Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1923-04-10
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

BY THE MARQCISE DE FONTENOY.
Capt. the Hon. lingo Freeman
Thomas, who arrived in America the
other day from England to visit
friends in New York and Washington.
is the only surviving son of Lord
Wilmington, governor of Madras, and
of Lady Wilmington, who is no other
than the Marie Brassey," who figures
on almost every page Of that still
popular and fascinating volume en-
titled The Voyage of the Sunbeam"
in which the authoress. the late Lady
Brassey. portrayed the life of her hus-
what was until the close of the great
war. the most famous steam yacht
afloat.
1t was while steaming from Bonn
bay southwark to Australia on the
Sunbeam that Lady Wilmington, when
the yacht was two days out, lost
her mother in so mysterious a
fashion. Lady Brassey had left her
husband and her daughter on deck
to go below for an after tiff1n siesta.
She was in the best of spirits and in
perfect health, while the weather was
ideal and the sea as smooth as glass
with not breath of wind. No one
| ever saw Lady Brassey again. There
was nolnlnS 10 SNOW lnaI sne ever
reached her cabin. No one heard or
saw her fall or jump overheard. Yet
she must have done either the one
or the other, since no trace of her
could be found on the yacht. where
the discipline was as severe as on
board a man-o'-war and the watches
strictly kept.
An equally remarkable, though far
| lac two ORR Of he
earlier voyage of the Sunbeam when
| Lady Wellington was on board was
! the discovery on the surface Of the
away from land and hundreds of miles
distant from the track of the ocean
liners, of a beautifully rugged toy
| saflboat, such as one sees on the
| ponds and lakes in Central Park.
n. Y, and on the Serpentine in Hyde
| in Kensingdon Gardens. The boat.
| without any name of its maker. or
anything that could give a clue to
its ownership beyond its, American
| schooner rigging, was sailing along
without even any sign of being
there or how long it had been there,
neither the first Lord Brassey nor his
daughter, Lady Wi1lingdon, were
ever able to discover, and it hangs
| today as one or the StrangeSt of
relics from the ceiling of that perfect
museum of curios in his house in Park
lane, mostly gathered during the
cruises of the Sunbeam and which on
his death he beQueathed to his daugh-
| ter, Lady Wellington.
| Lady Wilmington lost her eldest son
| in the early stages of the great war,
| in which he took part as an officer
! Of the Coldstream Guards. He, too,
like his grandmother, the first Lady
| Brassey, was reported as missing"
for he vanished from sight In the
| battle of the Aisne in France on
Sept ember IA, 1914. He was last seen
leading his company in its attack
upon the German trenches. advancing
over open ground and under a heavy
fire Of shrapnel. He was seen to fall.
badly wounded, and one of his SER
| geants went to his assistance, but
| was ordered by him to leave him
where he lay, and to go on with the
remnant of the regiment.
| X
No trace of him was ever found
again. although many thousands of
pounds sterling were spent by his
parents and by his grandfather, the
first Lord Brassey, of whom he was
a particular favorite, in vain en-
deavor to ascertain his fate. He was
mot discovered among tho wounded or