ROBERT BUCHANAN

 

THE DEAD SOLDIER

ROBERT BUCHANAN (1893-1912)

 

By

BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

‘How shall I know if my love lose his youth,

Who never for a day hath left my sight?

He, who but yesterday was my delight.

I needs must love to-day if love be truth,

And if I love to-day, to-morrow’s light

Against our love will e’en forbear to fight.’

[‘Love’s Immortality’. Strato. Translated by Sydney Lomer.*]

 

 

 

A MOST CURIOUS DEATH

I have been looking into the death of the young bandsman, Robert Buchanan of the 2^nd Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. and found several inconsistencies with the manner in which the evidence was presented. Robert, born 9^th May 1893 in Carlow, Ireland was the 6^th child of Sgt. Major Thomas George Buchanan (1850-1925) who had served more than 31 years in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. and Mary Susannah Dicks (1864-1959) who had been a teacher in the regimental school – the Buchanan’s had seven sons in the KRRC, six of which served in the First World War. (1) Robert was on short leave in June 1912 which he spent at the home of Captain Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer (1880-1926) in Chesterfield (2); on Wednesday 12^th June, 19 year old Robert was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in Captain Lomer’s bedroom.

 

CAPTAIN SYDNEY F. M. LOMER

Sydney lomer’s father, Cecil Wilson Lomer (January 1842-1912) married Frances (Fanny) Margaret Sydney Mcillree, (born the daughter of Robert Henry Mcillree (1803-1886) and Catherine Sidney Jennings (1824-1864) on 13^th March 1849 in Oughaval, County Mayo, Ireland) in 1873 in Dublin. The first child born to Cecil and Frances was Robert Edward Mcillree Lomer, born 24^th August 1874 in Southampton; Robert served in the army during the Boer War (1899-1902) and attained the rank of Major. He married Mary Rouse in 1899 and died on 21^st March 1955 in Cork, Ireland. Tragically, Frances died 18^th September 1874 in Southampton, aged 25, perhaps due to complications during childbirth. Cecil re-married in 1876, in Dublin, to Ella Mcillree, the daughter of Dr. Surgeon-Major John Drope Mcillree (1812-1894) and Anne Wilson (1828-1875); Ella, a Cousin of Frances Margaret Sydney Mcillree’s, was born on 9^th July 1853 in Newcastle, Jamaica, West Indies (she died 23^rd January 1943 aged 89).  The next child to arrive was Cecil John Mcillree Lomer, born 1897 in Southampton, (he attained the rank of Captain in the 8^th Hussars) and married Maude Antoinette Messum in Kensington on 16^th November 1904 (they had one child: Elizabeth Antoinette Lomer, born 1911, Ruthin, Denbigshire; she married Arthur Barrett in Kensington in 1935). Cecil died on 24^th August 1915 in Denbigshire, Wales, aged 37. The next child, and third son to enter the military is Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer born 21^st May 1880 in Southampton before a daughter is born – Annie Margaret Mcillree Lomer, born 1882 in Southampton; she married Charles Henry Leveson (1868-1953) in 1915 (Charles was a Major in the Hussars and attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel; he was awarded the DSO in 1912) and Annie re-married in 1958 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, to John Thompson. She died in 1964 in West Hartlepool, Durham, aged 81. In 1911 Ella Lomer, 54, married of ‘private means’ is at the family home in Badgeworth, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire with her daughter Annie Margaret. Mcillree, 28 and they have and army of domestics: Butler, Cook, two Housemaids, Kitchen Maid, Footman, Lady’s Maid and a Groom.

Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer was educated at Rugby School (September 1894-1896) before he entered the army: served with First Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, First Battalion Sherwood Forrester’s and King’s Royal Rifle Corps.; Commission in August 1899-2^nd Lieutenant; 12^th August 1899-15^th May 1900, Lieutenant 16^th May 1900-July 1904, Captain 4^th Battalion KRRC 15^th July 1904-1^st September 1915 and Adjutant in 1905. Captain Lomer served in France during the First World War from 26^th February 1915 (he was sent home in March with pneumonia); September 1915 attained the rank of Major. In March 1916 he was attached to the Egyptian Army till 1917 and attained the rank of temp. Lieutenant-Colonel and discharged and awarded the OBE in 1919. Captain Lomer wrote poetry and translated Greek verse which may be termed homo-erotic or ‘uranian’ (3) and he was on familiar terms with many other uranian writers and artists including the poet Edmund John (1883-1917), poet and author E F Benson (1867-1940), artist’s model, Leo Marshall (4) and the painters Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), known for his depictions of nude boys (Lomer commissioned him to paint a nude portrait of his ‘batman’, Leo Marshall) and Captain James Philip Sydney Streatfield (1879-1915) who may have studied under Tuke, and the young playwright and intimate friend of Streatfield, Noel Coward (1899-1973). In fact, Streatfeild, Coward and Lomer went on a two-week motoring holiday through Devon and Cornwall in Lomer’s car in May 1914 and the fifteen year old Noel became a sort of ‘regimental mascot’ when Lomer and Streatfeild took him to the army training camp. Lomer and his friend, Captain Charlton, an ‘aristocratic, Catholic, homosexual’ (5) also took Coward to the theatre on occasion. And so a picture is drawn of Captain Lomer as a man who enjoyed the finer things in life and was also fond of the company of young men, of which, Robert Buchanan was surely a youthful soldier probably flattered by Lomer’s attention and acts of kindness. But let us look at the case.

THE INQUEST

The Inquest was held on the afternoon of Thursday 13^th June 1912 in the Board-room at Chesterfield Mortuary, in attendance was the District Coroner, Dr. A. Green, Police Inspector Lee, Detective Sergeant Parkin, the deceased’s father, Thomas Buchanan of Carlow, Ireland and a brother of the deceased along with Captain Sydney Lomer, his chauffeur, John Frankland and valet, Philip McLennan along with members of the jury; the inquest took over four hours to reach a verdict. At the inquest Robert who had been a bandsman since the age of 15, was described by his father, Thomas Buchanan, a retired Sgt.-Major and painter as ‘most cheerful and quite contented’, a young man who was ‘always joking, laughing and making fun wherever he went’, in fact, a ‘jolly and contented lad’. Thomas had not seen his son since Christmas 1910 but he received frequent letters from him, the last on Friday 7^th June informing his father that he would be staying in Chesterfield at the home of Captain Lomer from 7^th – 11^th June, and there was nothing to indicate there was any cause for concern as to Robert’s condition. Thomas did add that Robert had suffered from somnambulism as a child and was sometimes found sleep-walking but was always unaware of his actions on waking; he did not know if Robert still suffered from somnambulism since becoming a soldier.

