MR CORNWALLIS-WEST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3085, 30 April 1913, Page 80

MR CORNWALLIS-WEST.

A MATRIMONIAL SUIT. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 5. Mrs George Cornwallis West, the brilliant woman who is perhaps better known as Lady Randolph Churchill, and the mother, of the First Lord of the Admiralty, has taken the first step towards a separation from her husband, the young officer of the Guards who is about the same age as her son. Mr Cornwallis West is one of a well-known society family, brother of the Duchess of Westminster and Princess Henry of Pless. They were married at St. Paul s, Knightsbridge, in 1900. According to the statement of Lord Tiverton (Mrs West’s counsel), Mr West deserted his wife on December 23. On January 20 last the petition was filed, and on January 30 an appearance was entered by the respondent. The President (Sir Samuel Evans): What was the nature of the desertion? — The respondent left the house in Norfolk street. Lord Tiverton, continuing, stated that certain correspondence took place, but the respondent had refused his wife’s request to come back. The petitioner, speaking with a bad cold, stated that she married the respondent on July 28, 1900, and afterwards lived with him at various '.places, and latterly at Norfolk street. Her husband left their house on December 25 last, and on December 29 she received a letter from him which, counsel said, was exhibited to the affidavit before his lordship. The President: Yes, I see. In that letter the respondent refused to return. “ I replied on December 31,” continued the petitioner, “ and he further replied on January 3.” Counsel: Has he come back to you since? —No. The President; Is he in this country Mr J. H. Murphy: I appear for the respondent, who has been duly served. The President: Then the usual order will do?—Yes. The President: There will be a decree for the restitution of conjugal rights, with costs, to be obeyed within 14 days. Mrs Cornwallis West is a very wellknown figure in English society. The daughter of Leonard Jerome, of America, she was educated in Paris, where Lord Ranolph Churchill, meeting her at a luncheon, exclaimed, That is the brightest woman 1 have ever met." He soon proposed to her, and the brilliant couple took London by storm. Their house was a sort of salon, where the leading intellects of London foregathered. Mrs West is a poet and authoress (she published her memoirs in 1308) —and a ' capable organiser. She had charge of the hospital ship Maine, in South Africa, and she was the organiser of the recent Shakespeare Exhibition at Earls Court.