COTTON MILL ROMANCE

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17885, 4 December 1929, Page 8

COTTON MILL ROMANCE

MILLIONAIRE MARRIES HIS TYPIST. PRESTON, October 19. Mr William Birtwistle, a well-known Lancashire cotton employer, who is 74, was secretly married this morning at’Preston to his former typist, Miss Edith/ Stevenson, who is 20 years of age./ The wedding was by special license at St. Thomas’s Church, and had been kept so quiet that even the verger at the church did not know about it. The bride and bridegroom walked separately to church. After the wedding they were driven to the station in the bridegroom’s car and left for London. Mr Birtwistle, who is reputed to be a millionaire and to control more cotton machinery than any other individual in Lancashire, is a native of Blackburn. He lived for a time at Alston Hall, near Preston, but finding this too big for his liking removed to his present residence in Preston. The bride wore a mackintosh over her bridal attire on her way to the church. In the church she looked very pretty in her dress of rose crepe de chine, with grey shoes and stockings and hat. She also wore a moleskin coat. Mr Birtwistle Is a widower, and his daughter, Mrs Greenwood, was present at the ceremony. There are various stories as to the origin of the romance which ‘has culminated in tlie wedding. One is that Mr Birtwistle first took particular notice of Miss Stevenson as the result of something going wrong with her typewriter in his office. On ihe other hand it is asserted that the friendship simply grew in the ordinary course during the five years in which the bride was Mr Birtwistle's confidential secretary and typist. At the end of last year it was deemed wise that she should leave her prevent gossip, and for a short period she was employed at the Siemens Lamp Works. On reaching London, Mr and Mrs Birtwistle paid a visit to the Motor Show at Olympia, where they spent the afternoon.