Evening star., 1933-12-10
MCCORMICK HOME
BURNED TO GROUND
Coal From Fireplace Is Be.
Iieved to Have. Started
Blaze Fatal to Two.
BY the Associated Pi ess.

BY the Associated Piess.
WHITCHURCH, Hampshire, Eng
land. December "a sudden fire
roared through the country home of
Mr.. and Mrs. Leander j. Mccormick,
prominent Chicagoans, early today,
cast tragedy over a week end house
party by causing the death of peer
of France and British army captain
and left the mansion virtually in ruins.
The victims were the Duke de la Tre-
moille. French cavalry officer and
premier duke of France, and Capt. j.
H. B. Rodney of London, brother of
British peer.
Mrs. Rodney. the former Frances
Strickland Lowell, daughter of Repre-
sentative Oldham of Seattle. Wash,
was gravely injured in a 20-foot jump
to escape the blaze.
At the Royal Hampshire Hospital,
Winchester, where she and her hus-
band were taken and where the cap
tain died, an operation was performed
upon her for serious spinal injuries.
Hospital authorities said later her con-
dition was critical.
Mrs. Mccormick Awakened.
The guests had spent a quiet, happy
evening about the rural English fire.
side of "the Herony," the Mccormick
mansion, and were looking forward to
this morning when hunting party was
planned.
Mrs. Mccormick was the first to be
awakened by the odor of smoke and the
crackle of flames. She aroused her
husband and with utmost courage they
then ran through the halls of the blaz-
ing house, shouting warnings to the
guests and servants. ....,...
No ladders were available and those
inside were forced to jump from their
bed room windows or scramble down
the drainpipes. The servants then ran
through the icy night dressed only in
night attire and sought all available
help from the surrounding buildings.
Mrs. Mccormick, who had no time to
slip wrap over her night clothes, ran
across the lawn and aroused the chauf-
feur in an adjoining building. He
gathered all the other helpers he could
find, but the blaze blocked their at
tempts to reach the Duke de la Ire
moille's bed room.
The dukes body was found by police
when they searched the debris later.
Hemmed in by curtain of flames,
e4AC 2bOAAiCSo NCAC 4O1NCh W lCdP
their bed room window. Capt Rodney
smashed the window with his fists and
assisted his wife to Jump first. She
landed in a flower bed, injuring her
back, and lay stunned for moment.
but then crawled away on her hands
and knees.
Died at Hospital
Capt. Rodney leaped as soon as she
had moved away. His arms we're fright
fully slashed in breaking the window
pane and his hands were almost severed
when he was picked up, He died soon
after reaching the hospital
The duke, whose regimen. was the
Chasseurs D'Afrique, crack cavalry
unit, escaped with broken co,larbone
fete in Paris, when he fell from a
wooden horse.
He was member of princely house
of the old royal province Of Poitou,
scene of many historic events The late
duke, known as the thirteenth Duke de
Ia Tremoille, was the first ranking duke
of France. He was born in Paris Feb
ruary 8, 1910.
Mccormick who was educated at
Eton and at Cambridge, was married in
London last July to the Comtesse de
FIeurleu, daughter OI LIE FlCOulUe ue
Fontarce
Although the cause of the fire was
not definitely determined various
theories were offered. It was believed
to have started in an empty top-fioor
room known as the pink room. and de-
fective wiring was at first assumed to
be the origin. ''''''''' -
Reports in the Sunday Dispatch said
that the empty room had been prepared
for a guest who did not arrive, and that
a fire left burning in the room spilled
live Goals on the carpet.
Mrs. ]. H B. Rodney is the daugh-
ter of Robert P. Oldham, a prominent
Seattle attorney.
Mrs. Rodney at one time was So
ciety reporter for a Seattle newspaper.
She and Capt. Rodney were wed at the
Princess Row registry, London, August
25. 1928 They had become engaged in
July of that year, while the Seattle girl
was a guest of Princess Olga, the Lady
Edgerton, at four Buckingham Palace
gardens.
The Rodney home IS in London.
They visited Seattle in December, 1928,
before going to Fort Saskatchewan, in
Canada, to visit the captains brother
and sister-in-law, Lord and Lady Rod
Qey.