 

JOHN FRANKLAND – CHAUFFEUR

Captain Lomer’s chauffeur, John Frankland, (6) said that Robert arrived in Friday 7^th June and seemed in good spirits and cheerful. He went on to say that he last saw Robert before Robert went to bed between 12 and 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning (12^th June); asked why Robert went to bed so late Frankland replied that the deceased was ‘going away the morning after’. Relating the events which led up to Robert’s death Frankland said he met Robert just after 10 p.m. on Monday night at The Angel Hotel, Frankland had gone there with the valet, Philip McLennan and the groom (unnamed) – Robert entered around ten minutes after them, alone and they all stayed only five minutes before going across the road to The Peacock where they stayed until closing time at 11 p.m. Frankland stated that Robert drank beer at The Angel and at The Peacock but was not the worse for it and after closing they returned to Spital Lodge, Captain Lomer’s home where the chauffeur, valet and groom worked and slept and where Robert was staying, for supper and a glass of beer.

 

PHILIP MCLENNAN – VALET

Philip McLennan, a ‘civilian’ of Hornsey, London entered Captain Lomer’s service just three days before Robert’s death. Robert helped Philip look after Captain Lomer’s clothes. On the morning of Tuesday 11^th June Robert and McLennan were in town together and then spent the afternoon at Spital Lodge. At 9 p.m. McLennan, Frankland and the ‘unnamed’ groom went out and arrived at The Angel Hotel at 10 p.m. Robert entered approximately ten minutes later, alone, and after five minutes, all four of them went to The Peacock. At The Peacock, Robert, who drank three or four glasses of beer, said ‘have a drink with me, you won’t see Robin again!’ This was said in a cheerful manner and McLennan took it to mean that Robert was leaving Chesterfield tomorrow to return to Shorncliffe Camp. McLennan added that Robert had two glasses of beer during supper before he [McLennan] and the groom retired to bed, leaving Robert and Frankland in the servant’s hall.

 

CAPTAIN LOMER’S EVIDENCE

Captain Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer (1880-1926) of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, said that Robert had written to him requesting to stay from 7^th-11^th June as he was on a short leave from Shorncliffe Camp in Kent. Lomer had known Robert since February 1909 when Robert was drafted to India for a period of about twelve months until February 1910, serving under Captain Lomer, so it was not unusual for the deceased to ask to stay as he (and Robert’s brothers) had stayed on several occasions – Robert’s father lived in Ireland and time did not permit travelling there so staying at Spital Lodge, Chesterfield was agreeable to Robert and Captain Lomer. On the morning of Tuesday 11^th June Robert asked Captain Lomer to extend his leave which expired at 6 a.m. on Wednesday 12^th June, this was granted by the Bandsman at Shorncliffe Camp (the Captain received a letter from the Bandsman on Wednesday morning and a ‘telegram’ at 2 p.m. Tuesday confirming it which he gave Robert that evening – this telegram was found in the drawer of the bedroom of the deceased. Captain Lomer said he last saw Robert at 7.45 p.m. on Tuesday night when hearing that Robert was going out, asked Robert to get him some cigarettes and tobacco; if this was the last time the Captain saw Robert presumably he never received the cigarettes or tobacco – where was Robert from around 8 – 10.10 p.m. when it was stated he entered The Angel Hotel alone?

 

THE MYSTERIOUS MIRROR MESSAGE

Captain Lomer did not sleep in his room that night, in fact he states that he was a ‘bad sleeper’ since the death of his father and often read himself to sleep in the sitting-room. It is a fact that the Captain’s father had recently died, a few weeks previously on 21^st May 1912. The Captain says he woke around 5.30 a.m. on the morning of Wednesday 12^th June and went upstairs to sleep in his own room; he noticed that Robert’s bedroom door which was adjacent to Captain Lomer’s bedroom, was open and that his bed had been slept in but was unoccupied. The Captain then noticed his own bedroom door was open and on looking inside could see Robert’s lifeless body lying on his back, wearing a pyjama suit upon the Captain’s bed. In Robert’s left hand was the Captain’s Colt revolver and Robert’s face, the bed and the floor was covered in blood. There was a wound on Robert’s forehead. The Captain noticed something written upon one of the oblong mirrors in soap (the mirror was presented as evidence at the inquest) – ‘Dear …. (the name was missing and Captain Lomer explained that it read ‘Dear Sir’ but that he had rubbed-out the ‘Sir’ and said the message seemed to be ‘something about a woman’ and he started to rub it out before deciding to leave the message); the message went on to say: ‘Goodbye and good luck. Please tell all especially Miss E. Cross, 3 Trinity Square, Folkestone, Kent’. In the left hand corner of the mirror were the words: ‘I was not fit to live’. Why had Captain Lomer wilfully destroyed evidence? Why would Robert write upon the mirror with soap when there were two pencils and a notebook in his bedroom? It is my belief that the missing word did not read ‘Sir’ but something perhaps more intimate and incriminating and Robert’s request to ‘tell all’ seems to me to mean more than ‘tell all’ meaning ‘everyone’ but ‘tell all’ meaning ‘confess’ to some secret that Robert and the Captain both shared; and who is Miss E. Cross? It is stated that Robert posted a letter to her and posted it the night before – Folkestone Police investigated the claim and the letter was presented at the inquest and shown to be a ‘simple sweetheart’s message’ informing her that he was enjoying his holiday in Chesterfield and there was no indication in the letter that he was suffering from depression or not his usual cheerful self. But there are just too many inconsistencies! Captain Lomer says that he woke the groom and chauffeur, Mr. Frankland just before 6 a.m. saying ‘come, I think Robin has committed suicide’ and then the Captain asked the groom and Mr. Frankland to call Dr. Shea (7) and the police; Police Sergeant Francis Pain answered the phone just after 6 a.m. Captain Lomer then woke the valet, Mr. MacLennan who was asleep in the room next door to the tragedy. Why was there a delay of between ten to fifteen minutes before informing the authorities? Why had no-one been awoken by the sound of the gunshot?

 

THE REVOLVER

Captain Lomer’s Colt revolver, which he had owned for 13 years and not fired in 8 years, was kept unloaded in an unlocked wardrobe (a clothes cupboard) in his bedroom. When Captain Lomer entered the scene of the tragedy, the door to the cupboard was found open. He says it had not been fired in eight years except when he recently found someone in his employment fooling around with it and firing – the member of staff was dismissed. Strangely, during the night, nobody heard the revolver fired; the Captain, Mr. McLennan who was in the room next to Captain Lomer’s bedroom where the tragedy occurred; Mr. Frankland and the unnamed groom denied hearing a gunshot. There were apparently two cartridges for the revolver kept in a drawer in the sitting-room where Captain Lomer slept, according to the housekeeper who found the drawer open and its contents ‘ruffled’, at midday on Tuesday – would Robert have been aware of these cartridges and did he load the revolver? It is also stated that the revolver was found in Robert’s left hand (Robert was right-handed); only the valet, Philip MacLennan said that when he came upon the scene, the deceased ‘had the barrel of the revolver gripped in his left hand and the butt just out of the grasp of the right hand’; MacLennan was re-called due to the discrepancy in the position of the weapon but remained convinced of his description given in the evidence. Police Sergeant Francis Pain who arrived at the house following the call found the revolver in the left hand.

