PRINCESS TO MARRY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20389, 4 January 1938, Page 5

PRINCESS TO MARRY

HER FORMER FIANCE AFTER 37 YEARS LONDON, OCTOBER 23 Princess Lichnowsky, fifty-eight, famous authoress, playwright and widow of the German Ambassador in London from 1912 to the outbreak of war, is to marry Major Ralph Peto, her girlhood sweetheart, in London next month, writes the Daily Sketch. And this is the story behind their romance:— At a Legation ball in Munich 37 years ago, in all the magnificence of pre-war Germany, a handsome twenty-three-year-old Attache of the British Legation, met the beautiful German Countess. Soon after their meeting they became engaged. The man was young Ralph Peto, the girl Mechtilde, Countess Arco. But there came a lovers’ quarrel, and Mr Peto returned to England to wed a charming English girl, Miss Ruth Lindsay. The Countess, almost simultaneously, married Prince Lichnowsky, who later became German Ambassador in London. Mr Peto did not see the Countess again until she came to London with her husband just before war broke out. Soon after her arrival war was declared. For many years he did not see Princess Lichnowsky again. Met By Chance Then, a few years ago, the Princess became a widow, and her old lover, now Major Peto, and his wife parted —their marriage was dissolved. Then Princess Lichnowsky and Major Peto met by chance. The Major proposed and was accepted. A friend of Major Peto’s told the Daily Mirror: “Princess Lichnowsky is still a very beautiful woman. “It was a lovers’ quarrel that ended their engagement, but I know that the Major has always been in love with Mechtilde.” Major Peto's daughter by his first marriage is Lady Hinchingbrooke. wife of Viscount Hinchingbrooke, who is to give a cocktail party for her father and his bride.