THE TRAGEDY OF AN ERROR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19236, 25 November 1930, Page 7

THE TRAGEDY OF AN ERROR.

MISDIRECTED TELEGRAM IS CAUSE OF SUICIDE. How a, young domestic servant committed suicide by gassing herself - the day before the delivery of a wronglyaddressed telegram from her sailor sweetheart was revealed at a recent inquest at Wandsworth, Lodon, when the coroner inquired Into the death of Edith Mary Thomas, aged twentyfour. The girl’s mother stated that while on her holidays last July, her daughter met a young man named Charlie, and became very fond of him. He was quartermaster on a liner. She had never seen him. The Coroner: Apart from any anxiety she had with the young man, she had no other trouble? Witness said “No.” She added that it was her daughter’s nature to be depressed. On the evening preceding the tragedy she stated that she was going to meet Charlie, and, kissing witness, remarked, “Good-bye, mum, I’ll see you on Monday.” The Coroner: Did she ever say she was frightened about Charlie cooling off?—No. She was happy in her situation. Miss Minnie Trenton, a friend of Miss Thomas, said that when she last saw deceased she stated that there was no future in front of her. The dead girl’s employer for six years gave evidence that she knew Miss Thomas was fond of a young man, but the girl had an idea that he was cool-ing-off and that ‘‘nothing would come of it.” On the night she expected to meet him the girl went out at five o’clock, and when she came back at 11 p.m. she stated that he had not turned up. She seemed depressed, and next morning witness found her in her bedroom with an eiderdown quilt and a blanket over her. She was holding a flexible gas tube in her hand, and was dead. Next day, continued the witness, a telegram arrived for the girl, and a letter •which witness held in her hand, came the same morning. The coroner unsealed the letter and read it. He remarked that it fully explained why the young man could not keep the appointment, and also expressed his love for the girl. The writer of the letter stated that he had received news of the serious illness of his mother, and was going to see her, thus being unable to meet his sweetheart as arranged. “It is a terrible tragedy,” continued the coroner, “because, as a matter of fact, this young man—whose surname I don’t know—had telegraphed to the girl on the very; clay that he was to have met her. He, unfortunately, addressed the telegram to the wrong street number, and so it was not delivered until this poor girl, in her disappointment and anguish, had taken her life.” It was added by the coroper that it would have been better if the Post Office authorities had made a few more inquiries. The telegram showed, however, that several addresses had been tried without success. A verdict of “Suicide while of unsound mind” was recorded.