 

ARTHUR WILSON SHEA – PHYSICIAN

Dr. Arthur Wilson Shea (1866-1947) arrived at the house about 6.45 a.m. and explained to the jury at the inquest that the wound had a ‘certain amount of brain substance in the extrudation. The skin around the wound was blackened.’ On turning the head round, he found a ‘smaller exit wound just at the back of the head.’ Dr. Shea said it was a case of ‘impulsive suicide’ and the Jury returned a verdict of ‘suicide whilst of unsound mind’.

 

FULL MILITARY HONOURS

‘Several thousand people witnessed the funeral at Chesterfield, on Saturday [15^th June, at 3 p.m.], of Bandsman Robert Buchanan of the 2^nd Battalion King’s Royal Rifles, whose death occurred in such tragic circumstances while he was a guest at Captain S. F. Mcillree Lomer at Spital Lodge. Full Military Honours, firing party by 6^th Battalion Notts & Derby Regt. and battalion band (muffled drums). Coffin draped with Union Jack, surmounted by large cross of white flowers from Capt. Lomer was borne on a gun carriage from the Sheffield Barracks of the Royal Field Artillery – mourners Robert’s father, and four soldier brothers, all King’s Royal Rifles and Capt. Charlton.’ (8) The Vicar and Venerable Archdeacon of Chesterfield, Edmond Francis Crosse (1858-1941) conducted the Last Rites at the cemetery and three shots were fired over the grave by the firing party before closing with the ‘Last Post’. Floral tributes were from Captain Lomer and his sister, Miss Lomer, Captain Charlton and the Servants at Spital Lodge (‘His Friends’). (9)

 

CONCLUSION

After looking at the evidence and reading the statements there are many things which seemed to be overlooked, such as why was the groom not named and why was he not present at the inquest to deliver his evidence? this is not explained. Dr. She mentioned that there was an exit wound but he does not mention the final resting place of the cartridge which would determine the position the weapon was fired and he seems to suggest that ‘somnambulism’ may play a part in Robert’s death but cannot be substantiated, this of course is a flimsy deduction as Robert had no history of actually handling objects while sleep-walking as a child and there is no evidence to support he walked in his sleep as an adult; Dr. Shea was a close friend of Captain Lomer and of course would wish a ‘happy outcome’ for all involved; he also suggested that it was a case of ‘impulsive suicide’ which if the housekeeper is to be believed, and there is no reason why she should not be, the cartridge was taken sometime before midday on Tuesday 11^th June so some deliberate intention to fire the weapon is the only conclusion, whether in an act of murder or suicide is the only plausible reason. But despite the inconsistencies during the inquest my own opinion is that it was suicide and the only criminal offence was committed by Captain Lomer in destroying vital evidence which would have surely shown the actual nature of the relationship between Lomer and Buchanan to be a homosexual relationship, a criminal offence at the time; perhaps Robert deliberately wrote upon the mirror in soap knowing it was easily removable? As to the cause of the suicide I believe it was Robert’s sense of Catholic shame and guilt which drove him to such extremes – ‘I was not fit to live’ and his attempt to eradicate his true homosexual feelings by entering a romantic relationship with Miss E. Cross of Folkestone, not far from Shorncliffe Camp. I should add that perhaps the fear of discovery and dishonour upon the family name was a driving force behind the suicide and it would be unwise to rule out a ‘forced exposure’ through an attempt at blackmail which of course would almost certainly set Robert’s mind towards suicide, being still very young with a sense of family duty and honour, to silence such suggestions. This is only my conclusion from the evidence and others may see something different but perhaps time will never reveal the true cause of Robert’s death, and perhaps it is not meant to!   

Two years after the death of Robert, Lomer published his translation of the Greek Anthology (1914) under the pseudonym ‘Sydney Oswald’ and a preface to the verse hints at a depth of love which shall remain secret – ‘To…. Here in this book I will not write thy name, / for this sad world shall never know the might / of our grand love; so let it hidden stay, / graved in my heart; and though men deem it shame / that thou and I should love, the very sight / of thy dear face shall charm their scorn away.’ Was Lomer perhaps also thinking of Robert when he wrote his poem ‘The Dead Soldier’ published in ‘Soldier Poets’ in 1916:

 

Thy dear brown eyes which were as depths where truth

Lay bowered with frolic joy, but yesterday

Shone with the fire of thy so guileless youth,

Now ruthless death has dimmed and closed for aye.

 

Those sweet red lips, that never knew the stain

Of angry words or harsh, or thoughts unclean,

Have sung their last gay song. Never again

Shall I the harvest of their laughter glean.

 

The goodly harvest of thy laughing mouth

Is garnered in; and lo! the golden grain

Of all thy generous thoughts, which knew no drouth

Of meanness, and thy tender words remain

 

Stored in my heart; and though I may not see

Thy peerless form nor hear thy voice again,

The memory lives of what thou wast to me.

We knew great love…. We have not lived in vain.

 

 

SOURCES:

 

The Derbyshire Courier. Saturday 15^th June 1912.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Friday 14^th June 1912.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Monday 17^th June 1912.

Dundee Evening Telegraph. Thursday 13^th June 1912.

The Evening Telegraph and Post. Thursday 13^th June 1912.

The Gloucestershire Echo. Tuesday 29^th June 1926.

 

NOTES:

 

