THE SEA HER FRIEND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20075, 11 October 1920, Page 6

THE SEA HER FRIEND.

REQUEST FOR BURIAL IN THE DEEP. Miss Margery Deakin. of Croydc, who died on March 9, aged thirty-nine years, left a strange will. Her will opens, “Being of perfectly sound mind and in full possession of all my faculties,” and then goes on to state, I will that my body shall be put m a lead-lme plain whitewood coffin, and if I die away from Porlhpean bo taken to Porthpcan and buried in the sea there off the Blade Head. “The sea has always been a friend to me. Some of the few happy days I have had in my life were spent on it, and I will not be buried anywhere else but in the sea. If the two boatmen, the Axfords, are still at Porthpean when I die, I would like them (and I am sure they will do it for me) to take my coffin in one of their boats very early in the morning or late in tho evening, when there is no one about on the beach and no other boats in tho bay, just in their everyday clothes as they go out and attend to their nets and bury it in the sea off the Black Head “Not one member of my family or relatives shall be present, and no funeral service shall be held—l have been tortured chough by cunning hypocrites' and I will have no hypocrisy about my death—only the men necessary to manage tho boat (I hope it will he the two Axford men, because I have had most happy days in their boats) and tho person who undertakes to look after uiy burial shall be present. ,“I have lived mtokfialfly lonely sometimes; I sincerely hope 1 shall die alone. I do not want any deathbed scene, and I will bo buried alone, without any relatives or a gaping crowd looking on. The day and time it is to be done mu si not bo knoWn to any but those who are to bury me.” Miss Doakin’s body was found in the sea off Georgeham on March 9, and the will was with other documents in a small bag fastened by string around her neck; the will was saturated with salt water, but was opened out and pasted on sheets of Devon Constabulary foolscap, and has been admitted to probale in this form. Her property was valued at £2569.