LONGING TO DIE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20901, 16 December 1929, Page 19

LONGING TO DIE.

PASSING OF LADY WATTS. A woman who for some time past had willed her death has just passed away suddenly at Mentone, in the person of '', atts * th ,° ' vldo ' v Sir Philip Watts, the naval constructor to the Ad miralty. r a f ai,^ t i! U!s J d V rinc the P ns t few years c c ,vl a^ s declared that she was tired Of life and really wanted to po. So firmly was this longing for death fixed in hci mind that some years ago she had thfollowing inscription carved on a tombstone in Ivensa! Green Cemetery:—“ Lady Elise Isabelle Watts, F.R.G.S., citizen anil shipwright of London. Born in Brussels August 10. 1853. Died .” ~ ’ The tomb is that of Lady Watts’ miclc, Francois Simonau, the famous Belgian painter of the Victorian epoch, wlio died in London. Lady Watts was verv fond of showing a photograph of this tombstone with her own name on it. She was a prominent character on the Riviera, witty and sarcastic. Her expressions were frequently characterised by frank outspokenness, while her stories won her renown. After her husband’s death. Lady Watts allowance had not been sufficient to enable her to lead the brilliant Riviera life to which she had been accustomed, ami she began to take in paying guests at hei villa and even gave luncheon, dinner, and bridge parties, to which she invited royal personages and introduced ambitious mothers and their daughters. Lady Watts's doctors know that she was not in the best of health. They believed that she would live three or four years longer, but a heart attack on September 13 brought death unexpectedly. It is thought she willed her death even against the desires and belief of her doctors.