SCHOOL BOY ABDUCTED.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9403, 25 March 1909, Page 3

SCHOOL BOY ABDUCTED.

' HEIR TO LARGE FORTUNE. Behind an application ocucFrniog a contempt of court made to Mr ’ Justice Parker, sitting as Chancery judge, at the Law Courts, 1 ea a ■ romantic story of a mother abducting her own son. As a result of the, ap- ? plication, Mr, Justice Parker made an order for Mine: Knowles to return hersoh, Townley Rigby Knowles« to the care of the court. Young ' Knowles, who is 13 years of age, is the son*of the-late T. R. Knowles, who owned a large amount of property in Preston and other Lancashire 'towns to which the boy is heir. The income from the estates is estimated at about £30,000 a year. ToWnley’s mother is a Frenchwoman anti a,Roman Catholic. She wanted the bey brought up in her \ faith; the father wished him to be ednoated as a Protestant. The courts were asked to adjudicate on the question. The veraiot was in the father’s favour. The lad was made a ward,in Chancery,. and was sent to a Protestant boarding school at Folkestone. Then Mr Knowles died, and some time ago the widow married a M. Clementel in Paris. The marriage, however, was not a success, and she recently obtained a divorce on the French courts. The school to which Townley was sent is known as Pretoria House, and is ' situated in Ooolinge Lane, right on top of the cliffs at the western extremity of the town. In October last Mme, Knowles arrived at Folkestone, and stayed at a boardinghouse in Clifton Gardens. She called several times at, the school, and impressed everybody by her charming manners. The lad was allowed to visit her on Saturdays, and on a recent Sunday afternoon, when she asked permission to take her son out to liinohebn, and for a drive afterwards, she was permitted to do so. THE BOY VANISHES. “He shall be back this evening,” said the lady, as she left thb school premises with the lad. But from that date nothing had been heard of either of them. As the boy did not return, and in consequence of a communication made to him, the headmaster .informed the solicitors to the family, who in turn consulted Scotland Yard. On the Wednesday two officers from there arrived at Folkestone, and crossed over to Boulogne by the nine a.m. bdht. This was in consequence of the mother having stated to Mrs Griffiths, her landlady, that she intended going to Paris. Mrs Griffiths and her daughter told a very interesting story to a newspaper .representative. “Mme. Knowles came to stay with ns last October,” said Mrs Griffiths, “and from then until the Sunday her son used to come to lunch and tea every week-end.

“Madame is a very delightful Frenchwoman, speaking but imperfect English. She appeared to be very fond of her boy, who she told me was all she had to care for. “She made all arrangements} to take 1 over my bouse furnished for two months, so as to be near her boy. A quantity of luggage arrived from Preston. ,It included some very beautiful silver articles, a quantity of fine linen, etc., all of which was unpacked and put out in the various rooms. “On the Sunday afternoon she went out and returned with the boy as usual. As the place was somewhat in confusion she took him to lunch at the Hotel Metropole. “At six o’clock in the evening my daughter thought it rather strange that madame had not returned. An hour later she thought it bar duty to go and see Mr Roderick, the headmaster at the school, and she made the suggestion that psrhap* madame had taken the child to Paris, but he laughed at rthe idea. . “On the Monday morning all doubts were dispelled, when Mme. Du Yai (Mme. KnowleS’ mother) and her maid arrived, and informed me that all the luggage /Was to be repacked at once to go away to Paris. It was sent off by the four o’clock boat to Boulogne.” Questioned as to why ah thought the mother had [acted in the way she had, Mrs Griffiths replied: “The child was ! passionately fond of his mother,, and I have seen him cry and repeat an oft-expressed wish to go to school in Paris.”