TRAGIC ROMANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22816, 27 February 1936, Page 4

TRAGIC ROMANCE

PEER'S DAUGHTER IN AFRICA

DeatH from heart failure recently brought to an end the romantic and tragic love story of the Hon. Mrs Averill Rattray, the 27-year-old daughter of Viscount Furness. . Four years ago, renouncing her position in English society, she lnarried her . father's white . hunter, Mr Andrew- Rattray, in Nairobi, and went to live'on a farm,-.■ .. l After two years of happiness her husband died in November, 1933, at the age of 52. Now Mrs Eattray, who had been inconsolable since his death, has died in a. Nairobi nursing home. Mrs Rattray's romance began five year« ago, when Mr Eattray came to England, bringing a number of animals for Lord Furness. . She fell' in love with him. A year later she went with her father on a hunting trip to Africa. She decided to return before Lord Furness, and Mr TBnttray escorted her to the coast. They were married in the District Commissioner's office at Nairobi under special licence, and with no advance* notice. Soon' afterwards Lord Furness published in an East African newspaper an announcement that Mr Eattray was no longer ■ white- hunter to his-safari and had no authority to order anything in his name. ..... Mr Eattray fell ill while he and hi» wife were living in the bush. She nursed him and finally chartered an aeroplane to take him to Nairobi for an operation. It was of no avail. Lord Furness sent instructions for a wreath to be placed on the grave, and afterwards became reconciled with hia daughter. During her last illness he had been in constant communication with her by cable from his home in Melton Mowbray. . , ■'. Mrs Rattray had always been fond ot sport and adventure. She was only 12 when she shot her first stag in Ross-shire, and.she became an expert horsewoman. A few days after her wedding ehe shot her first lion. "• Delight in open spaces made her declare that she could never settle down again to the humdrum of social life in England. ■ '