In a divorce report in 1905 Edwardian readers discover that Christopher Gibson was seriously let down by his trusted friend. Victorian and Edwardian Newspapers were full of contemporary scandal and stories of this nature. They are a great resource for historians looking for names of relatives mentioned in the news.
Here is such a story reported in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser in May that year:
Betrayed By A Lifelong Friend.
Wife Who “Acted On Impulse.”
On Tuesday, in the Divorce Court, the sad sequel to a friend’s visit to a family was told, and Mr. Christopher Gibson, a chemist’s assistant at Exeter, was granted a degree nisi because his wife had eloped with his old schoolfriend and lifelong companion, Geoffrey Owen Godfrey Laurence.
Laurence had accepted an invitation from Gibson to pay him a visit, and remained seven weeks. Mrs. Gibson one day left to visit her parents at Reading, and one week later Laurence left, taking some of Gibson’s clothes.
The pair are went to America, and Laurence subsequently wrote to his old schoolfriend, stating: “It worries me to think how deeply I have wronged you. Is there anything on this earth I can do to make a reconciliation between us? You and I have always been the best of friends –in fact, more like brothers –and I tell you it worries my heart out to think of the awful crime I am guilty of.”
He added that he thought Gibson was partly to blame for his wife’s rash act.
Mrs. Gibson wrote seeking forgiveness, and stating if she had not “acted on impulse” it would not have happened.
Ian Waugh
Old British News
