ERIC HOOK’S WIDOW

Taranaki Daily News, 14 August 1930, Page 13

ERIC HOOK’S WIDOW

’LAN TO MAKE FLIGHT. London, August 5. “People may laugh at me, but there la one thing I am determined to do. After giving the children a start in life, I intend to make the flight Eric attempted,” declared Mrs. Hook, who is 22, the widow of the airman whose attempted flight to Australia, with Mr. James Matthews, ended fatally in the Burmese jungle. "Ours was a perfect marriage. I met Eric when I was 16, and ran away from school to marry him. Before he left I gave him a mascot, but after I bid him farewell, found it had been left behind. We put every penny we possessed into the Australian flight. The children have not been told that their father is dead.” Two little daughters attended the service at West Wickham, held in memory of Eric Hook. The Rev. Mr. Barry said Hook, a brave man, had made a daring attempt to assert man’s lordship over the elements. He stood well in the succession of all brave men, and specially his name should be written in the roll of those gallant men and women who had risked all, and in some cases had given all, in the conquest of the air.