1960-10-08 — Page 14

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, · 1960.

In a lifetime reporting crime...the best untold story he knows

THIS IS

THE BIGGEST

MYSTERY

THE COFFIN BURIED EIGHT

INCHES DOWN

IN LAND FLOODED

CONSTANTLY BY THE RIVER

by PERCY HOSKINS

CONFIDANT of kings... guardian of Staka secrets convicted trafficker in royal honours. John Maundy Gregory was all of these. He surrounded himself with intrigue and mystery, But the biggest mystery of Maundy Gregory concerned his relationship with the woman who died at his home,

THE certificate record-

Iter sudden death at 59 at u lime when Gregory's financial were al a low ebb relatives. They

resources disturbed her were not happy about a death-

the river would eliminate any trace of poison?

These fears were com municated to the au- thorities and an exhuma tion was ordered.

Rueful

In Bisham ohurchyard, palice dig Mrs. Rosse'a ·cofiln from the shallow, often-flooded grave, ... did not think there should be a great wolght over her," said Gregory

In exile?

'He found one. He was a butler and he was at

a whist drive.

go-

titles he procured by ill-treatment at the hands simply suggesting that Heinrich Himmler's men.

went When after the war, I poverty was forcing him

the scrutinised to sell his secrets for to Paris and

official records I noticed that publication.

the cause of death had been

of

Perhaps only Mazzina knew, although it must be remember- ed that Gregory had

The war brought Gregory's discreetly omitted betweens of such high social

And so this alleged descendant rank that if he had not pleaded life of extravagance to a sharp

who lavishly enter- guilty when charged at Bow- and sudden end, France was of kings, street a Brsi-rate social and overrun, and he was arrested by tained the kings and statesmen political scandal would have the first detachment of the of his time, passed to his ollen

unhonoured and Gestapo to reach Paris, Nothing Brave developed.

more was heard of this incredi- mourned, It may well be that he ble figure until it became known that he had died one year after extorted further money is arrest in a German military from those holding the hospital, probably as a result of

death. He was lunching with her where he wished. A church From what source did the ex-King of Greece at awarden's consent was necessary. Gregory derive his income while West End restaurant when the ing the death in

telegram came summoning him home. He stood by her bedside, Maundy Gregory's house

"Quick," she cried. "Pen and of Mrs Edith Marion bed will, written on the back of

1 d As the coffin was raised from paper." Rosse, 59-year-old act- a restaurant menu in Gregory's its riverside grave cascade of

But Gregory induced him to handwriting, which read:

He fumbled in his pocket and leave the game and sign the ress, stated that she had "Everything I have fund this water poured out and I noticed

the drew out of it the luncheon a rueful smile flt across succumbed on Septem-mounted to some £18,000 face of Dr Roche Lynch, the menu card. And on that the necessary papers,

On the question of the actual be left to Mr J. Maundy Home Office, ahalyst, as he turn will was written, A few days ber 11, 1932, to a seizure Gregory to be disposed of 45 caused

cerebral ho by

"I did not thinks beat and in accord- vd to his assistant and mur- later, after they had had dinner grave, Gregory made this algal

words: together, came another seizure, cant observation, three cryptic ance of what I should desire." mured

"Not

Before a chance!"

3ust al recovery seemed certain. like to think there should be a hemorrhage and chronic

great,weight of earth over poor Bright's disease. It was

The doctors could not The relatives recalled that a coroner's inquest could be sum

however, it was moned,

ve Mrs Rosse, so I ordered that dig few weeks before her

her. Mrs Rosse lingered until as shallow a grave as posalble death to be proved false.

Mrs Rosse had confided to them covered that, defying a

the next day. But at the time should be dug, and also Kave poena issued for attendance, For almost ten years that she had destroyed

that the coffin Maundy Gregory, recently re- she died Gregory had another instructions Edith Rosse-separated ion. She also said that Gregory ly left the country.

earlier will at Gregory's sugge leased from prison, had hurried- luncheon appointment with the should not be sealed."

ex-King of Greece. This he from. her husband Fre- had been pressing her for

10

derick Rosse, musical everything he could.

and had mortgaged. money

kept, "I felt no good purpose

And in these odd eircum-

buried.

When, a few days later, I would be served by postponing stances the former actress was traced him to Paris, Gregory it") comedy conductor and

said this wonderful friendship The relatives also wondered of his with Mrs Rosse was "no composer of the in-

why Mrs Rosse had been buried vulgar intrigue." cidental music to "The in an unsested coffin at Bisham,

The world had known them

Merchant of Venice" near Maidenhead in Thames

riverbank churchyard which as brother and sister, that, in-

had lived in a house in always seemed to be under deed, had been their relation- St John's Wood where water.

she passed herself

as Gregory's sister.'

off

ship,

And then he went in search of a grave for his “desur sweet friend" by the riverside, where many of their happfest hours had been spent.

Inquest

Meanwhile, at the inquest in London, the coroner was being He told of the difficulties he told that in 15 years of mar encountered, how he had finally rlage Mrs Rosse had never ex- wish to be buried pressed a Drama crept into his parra-offered a hundred guinear for Was it because the live as he tried the sudden, the purish fund if permission near the River Thames, continual rise and fall of ness which ended in her could be given to him to lay

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And Sir Bernard Spils. bury, the Home Office pathologist, testified that there had boen 10 hemorrhage of the brain, there were no signs of Bright's disease. In fact, the death certificate had been completely wrong.

On the other hand, there was nothing to show the real cause of death, though there were poisons which could produce the symptoms described.

