SHOT IN THE JUNGLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22505, 25 February 1935, Page 17

SHOT IN THE JUNGLE

TRAGEDY MARS A PARTY MAN SHOOTS HIS SISTER. Suddenly entering the line of fire, the wife of an Irish International Rugby player was accidentally shot dead by her brother in an Indian jungle a few weeks ago.. The tragedy occurred in connection with a shooting party near Bareilly, in Kashipur, the victim being Mrs Withers, wife of Lieutenant H. C. C. Withers, of the Royal Engineers. Mrs Withers, who was 30 years of age, had only been in India a month. Mr and Mrs Withers were invited by Mr Barrack, resident railway engineer at Bareilly, to-join a small hunting party expedition, and with them was Lieutenant Macleod, Mrs Withers's brothers, who is in one of the Sikh regiments. While the shoot was in progress Mrs Withers received a shot in the chest and_ died almost immediately. Lieutenant Withers is the son of Lieutenant-colonel Withers and Mrs Withers, of Dorchester.

By a tragic coincidence Mrs Withers has shared the fate of her father, who was shot many years ago. "Mrs Withers was a member of a well-known Scottish family, the Macleods of Skye," Lieuten-ant-colonel Withers related in an interview. " Her father, Duncan Macleod, owned coal mines in India, and he was shot dead by a native when his daughter was an infant. This is the tragedy of the Macleods. My son's wife had been in India only a month. She sailed from England last October." Lieutenant Withers, who played Rugby for his country in 1931, is a member of the Blackheath Club, and has played for the Army.