CUPID DEFIES WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21818, 22 November 1940, Page 8

CUPID DEFIES WAR

GUARDSMAN’S ROMANCE Moonlight June nights at sea have long made a perfect scene for lovers, but when bombs drop around the ship romance might well be absent. It was in that setting, however, that an English-born girl, fleeing from France, and a Guardsman fell in love. In England, three months after their meeting, they were married at Burnt Oak Registry Office, Hendon. The bride was Miss Patricia McElhone, aged 24, of Shire Hall Park, Hendon, daughter of Mr Harry McElhone, proprietor of the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, and the groom was Private William Beddard, aged 29, a native of Glasgow, and now in the Grenadier Guards. Their romance began at Bordeaux on June 18. Miss McElhone, with her father, mother and younger brother, were waiting for the Dutch ship Stat Harlem to take them to England when 20 British soldiers and three officers arrived. The soldiers had fought their way through to the coast after the collapse of France, and reached Bordeaux weary, footsore and hungry. Private Beddard was one of the exhausted band given food and drink by the McElhones. Soon after the ship left harbour German aeroplanes started bombing, but by the time an English port was reached with all on board safe and well, the English girl and the Guardsman had fallen in love. Last month the happy couple went on their honeymoon. One of Private Beddard’s officers lent him a car for the wedding and added a tea and dinner service as a present. The father of the bride, Harry McElhone, as he is known to thousands all over the world, is a native of Dundee, but was a globe-trotter before he set up in 1923 his famous bar tn Paris, rendezvous of princes, diplomats and the world of fashion. Yet at heart he is a staunch Dundonian, and his three children—two sons and a daughter—were all sent from Paris to be educated at their father’s old school. The eldest son was In the Maginot Line with the French Army, acting in a liaison capacity with the British divisions, but since the collapse there has been no news of him. The younger son. aged 17, is now following his father’s profession at a London club, and wants to join the Black Watch, the regiment associated with Dundee. Miss McElhone was born in London during the last war, when her father was serving in the R.A.F.