1. Thomas George Buchanan (1850-1925) fought in the Boer War (Ladysmith, Mafeking), was at the taking of Afganistan in 1879 and spent a few years in India and aged 30 he married sixteen year old Mary Susannah Dicks on 27^th December 1880 in Meerut, Bengal, India. They had the following children: Thomas Buchanan (probably born 1880-83, Bengal, India), Sgt. Thomas Buchanan served with the KRRC; he was taken prisoner in September 1914 and liberated in 1918; William Buchanan, born 1883, Carlow, Ireland. Sgt. Major William Buchanan D.C.M. M.M. (Somme, 1916) served with KRRC; Alfred Edwin Buchanan, born 20^th May 1885, Army Barracks, Carlow, Ireland. Daisy Buchanan, born 3^rd May 1887, Carlow Barracks; Archibald Buchanan, born 7^th May 1889, Carlow Barracks, served with KRRC; Robert Buchanan, born 9^th May 1893, Carlow Barracks; Charles Leslie Buchanan, born 13^th March 1895, Haymarket, Carlow; Mary Victoria Buchanan, born 5^th June 1897, Haymarket, Carlow; Sydney Claude Buchanan, born 23^rd September 1899, Haymarket, Carlow; Donald Christian Buchanan, born 27^th December 1902, Carlow Barracks, died 27^th January 1905, aged 2 of acute bronchitis at Carlow Barracks; Eileen Violet Hope Buchanan, born 22^nd July 1906, Carlow Barracks (married John Ward, 4^th February 1924, Carlow, Ireland); George Buchanan, born 18^th April 1891, Lance-Corporal George Buchanan served in 2^nd Battalion KRRC and was killed in action at the Battle of Mons in August 1914, aged 23. In the 1911 census he is at Shorncliffe Camp, Cheriton, Kent, aged 19, single and a ‘musician’; his younger brother Rober is also there, aged 17, also a ‘musician’ as they were both bandsmen. Their father, Thomas George Buchanan died on 10^th March 1925 in Carlow, Ireland.
2. Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer (1880-1926). Lomer died on 26^th June 1926 in Gloucestershire (he is buried at Southampton’s Old Cemetery) and his obituary appeared in ‘The Gloucestershire Echo’. Tuesday 29^th June 1926. p. 3: ‘Lieutenant-Colonel S. F. Mcl. Lomer. Death Saturday at Perrott’s Brook, North Cerney, residence of his mother (Mrs Cecil Wilson Lomer) Lt.-Col. Sydney Frederick Mcillree Lomer, OBE in 47^th year. Joined Lancashire Fusiliers in 1899 and reached Captain’s rank in 1904. 3 years he was adjutant of his battalion and later transferred to the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, from which he retired with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1919. During the Great War he was for a long time employed with the army in Egypt and awarded the OBE.’
3. see ‘The Greek Anthology: Epigrams from Anthologia Palatina XII, translated into English verse’* by Lomer under the name ‘Sydney Oswald’, privately issued (1914) and several of his poems published in ‘Soldier Poets: Songs of the Fighting Men’. Erskine Macdonald. London. 1916. as ‘Sydney Oswald, Major King’s Royal Rifle Corps’.
4. Leo Philip Marshall (12^th October 1899-1972), born in Crediton, Devon, Leo posed nude for the artist Henry Scott Tuke in pictures such as ‘The Diving Place’ (1907) and ‘After the Bathe’ (1921) in Falmouth, Cornwall. Leo enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1915-1916, served in the army in the KRRC 1918 where he served as Captain Lomer’s batman (and possibly served him in the same roll in civilian life too) before entering the Air Force in 1918; he married Madeline W Briggs in 1927.
5. Noel Coward: A Biography. Philip Hoare. Simon & Schuster. 1995. p. 36. Also see note 8.
6. John Frankland. In the 1911 census John Frankland, born 1888 in Bradford, is a boarder living in Taptan, Chesterfield; he is 23 years old, single and a ‘chauffeur domestic’. In 1908, John Frankland, chauffeur of Bradford, was ‘summoned for obstructing highway at Esholt, left large stone there.’ On 21^st September 1908, he was seen driving up Hollings Hill. The car came to a stop and Frankland got out and placed a ‘large stone from the roadside under the back wheel of the car.’ He started the car again and drove off, leaving the stone in the middle of the road. The police stopped him and he said he forgot about the stone and admitted leaving it and that it was dangerous. He was fined one shilling and costs. [‘A Careless Chauffeur’. The Wharfedale & Airdale Observer. Friday 9^th October 1908. p. 3]
7. Dr. Arthur Wilson Shea D.S.O. (1866-1947), born 27^th March 1866, Dublin, Ireland. He studied medicine at the University of London and served with the Derbyshire Territorials, 2^nd Lieutenant 1^st Battalion Nottinghamshire ‘Sherwood Forresters’ (where he probably met and became acquainted with Sydney Lomer who was also in the Regiment); Surgeon Captain (April 1908) and Surgeon Major (5^th August 1914); he was in France from February 1915-December 1918 and awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on 3^rd June 1918. He married Annie Florence Craig in Dublin in October 1903 and died in Chesterfield on 7^th January 1847, aged 81. [During the 1891 and 1901 census Shea was at the home of his adopted brother, John Goodwin Shea, also a physician, in Chesterfield; he is in Chesterfield during the 1911 census with his wife Annie and one servant]. Shea was in command of the 6^th Battalion Notts & Derby Regiment till 1908 (Chesterfield camp) and then became regimental surgeon.
8. Captain Lionel Evelyn Oswald Charlton (1879-1958). Charlton was a fellow uranian and friend of Captain Sydney Lomer; rank of Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers (where he probably knew and befriended Lomer); Captain in 1901 and later achieved the rank of Air Commadore. He was an author of many books such as: ‘A Hausa Reading Book’ (1908), ‘Charlton’ an autobiography (1931), ‘Near East Adventure’ (1934), ‘War from the Air, Past, Present and Future’ (1935), ‘War over England’ (1936), ‘The Flying Photographers’ (1936), ‘The Secret of Lake Tana’ (1936), ‘The Military Situation in Spain after Teruel’ (1938), ‘The Air Defence of Britain’ (1938), ‘The Royal Air Force from September 1939 to December 1940’ (1941), ‘The Taking of Quebec’ (1941), ‘Deeds that Held the Empire: by Air’ (1941), ‘The Recollections of a Northumbrian Lady, being the Memoirs of Barbara Charlton’ (Barbara & Leo Charlton. 1949) and ‘Squint Hollow’ (1951).
9. Chesterfield Tragedy. Military Funeral for the Victim. Sheffield Daily Telegraph. Monday 17^th June 1912. p. 5.

LESLIE ROBERTS

 

UNDER THE SIGN OF PISCES

LESLIE ROBERTS

THE PURVEYOR OF WISDOM AND FOLLY

BY

BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

 

The little-known author, Leslie Roberts (1905-1966) is all but forgotten today, but there was a time when he was front-page news! I came across Leslie Roberts while reading Doreen Valiente’s immensely interesting book, ‘The Rebirth of Witchcraft’ (1989) in which she devotes a whole chapter to Mr. Roberts, the only person she knew who ‘set himself up to be a full-time, impartial investigator of witchcraft and black magic’. (1) Information on Leslie Roberts is difficult to find but some clues to his identity are given by Valiente in her book and research has unearthed the following: He was born John Leslie Tudor Roberts in 1905 in Basford, Nottingham (2). His father is William Morris Roberts, a Welsh-man born in 1875 and baptised 4^th October 1877 in Ffestiniog, Wales [he died on 10^th July 1925 in Nottinghamshire]; Leslie’s mother is Hannah Florence Stevenson born in 1878 in Bradford, Yorkshire (3). William and Hannah were married in Cardiff in the summer of 1903 and John Leslie Tudor is the first child born to them; a daughter named Gwyneth Stevenson Roberts is born in 1910 in Basford, Nottingham (4) During the 1911 census the family are living in Hucknall Torkard, Nottingham and William, aged 35 is ‘Colliery underground fireman Deputy’, Hannah is 32, John 6 and Gwyneth is not yet a year old (5).

