FAITH IN A CONVICT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18552, 26 April 1930, Page 9 (Supplement)

FAITH IN A CONVICT

BRIDE WAITS SIX YEARS. WRONG-DOER RECLAIMED. Two hundred love letters written by a bride of a few months to her husband serving an eight years’ sentence at Dartmoor have brought about the reformation, after twenty years’ experience of crime and prison, of George Y. Smithson, a cultured and capable man, who made a profession of burglary. The story was told to a Sunday Chronicle representative recently at their little home in North London, partly by the ex-convict himself and partly by his wife, a quiet, intelligent woman who has implicit trust in her husband’s ability to go straight. What has enabled the ex-convict to reform is the faith in him of a woman who only knew him for a few months before they were parted for six years. Though sent to Dartmoor for eight years he earned the maximum remission. During the term of his imprisonmnt she wrote more than 200 love letters to him. Her greatest treasures are the 200 love letters from gaol he wrote in reply. When he was released his wife was waiting for him outside the prison gates. “My criminal career started in the usual way,” Mr Smithson related- “ While living with my parents at Barnsley—l was only a boy—l got into a scrape and had to leave home. I could’nt get work, so one night I broke into a country inn. I was caught and sent to Borstal for three years. Crime and Luxury “I learned a lot about crime at Borstal, but when I came out I tried to go straight. But no one would employ me, and, quite methodically, I started my career as a burglar. I specialised in country-house burglaries, but after five months I was caught, and I was sent to Portland for five years. “When I was released in 1917 I was drafted straight into the Army. A man I had known in prison wrote to me and sent me a box of cigars. They were found in my kit, and I learned that they were the proceeds of a big burglary. I got the wind up and deserted. “I obtained an officer’s uniform and, with a confederate, I was responsible for a lot of country-house burglaries. Then I was caught again, and did five years at Parkhurst. After my release I tried hard to go straight, but the past was too strong for me. “I went into partnership with another man, and for a time we had luck. I lived in style at a West End hotel, and there I met my wife. We fell deeply in love with each other, and soon we got married. For two or three months we lived in a luxurious flat in Kensing ton.

“My wife thought I was a commercial traveller. Thus I explained my periodic absences. My elaborate kit of burglars tools was kept in a locked attache case which she always thought contained samples. Then I was caught again this time in Scotland.” At this point the story was taken up by Mrs Smithson. “For a week,” she said, “I heard nothing from my husband. Then came a letter written from prison. It nearly broke my heart, but I realised that I could not give him up. Then the police came and searched our flat. You can imagine how I felt. The Only Reproach. “I had been blissfully happy for a few brief months with my husband What could I do? Everyone said ‘Give him up,’ but I believed in him. “I went to see him in prison. It was horrible. The first words I said were: ’To think that I should visit you in a place like this.’ (That was the only reproach she ever uttered to me.’ the cx-convict broke in). “I said: ‘I shall be waiting for you when you come out,’ and my husband replied: ‘Do you know that will not be j for eight years?’ and I replied:‘Yes.’ Then I left him, and he was sent to Dartmoor for eight years. “My first love letter to him was written to that prison. I wrote altogether more than 200 letters and in every one I repeated my faith in him and that I should be waiting for him when he was released. I had to go to work, and you can imagine how difficult my life was.” ' Since Mr Smithson was released he has found life very difficult, as every 3X-convict does, but he is perfectly happy, and so is his wife. His work has been only temporary, but he hopes to obtain a permanent job.