“MERELY ACTING”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17235, 15 April 1930, Page 7

“MERELY ACTING”

DRAMA OF A DUCHESS ATTEMPTED SUICIDE CHARGE (Received April 15, noon.) LONDON, April 14. The Duchess of Leinster was convicted on a charge of attempted suicide and was remanded. The duchess was emphatic in her denial of the charge, and declared that she only intended to frighten the man with whom she was living. She was merely acting. The Duchess of Leinster was found unconscious in a gas-filled room in a Brixton fiat at 3 a.m., and was taken to hospital. She had lived in the flat for three months under tile name of Mrs. Williams. The duchess before her marriage was May Etheridge, a musicalcomedy artist. She married the duke in 1913. The landlady stated that the the duchess, who confided her real name to her, arrived a month ago with a man who gave the name of Stanley Williams. Tiie couple said they had just arrived in London and had luggage to collect from a railway station. Williams called at the police station, and said he had found his wife in the kitchen with the gas-taps turned on. Williams is a chef, 26 years old. He met the duchess at Hytlie in October. At that time the duke allowed her £9 a. week, but the Daily News says that recently he cut the allowance down to £5 owing to her friendship with Williams. Williams said: “We quarrelled over a wireless set. I wanted to listen to Paris, and she to 2LO. We argued, and the duchess became furious. I told her I was going hack to Hythe, and she became very angry.”