Doreen Valiente, the well-known witch and author, met Leslie Roberts sometime during 1957-1958 when Leslie sought her out to assist with his research on witchcraft and the occult for a proposed book he was writing. She describes him as a ‘most entertaining conversationalist, cheerful and by no means sinister. He made no secret of the fact that he was homosexual, at the time when this was still illegal in British law.’ She goes on to say that he was ‘small in stature, with thick, dark, wavy hair and dark eyes’ and ‘always dressed very smartly’. Valiente paints a portrait of a stylish, somewhat old-fashioned and well-mannered man who was ‘born under the sign of Pisces’ (19 February- 20 March) – ‘he always wore a large ring with an amethyst, the birth-stone of Pisces, set in silver. He was fascinated by the occult in all its forms and travelled the world in search of knowledge and experience.’ Leslie wrote two novels both published by Fortune Press, the first, ‘Shepherd Market’ in 1937 and the second, ‘Feathers in the Bed’ in 1944; a review for ‘Shepherd Market’ appeared in a Nottingham newspaper under the title: ‘New Notts. Novelist’, which called it a ‘lively story that opens with a picture of Goose Fair’; the review goes on to say that it is a tale of ‘youth and its responses to the calls of modern life’ which ‘form the theme of a brilliant first novel, published to-day, entitled “Shepherd Market”, by Leslie Roberts an author who formerly resided in Mansfield (The Fortune Press, 7s. 6d.) His residence there has furnished him with some of the material for his story, which is that of a boy born in “Maidensmeadow, the mighty coalopolis of the Midlands”. The boy is ‘afflicted with the name of Paul Onion’ and ‘clever enough to win a scholarship that lifts him from a back-street elementary school to the dizzy heights of a secondary school.’ (6) A year later Leslie appears in an advert for ‘Dr. Cassells Tablets’ – ‘How I Conquered Nerves by Brilliant Young Author – “The strain of my work was too much! – my nerves went all to pieces. But just when things seemed blackest, I found the means of renewing my health,” writes Mr. Leslie Roberts, author of the best-seller ‘Shepherd Market’. “On Dr. Cassells Tablets I began to lose that deadly sense of tiredness and depression. I found myself writing with enthusiasm, sometimes going all night without ill effect. I whole-heartedly advise all men and women to take Dr. Cassells Tablets”. (7)

Leslie was on familiar terms with the publisher of Fortune Press, the strange and slightly sinister, Reginald Ashley Caton (1897-1971) and was even a tenant of his in one of his many run-down buildings in Brighton, probably the dingy flat Roberts was living in in Burlington Street, Brighton when Valiente first became acquainted with him. Valiente provided Leslie with much information on the occult arts and the different branches of witchcraft and its history, but she ‘soon realized that sincere though he was, discretion was not Leslie’s strong point. I sometimes rather regretted that I had told him anything at all.’ (p. 139)

 

THE BLACK MASS ALLEGATIONS

 

A local Brighton association, the Forum Society, had asked Leslie to give a talk on the subject of witchcraft at the Adelphi Hotel in Brighton and Doreen kindly lent Leslie various objects from her collection of witchcraft articles which Leslie had planned to show during the lecture. And so on the evening of Wednesday 17^th December 1958, Leslie gave his lecture. Doreen sat in the audience. ‘The lecture was very well attended, and Leslie began to warm to his subject. He was a lively talker, and the audience found him fascinating. Then he suddenly came out with an amazing allegation. He knew, he said, that a human baby had been sacrificed upon a black magic altar in a recent ceremony at Rottingdean, near Brighton!’ (p. 139-140) This was all new to Doreen and she was as surprised as the rest of the audience! But that was not the end of it Leslie went on to say that ‘at Eastbourne human sacrifices are quite frequent – although I cannot verify them.’ (p. 140) After the lecture Leslie ‘was surrounded by people asking questions’ and Doreen, unable to retrieve her witchcraft items, decided to pay a visit to his flat in Burlington Street the next day only to be confronted by a reporter from the national press asking questions of locals who may know Mr. Roberts; Leslie was not home, he was at the Police station.

The Birmingham Post. Friday 19 December 1958

Representatives of the press had been in the audience at the Adelphi Hotel and could not believe their luck which is how the story exploded the following day [Thursday 18^th December] when it made front page of the Brighton Evening Argus with the headline: ‘Police Probe “Black Magic Murder”’. The reporter from the national press gave Doreen a lift to the Police station which was also filled with reporters and so Doreen left without seeing him and returned home. When Leslie returned home from the Police station he gave a press conference in his flat and he ‘added a significant comment: “we don’t know it is murder. The child could have been stillborn.”’ (p. 142) The story appeared on front pages and in small columns alike throughout the country – ‘‘Black Magic’ Murder of Baby Alleged’ ran The Birmingham Post of Friday 19^th December, which went on to say: ‘Mr. Leslie Roberts, a writer on occult subjects, claimed last night that he had given Brighton police two important clues to a house in Rottingdean where he alleges, a baby was murdered as a sacrifice during a “black-magic” ceremony. Mr. Roberts of Burlington Street, Brighton, spent four hours with police after the Chief Constable, Mr. A. E. Rowsell, ordered a full enquiry into the allegation during a lecture to a Brighton debating society on Wednesday. The Chief Constable said earlier yesterday that detectives spoke to Mr. Roberts recently and he mentioned the matter, “the officers could find no corroboration of the story, which was dismissed as being fantastic” he said. “Now that Mr. Roberts has made a public statement the matter will be treated seriously. If his reports are true there has been a murder in this town”. Detectives interviewed Mr. Roberts for an hour at his home yesterday. He then spent three hours at Brighton Police headquarters making a further statement. He said afterwards: “I have asked for police protection in case my life is threatened. I have had vague threats already.”

On page 6 of the Western Mail for the same day [Friday 19^th December], under the headline: ‘Baby Sacrifice: Man is Threatened’, Mr. Roberts is described as a ‘firm believer in the activities of a Coven of “Witches” near Brighton who practice Black Magic rites’. The article goes on to say that ‘Mr. Roberts showed me bundles of notes on Black Magic which he claims will help the police’ and that the ‘murder was committed at a “Black Mass” just before Halloween night on an “altar” in a private house. “It was an authentic human sacrifice”, he said. “Human sacrifices at Eastbourne have been described to me as frequent. But I cannot verify that,” he added. Mr. Roberts told me that he had not been able to give the police an address where the sacrifice of the baby had taken place. “We do not know it”, he said.’ The Western Mail reporter also states that ‘Mr. Roberts claims to have attended a witches’ meeting at midnight on Chanctonbury, a lonely clump of beech trees atop a hill on the Downs.’ Strangely, the reporter states that he had spoken to the Chief Constable and was told that ‘a few weeks ago my officers were making inquiries into another matter and interviewed Mr. Roberts. In the course of general conversation he started talking about Black Magic. He said he was writing a book on the subject.’ Whether or not this ‘other matter’ existed or is just evidence of unreliable reporting is unknown. In another report from the Daily Herald (Friday 19^th December 1958. p. 7) after confirming that the Chief Constable, Mr. Albert Rowsell ordered a full-scale inquiry on Thursday 18^th, Leslie is wrongly stated as being ’43-years-old’, he was in fact, 53 years old, and described as a ‘student of witchcraft’. Mr. Roberts said earlier that ‘within the last fortnight an unspeakable blood sacrifice of a new-born baby was part of a ritual in a house in Rottingdean’, he goes on to say that ‘the facts have been put to the police but they are doing nothing about it. I am under police protection and I have received threats.’

