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{ POST, JULY 20, 1919:ESECRET MARRIAGE REVEALS LONDON BEAUTY SHOTWHYHERSEL1akeMrs. Thomas Atherton Is London’s most mysterious suicide.She killed herself with a shotgun-destroying her beauty with her life.MI never knew another woman to do such a thing,” said the coroner.Over and over again in the last 20 years she has shocked London ! society.i Her first affair was with the | Duke of Westminster, the wealth- j I iest nobleman alive.| He gave her $400,000 and mar-ried another. That was 20 years \ j *go. |Only the other day, just before | the suicide, the Duke of West-] minster was divorced.Her last affair was her secret j marriage to Arthur Eliot, grand-1 son of the Earl of St. Germans, j He deserted her. Her death i followed.The destruction of her beauty wasj a dramatic gesture that carried a j symbolic significance for tjiose who i knew the story of her career. She destroyed that which had brought sorrow to herself and to others.But which particular incident of her life of SO years could one put his finger on and say: “This killed Mabel Atherton ?Was it the Duke of Westminster's recent divorce?Was it anything to do with the Hon. John Yarde Buller, now Lord Chur-ston ? He wis corespondent when Colonel Thomas Atherton divorced her and she had sued him for breach of promise.Was it concerned with the series of tragic events which marked her down-1 hill career since January, 1909? j The John Alexander Stirling divorce j suit ?The 1912 slander suit against her sister-in-law, Lady Paul?„ „ The first of these episodes appeared to have most bearing on the case.| Remorse—that is it!” said people in tu ’a ! London society. “You remember what1 ne ! ViMrm0r»*r1 In StautH a f~happened in South Africa 20 Mrs. Atherton had gone out there with husband, Colonel Atherton,upoodeverything seemedwith them until the young Duke of j Westminster went out. Colonel Atherton at that time was up country with his regiment.Before the duke left England he had become engaged to Miss Sheelah Cornwallis-West, daughter of Colonel and J Mrs. Cornwallis-West of Ruthin Cap- i n’t *1® *n Elfeshlre. It was an engage- I j ment which, at the time at any rate, j I did not meet with the approval of the I »cl I duke's family. The duke iaf' j young, they said.‘‘As soon as Westminster reachedand Cape Town he fell ur -n(4 ! the charm of M ed ” b«*antheofAtherton. People talk, and Colonel Atherton returned to Cape Town. There j stormy interview, and Colonel Atherton hat I started action for divorce. The duke ime served a little while at the front, and gle j then followed Mrs. Atherton to Enjt-J land, declaring that he intended I marry her as soon as she was free.I Somebody interfered at this point.of fact, people in the know j were able to see the fine hand of King | Edward VII. In It. He couldn't allow a scandal like that. Atherton dropped j the divorce proceedings, of Westminster married Miss wallis-West.”DukeMarriage to“But,Bankrupt , .. be objected, what hasall this, that happened during the Boer war, to do with the suicide of Mrs. Atherton only the other day?”“Only this; the Duke and Duchess of Westminster were divorced recently. It is quite obvious that Mrs. Atherton fancied herself the cause of this. Over- j come with remorse, she resolved to de- j ttroy her beauty and her life. She put the muzzle of the shotgun against herdavhUrAMvi' 1 U?- T?°mS Athcrton' English society beauty, who committed suicide the otheri v j 'd i» y Churston, former actress and wife of Lord Churston, who was formerly the Hon John Yarde-Ruller. it was lor his sake that Mrs. Atherton was divorced, but he refu ed then to muSf her and chose instead Jessie Smithers, whose stage name was Denise Orme.daughter of the Polish composer, i the Savoy Hotel :wealthy bankers, buttures that had been the cause of the [ jjjjn ciS? toVlef'fn I °f “SS**”4* r^vySSion.1 I aomS* yiS?? CSrAnd that is the conclusion London ^ ™ ^ ^ in thJ^tp^Jjumped to to explain why Mrs. Ather- ! C0U8in and h®b °t the convict. [limelight until her suicide. Then it was began to happen The duke siXook her life. The truth, when 4t Took Honorable Course i I with. s.tafe. women. His namecame, 1venture 1nuch more startling. j v monial iMrs. Atherton had recently been se-| Colonel Atherton, who is in the back- The Westminster dlvretly married to Arthur Eliot, a grand-1 ground of all this tragic chronicle, is a j a big stir in London. The retracting I edv beauty— of the Earl of St. Germans, a son | aian sood birth, the son of Sir Wll- j pair had been at the courts more than I Xow the duchess heeaniiam Atmerlon, once attorney-general of five years, begging for a separation, about. The rich and mat w ... , Gre*t Britain. He distinguished him- Miss Gertie Millar of the Gaiety Thea- Alba followed her frowns eoSSK ?the household of Prince and Princess : 8®lf ln South Africa