<The funeral took place on Monday of Mr. Cecil Hammond, of 20, Chestnut-walk, Little Common, who died the previous Thursday after a long illness, aged 77 years.

<Mr. Justice Deane in the Divorce Court on Thursday heard a remarkable story of a man "who tried but failed to love his wife," and in the result granted the latter a decree nisi.

The husband was Mr. Cecil Perfect Hammond, an insurance agent, whose marriage took place in 1890. It was obvious from the commencement, said counsel for the wife, that Mr. Hammond regretted his marriage, and after the birth of his child Gladys left his wife and refused to return to her. In October, 1902, wrote to her saying:-

I have thought for a long time past that neither our taste nor dispositions are suited to one another. I ought never to have married at all. I have not been really happy or contented, and I shall not be until I am free and untrammelled. It is better to recognise hard facts and not to fight against them.

Another letter ran:-

You can select whatever you like for yourself, and do not think harshly of me. Everyone knows I have tried to love you. Unfortunately it is no use now. Perhaps my nature is of too butterfly a nature to deserve anybody's love.

At this time he was allowing his wife, who lived at Westcliffe-on-Sea, £6 a month. After receiving a letter from his little daughter Mr. Hammond wrote to his wife:-

Dear C., —Enclosed please find cheque for last month. Please don't let Gladys write again. It is better for the child's sake and for mine to forget my existence. . . I do not think it is necessary for you to remind me so frequently that you are my wife, because I shall never live with you again.

In his last letter he wrote saying:-

You are both dear to me, and I can do nothing more for you either financially or otherwise.

Inquiries were set on foot, and it was found that for some years the husband had been living at various addresses in London with a woman known as "Mona," by whom he had several children.