UNDER ARREST.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20567, 19 March 1935, Page 1

UNDER ARREST.

Duke of Manchester in Court.

SERIOUS CHARGE. . OBTAINED £660 BY ALLEGED FALSE PRETENCES. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright. (Received March 19, 11.45 am.) LONDON, March IS. The Duke of Manchester was arrested and charged with obtaining £650 by ■ false pretences in 1933 from Thomas , Sutton, a wealthy London pawnbroker and jeweller, and his manager, Walter Lawlor, both deceased. The Duke was remanded on ball. William Angus Drogo Montagu, ninth Duke of Manchester, was born in London in 1876 and educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, His father was the eighth duke, and his mother Consnelo. daughter of Antonio de Valle, a Cuban, who bad settled in the United States. He was still a schoolboy when he succeeded to the title, his father dying in 1892. At that, time the family estates consisted of about 70,000 acres, but later parts were sold to meet death duties and other taxation until only about 4000 acres remained. The art treasures were, however, preserved. They include pictures by Van Dyck, Titian. Holbein, Reynolds, Rubens, Lely and other masters. The Duke was interested in all outdoor sports and spent much of his time in hunting, shooting and travelling, but for a while he held commissions .in the Lancashire Fusiliers and the King’s Royal Rifles. In 1906 he was captain of the King’s Bodyguard (Yeomen of the Guard). Marrying in 1900 a daughter of Eugene Zimmerman, of Cincinnati, he had two sons and two daughters. In May, 1931. the duchess obtained a decree nisi of divorce in London, accusing the Duke of infidelity and desertion. He put in no defence, but said he had already started proceedings for divorce on the ground of desertion, suspending them on hearing of the duchess’s petition. In December. 1932. it was announced that he intended tq marry Kathleen Dawes, a former London actress. The duchess had taken no steps to get the decree made absolute, which she could have done on November 11, 1932. The Duke declared that he would obtain a divorce m Cuba. Three dav S before he landed in New York on his wav to <-üba the decree was made absolute. He arranged at once for his marriage to Kathleen Dawes to take place in New York, but at the last moment iegaj obstacles made this impossible 1 he ceremony was performed, however, a day or two later at Greenwich, Connecticut.

BANKRUPTCY CASE.

Registrar’s Strong Rebuke

for Duke.

“ I regard the case as one of most unjustifiable and reckless extravagance, and I shall suspend the discharge for three years,” said Mr Registrar Francke at the London Bankruptcy Court when an application was made to him on behalf of the Duke of Manchester for his discharge from an order o' January, 1916. adjudicating him a bankrupt. “ Although it- may be difficult for a man to be economical when he is a duke,” the Registrar added. “ I think, at any rate, that he might behave like a gentleman.” The offici'al receiver reported that the liabilities amounted to £129,656, and that the only asset disclosed was jewellery of the estimated value of £2OO, which realised £9O. Is in the Pound. The trustee had reported that he had recovered, under an agreement sanctioned by the committee of inspection and the Zimmerman trustees, sums aggregating’ £9923, making the total assets £10,013, that a dividend of Is in the pound had been paid, and that a further dividend of 6d or 6*d in the pound would probably be paid. The duke succeeded to the title in 1892. He was bankrupt in 1900. when his liabilities amounted to £30,170 and his assets to £7600. In that failure he paid a composition of 12s 6d in the pound, and the receiving order was rescinded and the bankruptcy annulled. There had been no surplus from the settled estates since he succeeded to the title. He was dependent until his another’s death on a voluntary allowance from her which averaged £4400 a year, and in addition his father-in-law, Mr Zimmerman, made the duchess in allowance which varied from £3BOO to £IB,OOO a year. The duke since 1909 had been deaendent entirely on a voluntary allowance from the trustees of his mother's will. He had been interested in a lew cure for consumption which he inanced to the extent of £II,OOO. Film Company. He and others in 1914 promoted an \merican company, of which he was i director, to supply cinematographs ind films to annual subscribers for educational purposes. He lost £I2OO n connection with that. He had been it intervals since August, 1915, a direc:or of two aeroplane companies and a notor-lorry company. He attributed his insolvency mainly o his expenses having exceeded his ncome, to heavy interest on borrowed noney, and to the failure in 1913 of >ne of the American trustees of his nother.