REAL-LIFE REVUE

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 22

REAL-LIFE REVUE

MAROONED IN A CUTTER

Two young actors and two young actresses ;at aVWest End "theatre, after having been reported missing for two days on a yachting expedition in the Thames estuary, arrived back in London in time to discover that their services were no longer required.

One was Mr. Harry Pelissier, the 17----yoar-old son of Miss Fay Compton, the actress. She was so distraught by his disappearance that she took her part on the stage only with tho greatest difficulty.

The others in the party wore Mr Graham Humby, Miss Felicite Seddon, and Miss Barbara Mann. All four were appearing in "Follow Through" at the Dominion Theatre.

Police, coastguards, and Automobile Association scouts in thTee counties had been searching for them, as it was thought that they had either been wrecked or had had a motor-car accident on the way to London. Shipping in the Thames estuary had also been warned.

The party left: "London by motor-car, on a_Sunday for Herne Bay, •Kent,'with the intention of sailing to Faversham Creek-in a 14-ton cutter, o£ which Mr." Humby is "part owner. Off, Monday night they were not at the 'theatre. "

After a day of frantic telephoning by Miss. Compton, Mr. Leslie Henson, the producer of "Follow Through," and the parents of tho young men and women, Mr. Henson's chauffeur found the party coming ashore at Faversham Greek on Tuesday night.. . .-'

They ...were.-hungry .and .tired, and said that ihey had managed, with dif--flculty/fd row-ashore-from the yaetit "in; which -they had'been marooned. -

' They "arrived !ftthe;-I)omihion-Thea-tre, shortly befoT.e. midnight in their yachting costumes, and were at once seen by Mr. B. H. Gillespie, the theatre manager, and Mr. Henson;

The young peoplo' came out sobbing and said that they had left the cast.

Mr. Humby told a "Daily Mail" reporter:—■ ■'- .■■ ■■-.'.■ / • "\

."When ,we reached Herne Bay the boat was half-full. ; of water. We left at dusk, and as it was too late to get to Faversham that night anchored off Whitstable. - ■ ' : .

"We started early on Monday, and wheii two miles out ran aground on a mudbank. After being stuck there some timo Felicite rowed away in a dinghy, waded through, the mud to the shore, and went to Favershani, where she sent a .telegram to her niother saying we weie marooned.

"It was too late, by this time for us to have got back, to London in. time for the show.

"Felicite got back the same way, and after spending another very unpleasant night on board without blankets and scarcely any food, we managed to row ashore to Fayersham." ■''.-....