and was given the ! tre and the Duke of Alba w*« I one couhtry 1Christian. I c™88,, °,f tbe °rd®r 0f t^e Bath. He | those named by the parties.be talkedof the late Colonel Charles Eliot, wl many years comptrolleropenly forShe had fallen completely In love with j M-N^fied the officers of his regiment j When the decree *was at last pro- I Honed! ^s^he duchess^merplv^trT^JEliot, who is an undischarged bank- tba* ln accepting Ins wife's explanation nounced people began recalling Boer to show the duke that she wasrupt,. They had met years before in j b®r conduct and In abandoning the I war days. The duke had succeeded to tive to other men- ‘South Africa. She had a reputation for | _P5oca®d,ngs, he had acted in j the title on the death of his grand-| The King and Quwealth; shesaidhavei matterhonor,have taken thethe i$25,000 a year of her _ ..._______ .of fact she never had more than $13,000, eaCe t0 the arguments of and this Eliot discovered very soon af- J , persona**-tharriage. He left her.timevereign,And that Is why the former Mrs.! How Colonel Atherton can have ac-Atherton committed suicide. c?u*n^ the s®ttlement on his wifeThere seems to be an impression that of ?w0,0o0 by the Duke of Westminster Arthur Eliot was very much younger 18 a m.vstery. Perhaps the best ex-than herself. This was not he case. I nuse for h,m ls that he was blindly de-They were of about the same age, that j )fot®d t0 bi8 wife and his boy and that is to say, in the nelghborhod of 50; and tb? fak® of both he had allowed whereas Mrs. Atherton, as Mabel Paul, j S7,seIf to be Persuadedfather^ in 1900, and had^found himself, duchess's side, and it is iQf the|^ec hag been ^lvpn Westm|ag$whas been openly snubbed by the Britishdefer- j less than 21 illus- I wealthiest noblemen alivi his | 30,600 acres of land, a large block ofwhen he».»u i.mrrted Colonel Atherton, of the I tb*P£8 in the best possible 1 12th Lancers, in 1892, Arthur Eliot had e to?k bis wife to Indla married, in 1905, a Miss Florence Parks *'a® orde,;edaOUt *lere wlth -Smith, from whom he was divorced in me,“' and the malicious gossii1902. garrison ------- ...becameA Rival to Westminster ton left for England. On trie boat Hiegarrison town centred about them, unpleasant that Mr?. — England. On the. nret Viceroy Ldrd Curzon’s *m*e-ue-Eliot was an officer in Kitchener's camp, the Hon. John Yarde-BullerHorse, and fought in the Boer war. j (now Lord Churston), and then ColonelThat accounted for his being In South j Atherton had no alternative than tobring suit for divorce.it I Africa, when the Athertons wereHe was regarded as a rival to the Duke of Westminster in her affections.That Mrs. Atherton was prompted bysentiments of affection has been made manifest through her tragic death. But London refuses to believe that Eliot the inquestBreach of Promise SuitMrs.Andmarried Jessie Smither ..... v .stage as Miss Denise Orme, a populardeveloped that he was badly In need ofmoney, and that his association withSSSwTS profitable Ias expected. profitable | for brfach „f promi8e against Yarde-they could liv than In London. He refused The former Mrs. AthertonBuller, asking for a vindication of to call her “charactei j ruled that a promise ofdamage;Thexpected.Soon after they were married Mrs.Eliot revealed her financial straits and asked Eliot to go to South Africa,heaply | a slng!e man to a woman whomarried to someone else is invalid, on ground that It is contrary to publicdaintily reared. The house of Pauf ofGlouces- downhill career began. She figured as thp ffimiiv th. rui*A u—x uetc\.of corespondent in the suit brought by thethe the third to have been be- American actress, Clara ElizabethTaylor of Washington, against her hus-“let’s! lt;^et gcqumnteb’THUMB-NAIL SKETCHES OF PERSONS YOU OUGHT TO KNOWheld by Mrs.stowedtherton’s brother, Sir Aubrey * fifth of his line, was -created more than The Pauls, however,h. and Sir Aubrey has Wnband, John AlexanderFRANCIS J. W. FORD, Boston’s Acting Mayor.Over in South Boston you will hear that some day Francis J, W. Ford will be Mayor—and that he will be a corker.Already Mr. Ford has served as acting head of the city. Such a duty devolved upon him only the past week, when he “sat in” for Mayor Peters while the latter was cruising off the coast of Maine.Ford’s ambition to be in the midst of things was gratified, for the L strike broke loose while he was sitting in the Mayor’s chair.Besides graduating from the Harvard Law School, Ford established a few records, notably in the broad Jump, setting a mark of 22 ft. 11 in.He was born in the peninsula district in 1S82 and is the youngest acting mayor Boston has had.One of his pet superstitions is said
Newspaper Details
Boston Sunday Post
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Sun, Jul 20, 1919
Page 70
Full Page
Clipped by
Adina T.
USA 20 Sep 2024
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