The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-10-09
OWES HAPPINESS TO AIR RAID
Famous Correspondent Thus Led In
to Romance
(By Patrick O'Flaherty)

(By Patrick O'Flaherty)
London, Sept. 25.-An air raid
romance eliminated in an interna-
tional wedding on September 13, at
the famous o!d church of st. Mary's,
in the Wimbledon section of London,
when Miss Olive Stokes, the beauti-
full daughter Of Mr.. and Mrs. E. D.
Stokes, the former retired official
of the Great Western Railway, was
married to Hayden Church, Off years
one of the foremost journalists in
Great Britain.
The story of their romance goes
back to the dark days of the autumn
of 1917, when the war was far from
won and London was being relent-
leSsly bombed by German aircraft.
Mr.. Church at that time lived in the
Russell Squire section of London's
West end, district which suffered
with especial severity from enemy
bombs. At the beginning of Septem-
Der 1917, there came week when
the moon was nearly full and when
enemyaircraft raided London for
seven consecutive evenings. On the
first night of this dreadful week
bombs landed 200 yards from Mr..
Church's hotel. On the secondnight,
St. Pancas railway station 400 yards
away, was hit three times. On the
third night, so-called afraid shell
ter, not far off, was hit at midnight
and SO raid refugees were killed out
right.
The evenings became such that
Mr.. Church, who, like many newspa-
per men, has the Woodworking ha-
bit, was compelled to give up his
work and spend his evenings waiting
for the terrific hubbub of the nightly
raid to cease. The situation was not
without its element of danger as
well, for falling bombs give no warn
ing before they strike, and at any
moment the roof over ones head
might vanish in a twinkling from a
solid stone and. iron structure to a
thin dust floating in the moonlight.
The result of the solid week OF
raids was that Mr.. Church betook
himself to Ealing, a suburb west OF
London in order to resume his habit
of utilizing his evenings for turning
out the short stories and magazine
articles which have made his name
wellknown in London Literary cir
cles.
It was here, at his hotel in Ealing,
that he first met Miss Stokes, who,
on September 13, became his wife.
With the outbreak of war, Miss
Stokes became a V. A. D. nurse at
the Southall Military Hospital, post
which she held for upwards OF a
year, afterwards joining the staff OF
the ministry of munitions, where she
has filled a number of responsible
positions. For some months previous
to her wedding she had charge of the
hundreds of women and girls who
are employed as clerks in the depart
ment of engineering of the ministry.
Previous to the war she had visited
Canada, where one Of her brothers
had lumber interests, but she has not
yet seen the United States, the coun-
try of her new nationality. To do so
at an early date is one of her dearest
wishes.
Hayden Church's residence in Lon
don goes back to the late COS, when
Curtis Brown, at that time London
correspondent of the old New York
Press, summoned him to the Press's
London office. Following the organ
ization of the literary agency, which
is now known throughout the world
of writer's as Curtis Brown, Ltd, Mr..
Church was appointed managing
editor of the Curtis Brown Newspa-
per Syndicate, a post which he held
for 10 years, utilizing his spare time
in the writing of humor for Punch
and London Opinion, Britain's lead
ing humorous papers, and of innum-
cradle short stories and articles for
the London magazines, notably for
the Brand, the most oppular of the