Bessie O’Leary came late to the state of matrimony. In 1951 she and her sister Margaret were elderly spinsters living a quiet, respectable life in Bowen Terrace, New Farm; a suburb of Brisbane.
However, at 71, Bessie met and married an 80 year old ‘Prince Charming’. Walter Thomas Porriott was a retired, English born doctor. The dapper, eloquent gentleman had travelled extensively overseas. What really won Bessie’s heart was his generosity, and his desire to grant her the same opportunity to see the world.
Walter explained that he was due to inherit the considerable sum of £4,860 under an English will. Bessie advanced him the money to cover legal costs and stamp duty, then accompanied him to a Queen Street Trustee Company, She waited outside while her husband presented the trustees with probate documents from the British High Court of Justice.
Knowing that he was reaching the end of his life, Walter said gently; ‘I won’t be here, but when you get the money Darling, go to America for a trip, I will be with you in spirit.‘ (Truth, Brisbane, 26 April 1953)
Walter Porriott died in August 1952. Bessie and her sister were so close that they published joint notices concerning his passing.
No doubt both were devasted at the bombshell revelations about Walter Porriott that surfaced just twelve months. later.
The elderly man Bessie was still mourning was a lifelong imposter and fraudster. The inheritance he spoke of was nonexistent, and the probate papers forged. The cash for stamp duty and legal fees Bessie handed over was spent by ‘Porriott’. That name was one of over 40 aliases he had used, and he had ‘married’ countless times, not just in Australia, but in South Africa, England, and America He had served long periods in prison for fraud and theft. In 1940 he was sentenced to ten years gaol for causing the death of a woman in England while acting as a bogus doctor. As soon as he was released he returned to Australia.
AN ENTIRE TOWN FALLS UNDER THE ‘DOCTOR’S’ SPELL
At the time of his marriage to Bessie O’Leary, ‘Porriott’ was being hunted by police after posing as a doctor in the NSW country town of Sofala. The old goldmining area had been in desperate need of an experienced physician, and when one surfaced in nearby Wattle Flat it seemed their problem was solved.
Using the name Harry Cecil Darling (a genuine surgeon in Sydney) he was appointed Medical Officer at Sofala’s local hospital. In retrospect the start date was ironic…. April 1, 1950. Work began on a new home for him.
Source – Truth, May 21 1950
For six weeks he tended hospital patients and made his rounds, writing scripts with a flourish and charming the ladies with flattery and endearments. The scam only failed when someone mentioned the situation to the genuine Dr Darling in Sydney. The medical board was advised, but when they arrived to investigate the new medico he managed to slip away.
Sofala’s Matron Mansfield was as shocked as the rest of the community, stating; ‘It’s hard to realise that he is really sought by police. His manner was like any other doctor’s. The patients liked him; he seemed to inspire confidence,‘ (Daily Telegraph, May 28 1950)
The remarkable thing is that ‘Dr Darling’ was in Wattle Flat to spend his final years with one of his daughters. It seems she was his legitimate first born, Mary Ellen ‘Nellie’ Chadwick. The image below is a police report from 1893 and as far as I can determine Charles Ernest Chadwick was our impostor’s real name.
Note that his occupation was given as ‘dispenser’ , which suggests that he did have some medical knowledge.
Chadwick had married Nellie’s mother Frances at Windsor, NSW in 1889. Nellie was born three years later. She was only six years old when Frances divorced Chadwick on the grounds of desertion, stating that she had not heard from him since 1894.
Chadwick V Chadwick – In the divorce Court, Sydney, on Tuesday, 30th August 1898, before his Honor Judge G.B. Simpson the above matter was heard……his Honor granted a decree nisi for the dissolution of the marriage to be made absolute in three months. (Goulburn Evening Post, Sept. 6 1898).
When ‘Dr Darling’ turned up to live with Nellie in 1950 she was 57 years old and married to Arthur Walace. How her errant father tracked her down after so many years is a mystery. And how did he explain the name change from Chadwick to Darling? So many questions.
Naturally the police had questions for Nellie about her father’s whereabouts, and so did the infamous Truth newspaper.
‘Truth on Thursday saw Mrs Nellie Wallace at her residence at Wattle Flat. She said her father had told her the previous Thursday that he proposed to go to Sydney and return the following Monday. However, the doctor had not come back, she said, and she was ‘terribly worried’, because of a telegram she had received. The telegram from Granville (a suburb of Sydney) read; ‘Your father seriously injured in accident on Sunday.‘ The telegram was signed Anne.
Truth asked Mrs Wallace whether the signature was of any significance to her. She said her father had told her he had married twice and that Anne was her stepmother’s name. (Truth, May 21 1950)
Married twice… well that was an understatement! Of course it was all fabrication by a man without conscience.
From Sydney, Charles Chadwick, aka Dr Darling, fled to Brisbane and into the arms of an unsuspecting Bessie O’Leary.
The final twist is this bizarre story is how Chadwick came to choose his final alias of Walter Thomas Porriott. Well, Nellie’s first marriage had ended in tragedy. On August 10 1936 her husband was killed in truck accident at Katoomba, in the NSW Blue Mountains. And what was his name? WALTER THOMAS PORRIOTT. A more insensitive betrayal of a daughter would be difficult to imagine. We can only imagine what she made of it all. Nellie died in 1960.
When Bessie died in 1957 her family could not bear to have her ‘husband’s’ name engraved on her grave, hence the odd wording on the stone in Toowong Cemetery. Unfortunately, nothing can change the fact that the wretched man’s body will lie beside her forever.
Source – Find a Grave
Bessie O’Leary’s grave (Source – Find a Grave)
FOR MORE ON THE CAREER OF IMPOSTER CHADWICK AKA DR DARLING, CLICK HERE.