Verdict

Dr Roche Lynch, the analyst,

ŝaid that the top of the coffin was only eight inches below

THE END

un-

-(London Express Service).

The yellow book

and the scandal

that broke it...

A STUDY IN YELLOW, by Katherine Lyon Mix.

ALL of a sudden yellow became the fashionable colour. London book- shops were like a field of daffodils on the morning of April 15, 1894, with the glaring cover of the new-born magazine, The Yellow Book.

Yellow was smart. It was also, for some strange reason, wicked. When Wilde proposed until the censor stopped him to produce his ground level; in fact, he had Salome in a London theatre, he arranged that everything on the stage

nover seen so shallow a grave. The churchyard was constantly flooded by the river and the body must have been immersed in water for 'some, moniks.

was to be in shades of yellow. Very decadent, very naughty.

A fascination with Sin was much to the fore. It arrived

about the same Lime as the An analysis of the New Woman.

organs revealed no trace

of poison, but added Dr New women

Lynch "in view of the

tion

By George Malcolm Thomson

Anyhow, Beardsley was die- missed and, as it was said, the Yellow Book turned grey in a single night. It lingered on but the life had gone out of it;

Unfortunately, however, that thought that Beardsley's bril- time that has elapsed The New Woman was the old was not the last word in the liant, perverse drawings were, since death and the woman wearing bloomers on story, Shelley, one of the in their way, just as bad ad

Kin- Wilde. condition to which the bicycles ("Would you like it if wretched youths in this

legs?" savoury case, had been a cleric body has been subjected, your sister showed her

indignant clubenen asked one in Lane's publishing office at the it is quite possible that mother) and demanding the time Wilde met him. Lane was certain poisons could Two Freedoms-to

love and to compelled to deny by cable that he had made the fatal introduc- have been decomposed vote. thus rendering their de tection impossible." Winding up the inquiries, the coroner remarked: "Mr Maundy Gregory appears to have been a man of song substance. But towards the beginning of 1932 his financial position" became

Mrs Mix wrote her history of

Some of them got the First Freedom carly' in the struggle. Then six of Lane's authors It was mockingly said at the sent an tiltimatum demanding the famous magazine.drat as o time that the New Woman find that Beardsley be removed from thesis for the University of ceased to be a lady without the art editorship of the Yellow Kansas. The book is ng phine- becoming a gentleman.

Book. Lane's deputy in London, taking as might be expected in Frederic Chapman, gave way,

The New Woman was strong- ly represented among the Yel-

rapidly worse until. about low Book's contributora and Angry mob

of

August, he was in dimculties owing souse

thousands pounds and apparently not. having funds wherewith to dia- charge, his debts,

subscribers.

wreat

The decision was tremical be- The magazine was conceived during a terrible London fog on cause Beardsley was one of those New Year's Day, 1804. The Ides responsible for keeping Wilde came

to a young American out of the magazine, Wilde much "I do not wish to emphasise writer, Henry Harland, and in displeased about his exclusion, the point which bus beta' men- Aubrey Beardsley, the artist, had called the Yellow Book lipned that certain drugs do Next day they "sold" it to John dull and loathsome: a decompose when exposed, or Lane, the publisher.

failure--I am so glad." Harland when they have been "bursed in was editor and Beardsley art soil, waterlogged or otherwise. editor. All I will many is that no; poison has been found and therefore no pamille charge can arise out at this inquiry and there must be an open" varðlet":

Extortion?

and across the.

Wrong book

the circumstances. It is, how- ever, a tile more. Interesting. So far as I am concerned, Mra Mix can have her degree,

But onà, question remains obstinately unanewared: What did the Yellow Book stand for? What movement or oause, literary or ogist, did it serva? Whose gonlu did, it discover?. What, fact, was all the excitement about?.

The perplexed reader of Mrs In a moment of publle_exclte- Mix's book can only give ̈á .ment," however, it was hard to doubtful shaice of the hood, To dietinguish between one deca- him it will seem that the Yellow Bizall stone dent and another. The angry. Book was like mob which smashed the windows thrown into one of the back- of

Lane's

offices probably waters of Uterature.

BOOKSHELF

Three years after it firat number appeared, the Yellow Dook breathed Its Fast. But, In fact, dife had gone out of li long before that on the day In 1848 when: Luna"igriced in New York and read a'naves- paper handšine, “Arrest of

MEMOIRS OF A PROFES Oscar Wilde, Yellow Book SONAL CAD, George Sanders, under his arm,"

(itemish Hamition, 106.) A brief

BRIEFS

International 2%). Tralbauj has bulit up the Vnd Glogá archives at The Hague, wich able, with excellent photograptus

So Maundy Gregory, out of the reach of the law and his creditors, continued to 'ilva Puela's on ammuntfcent ¦ scale. When funds began to get low thorw Porould be telephone, esila | to: London.

"For several rossous it was autobiography from which a Chocol woke to depper the unjust to link the Wilda scandal famous films setor emerges, for.." and reproductions, to follow the Pete Sinkbow commonly head with the magazine. Wilde's work once, as a person instead of a crazy path of goodus fight walbeer, wi, the famous London never oppaired in it. And the personally, and a very engaging through the best Van Goga eliko ye tree Cienky, gare kantry book under his arms at the time one at that

my book, I have mouth parties tó i Clown, nomreites in ❘ of Arresti waya' yellow-backed → VAN GOGH, by... Mark E. BRA

French noveli.

||Aralbou) (Thane and Un doomaa

(London, Mavroví (Bervice),,