In April 1884 Hugh Shortland, an ambitious young lawyer and would-be entrepreneur from Devon, married Laura Dimes.
Three weeks later, her drowned body was found in a pond on the family estate, and it was assumed to have been the result of a tragic accident until her husband was discovered in hiding only a few miles away..
Almost immediately he left her to return to a lonely existence in the parental home, while he excused himself on the grounds of an important business journey to New Zealand.
In April 1884 Hugh Shortland, an ambitious young lawyer and would-be entrepreneur from Devon, married Laura Dimes