly " now. I am living here by myself and only .'see Jerry once a month." : / Lawyer Nprthoroft Informed Judge Heed that when the petition was served on Mrs. Sinclair-Burgess m London she admitted to the clerk that she had been guilty of misconduct on three occasions wltli a mkn whose name and address she refused to disclose.

Colonel ; William Livingston© Hatchwell Sinclair-Burgess, a tall, soldierly man with well-developed muscular frame and iron-grey hair, confirmed all that his legal

representative had already said. Judge Reed granted the colonel his freedom. ' v