SOCIETY SENSATION

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1930, Page 10

SOCIETY SENSATION

RECENT COURT DEBUTANTE. ' AIR FORCE OFFICIALS WIFE. Considerable astonishment and speculation- was caused in London society circles on’ June .6 by the following notice in .the London Gazette:--; . “Lord Chamberlain’s Office, St. James Palace, June 6, 1930. J“Notice is hereby given that the preserftation of Mrs. Christopher Courtney at Their Majesties’ Court on May 14 last has been cancelled.” - ■ ■’ The Court held on May 14 was the first of the season, and the debutantes were presented to the King and Queen. The Court was regarded as the most brilliant since the war. Mrs. Christopher Courtney was presented by the Hon. Lady Salmond, the wife of Sir John Maitland Salmond, Marshal of the Royal Air Force. Lady Salmond is a daughter of Lord Desboi Christopher Lloyd Courtney,’ D.‘S.O., husband of Mrs. Courney, is'deputy director of operations and It the Air Ministry He entered the Navy in 199 a. and had a distinguished war career in the Royal Naval Air Force. He is a son of. Mi. W L. Courtnev, editor of the Fortnight - ly Review, Mrs. Courtney, whom h® married in 1926, was flhen Constance Rayson, daughter of Mr. G. E. Green sill? • At Mrs. Christopher Courtney’s flat in. High Street, St. John’s Wood, on the nfeht of Friday, June 6, a reporter was told Mrs. Courtney and her husband had gone away for the week-end and would not be back until the following T -I d £e heard that Mrs. Courtney’s presentation was. cancelled,” said - a friend staying there,, “but am unable to surest why this is. They left her® yesterday, but I do not know where they have gone. I believe Mrs. Courtnev knows of the cancellation.. .. Lady Salmond said*she received he first information, of the publication o tho notice of cancellation from a news.naoer.- “I Kid no idea it was to, be published to-night,” said said, “though I had had a private intimation that the presentation would be cancelled. 1 do not really know the reason for .the action now taken, and I cannot discuss the matter at present.” . At Buckingham Palace and Sandun . ham the reporter was informed that there was nothing to say about the cancellation. No information could be obtained at the Lord Chamberlain s office, as all the officials had left.. . An official with many years intimate connection with the Court and Court procedure, stated that when the original lists for presentation at Court are presented they are carefully scrutinised and in many cases’ reduced. No question of rank or procedure is considered m relation. flo those selected.. The presentation carries with it the right to a ticket for the Royal enclosure' at Ascot, ana for this reason is greatly coveted. Although no official explanation was forthcoming at the time regarding v ® cancellation of the presentation of Mrs. Courtney, the Daily News and Chronicle said:—“There is reason to believe that the Lord Chamberlain’s action was du® to the belated discovery that. Mis. Courtney had been divorced. It is further suggested that the discovery may have befin the result of inquiries made at the Lord Chamberlain’s office. <■ “The inquirers, it is believed,, asked, if Mrs. Courtney’s case might be con-., sidered a precedent for the presentation, at Court of divorced persons. Inve.stigar, tibns followed, and the paragraph in the, London Gazette was the result. The wedding between Group-Captain and Mrs. Courtney took place at the Registry Office, -Prince’s Row, on beptember 1, 1926. A benedictory service followed on the same day at the Savoy Chapel. The' particulars given in th® marriage certificate are as follows. .‘‘Constance May Rayson; formerly Greensill,, spinster, aged 27, divorced wife of Alexander Arnold Rayson,'address 8 Queen Street, Daughter ot Geo. Edward Greensill, civil servant.” “Christopher Lloyd Courtney, aged 3«, bachelor, 'group-captain, R.A.F., address, R.A.F., Andover, son of William LeonCourtney, journalist. A. friend who has known Mrs. Courtnev for some years, stated that Mrs. Courtney had been married three times. During 'the war she married a man named Wace, who was killed in the late ter part ofthe war. At the Armistice; she was left a widow with one child.; She then married Mr. Rayson. The mar-; was not a happy one, and she was> later divorced. She married Group-Cap-,. tain Courtney, who was in no way coiicerned in the divorce proceedings, in 1926. The friend added: “Mrs. Courtney UA.. a very pretty woman and vivacious., It is quite possible that she proposed, to be presented without knowing the rule that divorced persons may not ba presented. I did not know she intended going to Court until a few days before, when I met her, and it did not occur to me to mention it.” It is understood that Lady Salmond, who presented Mrs. Courtney, did . not know at the time of .Mrs.,,. Courtney si. domestic history. ; . • ,' / The last announcement t pf -flliftrPW.. collation of a presentation at Court was made in 1993.