A BOGUS DOCTOR

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1932, Page 3

A BOGUS DOCTOR

BIGAMOUS MARRIAGE.

HAD TO BE EXTRADITED,

LONDON, May 7

An unqualified man’s pose as a doctor and liis appointment as assistant medical officer-at Bristol City Menta. Hospital were among the disclosures which surprised a crowded court at Bristol.

Extradited from Singapore to answer a charge of bigamy, William Faulkner, alias Norman Nelson Jvirkup, was also charged with posing as a Bachelor of Medicine and with false iy using the title of Dr Kirkup, He was defended by M. F. C. Counsel], and Mr R. L. Gosling prosecuted. he pleaded guilty to the first two charges.

Mr Gosling said Faulkner, when at Exeter, met Miss Court, daughter of a retired farmer, near Bristol. He became engaged to Miss Court and told the family that lie had obtained a post as assistant medical officer at Biisto. City Mental Hospital.

Dr Edward White,, medical superintendent of Bristol City Mental Hospital, said that “Kirkup’s” duties included prescribing for and examining patients. “He sometimes gave anaesthetics for the dental surgeon,” said Dr White, “and I believe he assisted in post-mortem examinations, although he did not sign any death certificates. His work was satisfactory.”

The Bench fined him £‘2o on each or the two summonses to which he had pleaded guilty, and the charge of bigamy was then heard. Mrs Katherine Edith Glass, of City Road, London, E.C., said Faulkner married her daughter in Belfast in 1920. She kept in close touch with him for six years afterwards. Part, of that time he was a carpenter and part of the time an electrical engineer. Mr Court said his daughter was a school teacher at Exeter. He produced a certificate of the marriage, which took place at Clevedon Wesleyan Chapel. Faulkner had obtained a post with a Government Medical Commission sent to '-tudy malaria, and after a honeymoon at Bournemouth,- the couple sailed for North Borneo in November last.

Inspector R. D. Dimster then described his 18,000 mile voyage to Singapore and hack. On the day after his arrival at Flax Bourton Police Station, Faulkner made a statement, thich said he was a medical student •it Toronto in 1914. He served in France with the Canadian Army, and I'tor, after being wounded, was with the R.A..YI.C. as dispenser until the end of the war.