PREFERRED DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23055, 4 December 1936, Page 20

PREFERRED DEATH

WOULD NOT LEAVE WIFE RECONCILIATION FAILED Broken-hearted because his beautiful young wife would not see him after a rift in their lives, a Bournemouth estate agent preferred death rather than continue on his own. The tragedy of Claude Scott Illingworth, 28, man of shattered hope, is reflected in his farewell message: " It is quite impossible to live without you. lam taking the coward's way out. Please forgive me. .. . I am absolutely normal, but my spirit is broken." Man with brilliant prospects, amateur cricketer, popular in social circles in his district, Illingworth went to his office after the staff had left. Next morning he was found lifeless; gas was escaping in a locked room. Death came swifty when he found that the only chance of reconciliation and marital happiness had vanished. The coroner, Mr A. H. Thompson, recorded a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind at the inquest, at which 23-year-old Mrs Illingworth was a tragic figure. The coroner explained how Illingworth went to Fleet to see his wife in the hope of settling differences. He failed. "WAS TOO SERIOUS". Mrs Illingworth took up the thread. Her story was brief. There had been difficulties, she remarked; she thought that was why her husband ended his life. Mr H. Tattersall (her solicitor): May I take it that if he had gone the right way about it there would probably have been a reconciliation? —Yes. Did he take a far too serious view of the situation which really existed?—Yes. Mr Walter Lester Ginder, Illingworth's partner, told the coroner that he took him to Fleet to see his wife. Mrs Illingworth, when acked to see her husband, replied: " Not at present."

Mrs Illingworth went back to her home from the inquiry broken by grief. She made it clear in an interview: " There was no question of there being another woman in his life or of any man in mine. "I do not think Claude ever did anything but worship me. There was one thing, and one thing only, which threatened our happiness. It is an intimate matter, which I cannot possibly discuss.

" I intended to leave him. He must have known my decision. Claude was a queer man—but I loved him."