Regular visitors to this website will know that I have a fascination for imposters. 😎 I’m not sure why this is, except that they have a sense of daring and self confidence that I certainly don’t have myself. I’m not condoning the behaviour, especially when it causes harm to others. However, the case of Doris Haggar (aka Doris Green) was unique in that she did not set out to benefit financially or to damage any other person by her actions. It is also unusual in that her background would be revealed the following year, and go a long way in explaining her motives.
OVER SEXED AND OVER HERE!
In 1942, dashing US Servicemen were filling Sydney’s hotels. They brought a glamour to the city that resonated with young women dealing with loneliness, anxiety, and wartime rationing. The period is perfectly captured in the book ‘Come In Spinner’, by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James.
US Servicemen swept Sydney’s women off their feet, and not only on the dancefloor.
The effect was not lost on local telephonist Doris Haggar, from Bankstown. The thirty two year old began representing herself as American military doctor Captain Doris Bentley. She was fined, but the following year she promoted herself to Major and simply carried on.
One of her favourite haunts was the Carlton Hotel, in Castlereagh Street.
The Carlton Hotel and it’s Art Deco bar.
On December 3 1941, Doris was drinking in the lounge of the Carlton with an Australian lieutenant. When dental assistant Miss Lola McGauly took out a cigarette, Doris offered an elegant lighter and introduced herself, presumably with an American accent.;
‘I’m Major Bentley, a doctor in the American forces. I am at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, waiting to be posted to a ship.‘ (Daily Telegraph. May 4 1943)
When Miss MGauly asked why ‘Major Bentley’ wasn’t in unform, Doris said she spent hours in the operating theatre, ‘knee deep in blood’ and that when she went out she liked to relax. She added that being in uniform was a problem, because people kept stopping her in the street to ask for her autograph and inquire which unit she was in. On one occasion, she told her new friend, the attention meant that it took her over two hours to walk from The Hotel Australia to Farmers department store.
Over dinner Doris explained that before the war she had been practicing in Harley Street, London. When her English husband joined up she returned to the United States and enlisted herself.
It was all too much for McGauly to swallow, and she reported the matter to the police. I think that was going a bit for really, she could have just told Doris not to be so stupid.
Anyway, the game was up and ‘Major Bentley’ was unmasked. Doris was charged a second time with impersonating an American officer. She tried to say it was just a joke, but like Lola McGauly the authorities took a dim view of her behaviour.
Doris appeared in court wearing a smart grey suit with green accessories and a stylish hat. She pleaded guilty, but her solicitor, Mr William Lieberman, argued that leniency should be shown. He explained that the young woman had a child to care for. The father was a man she had discovered was already married. Mr Lieberman also had a personal interest in Doris , as she was now working for his law firm. He told the court; ‘She attends a large switchboard and is doing a difficult job there in a very satisfactory manner. ‘ (Daily Telegraph, May 9 1942)
The magistrate, Mr McCulloch, was unmoved, He said he was at a loss to understand her extraordinary conduct, and that with the country at war it was no time for ‘skylarking.’ Doris was sentenced to three months gaol, which must have a terrible shock. 
Fortunately there was an appeal against the sentence a few weeks later. His Honour, Judge Studdert, released her on bond, to be of good behaviour for two years. Her gave her a severe dressing down, ordering her to observe the provisions of National Security and warning that she had run the risk of being suspected as a spy.
It seems that Doris’s solicitor subsequently had a quiet chat with her, advising that she should sort out her complicated private life. This resulted in an appearance in the divorce court the following year. An extraordinary, and very sad story was revealed. The case was widely reported under headlines such as;
DESERTED BRIDE SECURES DIVORCE. and TERRIBLE MISTAKE MADE
Doris now stated that her legal name was Doris Jean Green. She was born Doris Gibson, in 1910. From the time she was eleven years old, her stepfather had been making sexual advances to her, which naturally she deeply resented. She had left home many times due to his behaviour. In 1934 the situation again became intolerable, and she went to live temporarily at The Grand Central Hotel. It was here she met Russell William Green. She was virtually homeless and emotionally very vulnerable, which may be why she married Green only a fortnight after their first meeting. The ceremony took place at the registry office at 1 pm on November 29.
Russell Green returned to his office after the ceremony and arranged to meet his bride at a friend’s home in Manly at 6 pm that evening. He arrived at 9 pm, brushed past Doris as if she were a total stranger and said, ‘ There’s been a terrible mistake. I have a mother and sister to look after and cannot afford a wife. ‘ The marriage was not consummated and Green left next morning. Doris never saw him again.
She was now stranded and had no option but to return home. She said she tried to sort things out with her stepfather, but within a few months his unwanted advances resumed. Was her mother aware of this I wonder? In 1937 Doris met George Haggar and the pair set up home together. He promised they would be married when she was free. Two years later they had a little girl together, but when the subject of marriage came up again, Haggar confessed that he already had a wife and two children.
A devastated Doris left and went back to live with her mother yet again in Bankstown. Haggar had since joined the R.A.F and was serving overseas. He had been contributing to the support of their child, but Doris said she had no plans to marry him. She simple wanted a divorce from Russell Green so that should look after the interests of her daughter and be free to marry if she met anyone in the future.
Judge Reginald Bonney was very moved by her story and commented that circumstances had been very unkind to her, He could have refused the divorce due to Doris’s relationship with George Haggar, but said that on this occasion he would use his discretion and grant a decree nici on the grounds of desertion,
From my research it appears that everything Doris told the divorce court was true. Here is the record of her 1934 marriage to Russell Green.
The following photo is from George Haggar’s R.A.F. service file.
GEORGE HAGGAR
So now the conduct that magistrate McCulloch found impossible to understand the previous year makes sense. Doris had endured so much betrayal and rejection in her life that clearly she escaped reality by assuming another persona. As the glamourous American doctor she was the centre of attention and full of confidence. Who can blame her for enjoying a few hours of make believe as Major Doris Bentley ?
I hope she and her daughter found happiness and security.