The next day the newspapers continued the story, dismissing the whole affair – ‘No Baby Sacrifice’ declared the Daily Mirror (Saturday 20^th December 1958. p. 4) which states that the ‘Police Chief [Mr. Albert Rowsell] said yesterday that there was “no substance” in an allegation that a baby had been sacrificed during “black magic” rites in a house in Rottingdean.’ The article ends with Mr. Roberts reply to Mr. Rowsell’s statement – ‘This is nonsense. The police can’t dismiss it like that. I am going to see them with some more information.’ And in Eastbourne, the Eastbourne Herald Chronicle (Saturday 20^th December 1958. p. 24) had a little more to say on the subject (I shall quote the complete article) – ‘Rumours that black magic and occult practices were being carried out in Eastbourne were yesterday firmly refuted by the Chief Constable, Mr. R. W. Walker, who told the Herald Chronicle, “I am sure there is nothing in it”. The rumours started after Mr. Leslie Roberts, a writer on occult subjects, told the Brighton Forum Society that a baby had been sacrificed on an altar during a Black Mass in a private house in Rottingdean. Brighton Chief Constable, Mr. A. E. Rowsell, immediately ordered a full inquiry into the allegation. Mr. Roberts told his Brighton audience on Wednesday that this was the first information in recent years of human sacrifice that he had cause to regard as authentic. “But I have heard that at Eastbourne human sacrifices are quite frequent – although I cannot verify them,” he is reported as saying. Mr. Roberts said that professional people were known to have taken part in pagan practices. The Vicar of Eastbourne, the Rev. W. W. S. March, said that he had not heard anything about the matter. Other church leaders and members of the Spiritualist Church has nothing to do with black magic although we do hold séances. I do think that there is a very strong black magic influence in Britain, but not in Eastbourne,” a Spiritualist told the Herald Chronicle.’ (8)

And so the story was dropped and Doreen was able to retrieve her witchcraft items, but to the end of his days, Leslie swore that the story was true. In fact, not long after the story became old news, in March 1959, Leslie ‘discussed the case in the course of an interview he gave to Philip Paul, a reporter for the Spiritualist weekly paper Psychic News. Talking to Mr. Paul in a Drury Lane coffee-bar, Leslie claimed that in spite of the official denials the police were still investigating this and other matters relating to black magic’. (p. 142) He also said to Philip Paul that ‘the baby who was the alleged victim of the black magic sacrifice was in fact a three-month foetus. He confirmed this to me afterwards, saying that the child had been aborted and that this pitiful scrap of humanity had then been used as an offering to Satan in the Black Mass.’ (p. 143)

Doreen appears to have been dubious of the story until some research into actual abortions used in Satanic ceremonies seemed to convince her that there may have been some truth to the tale – ‘a child which had been aborted might even be preferred to one which had been born in the natural way.’ (p. 144) The life-force of the child is still pure: ‘it is “virgin” because the creature has never lived in the normal sense, yet it has been alive’. (p. 144)

 

INITIATION

 

‘Leslie’s love of travel had led him to take a job as a waiter in the first-class dining-rooms of luxury liners.’ (p. 154) Doreen had mentioned a New Zealand born witch and artist named Rosaleen Miriam Norton (1917-1979), known as the ‘Witch of King’s Cross’ (King’s Cross, Sydney, Australia, not London). Leslie was enthusiastic to meet Rosaleen and took the opportunity to visit her in Australia in 1959 at her home and temple at 179 Broughton Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney. They became firm friends and Rosaleen was probably taken by Leslie’s Welsh background: Leslie ‘believed himself to be descended from a Welshman called Tudor Roberts who was a chamberlain at the court of Henry VIII.’ (p. 156-7) Leslie was initiated into Rosaleen’s coven soon afterwards, a coven which practiced a form of sex magic and whose deities were Pan and Hecate; Leslie would travel to Australia to meet Rosaleen and his fellow coven members whenever the great liners took him there.

 

SYBIL LEEK AND MR. HOTFOOT JACKSON

 

While Leslie was travelling around Britain in search of information for his proposed book on witchcraft he met the ‘self-confessed witch’ and antique dealer Sybil Leek (1917-1982) and her jackdaw ‘familiar’ Mr. Hotfoot Jackson in the New Forest, Hampshire in 1962; they seemed to have got on well together and she was of great help in his research – Sybil Leek’s autobiography ‘Diary of a Witch’ published in 1968 is quite a fascinating read and she mentions much about her acquaintance with the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, whom she met while a little girl and at several intervals during her life; unfortunately, she does not mention Leslie Roberts.

 

DARK, SATANIC SUSSEX

 

During Aleister Crowley’s final years at Hastings in Sussex a string of visitors made their way to see the ‘wickedest man in the world’ and the prophet of the new aeon and a community of occultists grew up around the area; Crowley’s death in 1947 and the notorious ‘Last Rite’ reading of ‘The Hymn to Pan’ at his funeral in Brighton sparked darker interests in Sussex. But Sussex seems to have been beset with occultism. Valiente mentions the mysterious voodoo priest Rollo Ahmed (1899-1958) the author of the book ‘The Black Art’ who lived in Hastings and had an ‘active magical circle in Brighton’ (p. 139) between the wars; Ahmed was friends with the occult author Dennis Wheatley and Aleister Crowley and Valiente goes on to say that ‘some of Ahmed’s old students and followers were still in Brighton at the time of which I write and still performing their rituals. These sometimes involved blood sacrifices, usually of a cockerel.’ (p. 139)

