ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 147, 24 June 1930, Page 8

ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY

ORPHAN BABY'S JOURNEY. SEVEN THOUSAND MILES. An orphan baby who spent two thirds of its first six weeks of life in land and sea travel arrived at Southampton recently. On the quayside, waiting to welcome the little stranger, were three bereaved grandparents. In charge of friends, the infant was brought 1000 miles from Peshawar, near the Turkestan border of India, to ' Bombay, from where a liner .took it on the 6000-mile trip home. To the grandparents—Airs Hartley’s mother and Dr. Hartley’s parents, who live in Southampton—the baby revived tragic memories of a romance that began in a London hospital only 17 months ago, and was ended by the death of both parents in far-off India. Dr. Sydney Hartley, when house surgeon at Bethnal Green Hospital, fell in love with Miss Megan Richards, cue of the nurses, whose mother lives in Skewen, South Wales. They were married in December, 1928, and in the following February left for India. They settled in Peshawar, where Dr. Hartley, with the rank of captain, was in charge of the medical mission. In February this year Dr. Hartley became ill with pneumonia, and died within a few days. Their baby was born in March, and Mrs Hartley wrote home that as soon as she was well enough to travel she would return to England with the child. Later she herself became ill, and Mrs Richards was grief-stricken to receive a cable announcing the death of her daughter. Soon after the baby w r as born, Mrs Hartley, lying seriously ill, requested that the child should be taken home to her grandparents in England. Major C. Wilson, who is in charge of the Peshawar Hospital, and who had brought the baby into the world, undertook to do so. He and his wife were'about to go home on holiday. So the mother said farewell to her child, and the long journey to England was begun. ■* First there was the long overland journey of nearly 2000 miles from Peshawar to Bombay, and then tbelong voyage in the steamship. It was not until they were nearly at Southampton that Major and Mrs Wilson heard of the death of Mrs Hartley.

As soon as the liner had berthed Mrs Wilson went ashore with the baby, al most hidden in a large shawl, and handed her over to the parents of MrHartley. The father and mother oi Dr. Hartley were also there.