17 JANUARY 1947, Page 4

The death of Mrs. Alfred Spender snaps another link with

a notable past. Known best in latter years as J. A. Spender's devoted wife, she was made familiar years ago to a wider public thrtiugh R. L. Stevenson's letters. As May Rawkinson she got to know the novelist when she went to stay at Bournemouth in 1886. (Skerryvore alas! is no longer ; Hitler passed that way.) Richmond had painted bath of them and he put them in touch. The congratulations Stevenson sent from Vailima on her engagement to Alfred Spender will be found in the Vailima Letters, and Mrs. Spender could tell of some singularly interesting conversations with R.L.S. when she was a girl of twenty or less. "We all fell dead in love with her," he affirmed in recording their first meeting.