Another active occultist in Sussex during the 1940’s and friend of Aleister Crowley was Lord Evan Tredegar (1893-1949) who was very fond of performing the Black Mass. In his hugely fascinating book ‘The Dust Has Never Settled’, Robin Bryans (1928-2005) mentions a twelve year old boy who had been murdered near his home in Rottingdean during the 1970’s, ‘close to where I had seen Evan Tredegar in 1944 perform his black mass’. (9) Tredegar seems to perform the mass at the drop of a hat and his occultist friends, the artist Sir Francis Cyril Rose (1909-1979) and Archdeacon John Herbert Sharp (1888-1950) would also assist, their favoured site being St. Wulfran’s Church in Ovingdean; Tredegar gave ‘parties for young sailors at Roedean and had pressed them into black mass sessions down the hill at Ovingdean where Peter [Harrison] and I now sat doing the crossword, trying not to get involved with Aleister Crowley’s devotees coming to light candles and leave other relics of their devotions.’ (10) Rodean girls’ School was taken over by the Admiralty in 1941 from the War Office and it became known as HMS Vernon, a training school for the Royal Navy. Tredegar seems to have treated the place as his playground and made no secret of his nocturnal activities and Bryans tells us that ‘many celebrants used a chalice set inside a human skull for their communion cup, although various ingredients, apart the essential blood and semen, could be used.’ (11) Many of the sailors were drugged when drinking the communion wine; one such sailor was Jack Dover Wellman (1917-1989) who took part in the Black Mass and went on to become a priest (he was the Reverend at Emmanuel Parish Church, Hampstead from 1956-1989); Wellman who was interested in the occult became friends with John Symonds, who wrote ‘The Great Beast’ biography of Aleister Crowley. Wellman also published two books: ‘A Priest’s Psychic Diary’ in 1977 and ‘A Priest and the Paranormal’ in 1988. It is interesting to speculate whether Leslie Roberts was aware of these black masses or even took part in them!

The author, Robin Bryans, aged just 16, first visited St. Wulfran’s Church in 1944 with the M.P. and friend of Aleister Crowley, Tom Driberg (1905-1976) and Rev. Thomas Frederick  Charlton. Bryans mentions his young friend Peter Harrison a soldier who had returned from the war blind and paralysed and was living at St. Dunstan’s, a blind veteran’s home in Ovingdean, and feeling sorry for him, Father Charlton and Bryans decided Peter should have some recompense for his loss, and so ‘Peter was lifted onto a makeshift bed in Ovingdean Church to make love with the actress [a friend of Enid Bagnol the playwright who lived at North End House in Rottingdean since 1923]. Father Charlton was triumphant. He and I thought it little enough compensation for the war damage to a teenager’s life.’ (12) In fact, when it came to sexual practices it seemed anything goes and there was a deep level of involvement within the church – ‘Driberg knew what Aleister Crowley did in Ovingdean Church but his friend, Peter Anson had much earlier, in 1964, published in Bishops at Large, descriptions of the homosexual clergy in those High Churches.’ (13)

I’m sure, whether Leslie was involved with rituals or not he would have been fascinated by it purely on account of research for his proposed book on witchcraft (the book never did get written and Valiente inherited all his notebooks), just as the mysterious ‘black magic gang’ cases and church desecrations in Sussex during 1963-64 would have been worthy of his investigations. The first of these cases occurred at the village of Westham, near Pevensy on Saturday 7^th December 1963 when a ‘gang of Black Magic devil worshippers’ broke into the 12^th century church and ‘held an orgy’ before they ‘fought a battle with the 79-year-old vicar, his churchwardens and other parishioners.’ The four Satanists ‘lit candles from the church altar laid them out on the chancel floor in the shape of a cross and stood chanting as they performed their evil rites.’ They were discovered by the bellringer, Walter Binsted who rushed to the village school next door which was holding its Christmas bazaar to call the vicar. The vicar, Rev. Harold Coulthurst of Westham said ‘the men were trying to communicate with evil spirits. They were chanting some sort of mumbo jumbo.’ “Someone had spat on the altar cross and when I tried to restrain them they lashed out and there was a fight. We were no match for them.”’ He added that ‘they were definitely in league with the devil. The incident was most distressing and alarming.’ During the fight, one of the churchwardens, Capt. Leo Hayden, aged 65, had his glasses broken! (14) The ‘devil worshippers’ escaped in a waiting car.

The next case occurred soon afterwards and possibly by the same ‘black magic gang’ when on Sunday 5^th January 1964, the Rector, 76 year old Rev. Ernest Streete arrived at the church to find a heavy stone cross ‘ripped from the graveyard’ and propped against the main door of St. Nicholas Church, Bramber and ‘Black magic signs were chalked on the flagstones of the church porch.’ Also, ‘stone figures of angels taken from graves around it, flung, heads smashed.’ (p. 148-9) The Rector ‘pronounced a solemn curse upon the defilers of his church’ (p. 149) and in a newspaper article believed that the ‘curse worked. Stone put back and vandals have repented’ but actually it was a Police officer, saying “I can’t understand why he said the vandals repented. Three of us put back the cross on Sunday evening.’ (15)

The gang struck again and this time were even bolder as three churches in one night were targeted – ‘Headstones and crosses were torn from graves in “Black Magic” raids on two Sussex churchyards early yesterday [Sunday 26^th January 1964]. And at a third church two sheep’s hearts were found on a tombstone.’ The Rector of St. Michaels’s Church, Newhaven, Rector, Rev. R. G. G. Hooper ‘found headstones propped against both doors.’ It took four policemen to remove one of them and occult symbols were ‘scrawled on the door in coloured chalk’. At Alfriston Church (8 miles away) there were similar ‘chalk signs’ and two stone crosses were ripped from graves and leaning against the door. At nearby Jevington Church there were ‘chalked signs on gravestones – and the two sheep’s hearts. Police said, “the signs in each case were in yellow, pink and blue chalk.’ (16) But there was to be a final attempt before activities quietened down and this occurred on Friday 13^th March 1964 when Police set up a ‘black magic patrol’ to prevent a ‘midnight Black Mass in the graveyard’ after a parishioner was ‘tipped off that a “devil worship” ceremony was being planned in the graveyard of the Priory Church at Christchurch, Bournemouth.’ Four men were seen wandering around the church’s Lady Chapel ‘carrying pieces of cloth which had circles embroidered on them with crosses in the centre.’ When they were challenged by the verger, Mr. C. H. Stickland they ran off. At midnight, police and church officials were hiding in the graveyard as the gang drove up; a torch-flash signalled the police and the patrol swooped upon the gang who managed to escape into their cars and made off. The Police went back into hiding and ‘two hours later another group of men was seen creeping through the graveyard.’ The police pounced but again, the gang escaped over a church wall. (17) Sybil Leek, in her ‘Diary of a Witch’ (1968) says she knew the identity of one of the ‘devil worshippers’ involved – ‘In 1960, in the early evening, a man came to my door. I recognized him as a well-known leader of a Black Magic group operating outside London. A mathematician, a man of high intellect, he was devoted to Satanism. It is a mistake to think that Black Magic groups are not practicing in this day and age. British newspapers frequently carry reports of churches which have been defiled, of Black Magic symbols being left on church doors, and of graves being broken into. The man who was responsible for many of these weird happenings was my visitor.’ (18) The Satanist, who was a sick man, had come to Doreen wanting her to heal him but she would only do this on one condition – she said to him: ‘I know you are responsible for all the outbreaks of Black Magic on the South Coast. If I agree to help you, whether I succeed or fail, I want your promise that none of your people will come to the New Forest.’ (19) The devil worshipper agreed to her terms!

 

AN EXORCISM

 

In the spring of 1963 Leslie received a letter from a farmer and his wife who lived in the North of England at a remote farm saying that for years they had been troubled by strange disturbances at their home and that the farmer’s wife was now suffering some sort of spiritual attachment, haunted by an evil spirit. Leslie, with his best intentions decided to try to help the couple and so he travelled to the location by rail and road and moved into the farm to investigate the haunting. The wife told him that she had been to a number of Spiritualist healers in London but to no avail and she continued to suffer from mysterious aches and pains and a sense that some dark entity was obsessing her. She said how she had seen a tall, dark figure approach her outside the farm and how she screamed and fled indoors; since that occasion she began hearing a man’s voice speaking to her and there were unexplainable noises in the house at night. This was of course all music to Leslie’s ears who would have been carried away with solving the case. He held a séance with the family and discovered that the farmer’s wife had mediumistic abilities and fell into a trance – Leslie decided he would attempt an exorcism. It is not known whether he was skilled enough to perform such a ceremony but it is highly unlikely his knowledge was anything more than theoretical. Suddenly, the wife confessed to Leslie that she didn’t want the spirit exorcised as the entity gave her intense ‘”sexual sensations” which no man could produce.’ (p. 161) Her husband it seemed was completely unaware of his wife’s sexual pleasure at the unseen hands of a ghost and it was the husband who had requested Leslie’s assistance. Leslie realised that the sexual encounters were the product of an Incubus and he decided to go ahead, perhaps unwisely, with the exorcism. He probably realised he was out of his depth but nevertheless he went on with the ‘prolonged struggle’ and the entity spoke with a man’s voice and declared it had been hanged. The exorcism seemed to have had a definite effect on Leslie’s health and he felt ‘very cold – as if, he said, some of the chill of that bleak, harsh countryside had entered into him.’ (p. 161) In fact, he felt he had contacted ‘real malignant evil’ and soon after his health deteriorated; he was warned by his doctor that he had heart trouble and for the last years of his life (he was living in a flat at 56b Church Street, Brighton) the problem became worse. But Leslie continued his investigations into the occult. In 1965 Leslie met another well-known witch – Patricia Crowther and her husband Arnold. The Crowthers were visiting Doreen Valiente at her home, 6 Tyson Place, Grosvenor Street, Brighton when Leslie came round one evening ‘for a chat about the current occult scene. We were sitting round the table’ writes Patricia, ‘when I happened to glance at Leslie, and what I saw I will never forget. Directly behind him a fearful apparition had appeared. It wore a cowl, draped over a skull – a death’s head – and had bat-like, leathery wings outspread.’ (20) It seemed Leslie was a haunted man and perhaps a doomed man also! On 7^th August 1965 Leslie took part in a ouija board session at Doreen’s home with the Crowthers and the spirit of Gerald Gardner came through requesting his picture be mended and hung back on the wall – Arnold Crowther repaired the picture and it was hung up once more. (21) The following year Leslie died of heart disease in a Brighton Hospital aged 61 in early 1966. (22)

Because he was such a good-natured man, always willing to assist those in need, Valiente believed he was the victim of ‘psychic vampires’ draining his energy – he did not like to say ‘no’ to someone he felt he could help, poor, unfortunate cases who sometimes took advantage of him – ‘he continued to the end of his life to let people impose on him; and I believe his life was shortened as a consequence.’ (p. 153) In fact, ‘on several occasions his flat was burgled by so-called “friends”’ (p. 154) and even his precious amethyst ring was stolen!

 

‘Some of his friends and I gave Leslie a pagan funeral, scattering his ashes upon the Sussex Downs in a peaceful spot under a spreading oak tree. We kept it secret from any interest by the media.’ (p. 162)

 

 

NOTES:

 

1. The Rebirth of Witchcraft. Doreen Valiente. Robert Hale, London. 1989. p. 137. [Chapter 9: ‘Leslie Roberts, Investigator’ p. 137-161] All quotations The Rebirth of Witchcraft, unless specified.
2. Birth Registration for England and Wales. January-March. 1905. Basford, Notts. 7b 257.
3. Hannah Florence Stevenson, born 1878, Bradford, Yorkshire, 9b 226. She died in January-March 1951 aged 72 in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, 3c 210. She married William Morris Roberts in Cardiff in July-September 1903, 11a 742.
4. Gwyneth Stevenson Roberts, born July-September 1910, Basford, Notts. 7b 284.
5. 1911 Census for England and Wales. Schedule Type: 233, Page Number: 1, Registration Number: RG14, Piece/Folio: 469.
6. The Nottingham Evening Post. Thursday 9^th December 1937. p. 7.
7. Belfast Newsletter. Thursday 8^th September 1938. In the same year, there is an article written by Leslie in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. Tuesday 13^th September 1938. p. 1. ‘Money Makes Happiest Marriages says Leslie Roberts, the young author of the best-selling novel “Shepherd Market”’.
8. Some further newspaper sources: West Sussex Gazette (Wednesday 25^th December 1958. p. 4), Liverpool Echo (Friday 19^th December 1958. p.1), Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail (Thursday 18^th December 1958. p. 10), Aberdeen Evening Express (Thursday 18^th December 1958. p. 9), Torbay Express & South Devon Echo (Friday 19^th December 1958. p. 1), Shields Daily News (Thursday 18^th December 1958. p. 16).
9. The Dust Has Never Settled. Robin Bryans. Honeyford Press. London. 1992. p. 65.
10. ibid. p. 123.
11. ibid. p. 129.
12. ibid. p. 124.
13. ibid. p. 171.
14. The People. ‘Black Magic Gang in Battle at Altar’. Sunday 8^th December 1963. p. 1.
15. Daily Mirror. ‘Rector: My Curse Worked but Police say we repaired the damage in the graveyard’. Tuesday 7^th January 1964. p. 5.
16. Daily Mirror. ‘Gravestones Ripped Up in Black Magic Raids’. Monday 27^th January. 1964. p. 17.
17. The People. ‘Devil Gang Drive into Tombstones Ambush’. Sunday 15^th March 1964. p. 10.
18. Diary of a Witch. Sybil Leek. Prentice-Hall, inc. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 1968. p. 91-92.
19. ibid. p. 93.
20. One Witch’s World. Patricia Crowther. Robert Hale. 1998. p. 88.
21. see Doreen Valiente Witch. Philip Heselton. The Doreen Valiente Foundation and the Centre for Pagan Studies Ltd. 2016.
22. Death Record for England and Wales. John Leslie Tudor Roberts. Brighton. April-June 1966. 5H 101.