SAD SCANDAL RECALLED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 12

SAD SCANDAL RECALLED

EX-ARCHDEACON DIES IN ASYLUM STORY OF DEVOTED WIFE A sensational case is recalled by the death in an asylum of Mr. John Wakeford. formerly Archdeacon of Stowe, in the diocese of Lincoln, and from 1893 to 1912 vicar cf St. Margaret’s, Anfield, Liverpool. Mr. Wakeford was found guilty of improper association with an" unknown woman at Peterborough. He asserted that he was guiltless, and his widow said when he died that she would always be convinced of his innocence. Mr. Wakeford, who had two strokes, was admitted to Banning Heath Asylum in March, 1928. He leaves a son, John, and a daughter, Catherine,- who lives with her mother at Biggin Hill. Mr. Wakeford was 70 years of age. The death of the ex-archdeacon brings to a close one of the strongest dramas associated with the Church of England in modern times, and it also reveals a story of wifely devotion. He was deprived of his offices in the Church in 1920 after charges of immorality had been brought against him in the Ecclesiastical Court. The allegation made against. Mr. Wakeford was that on two occasions, in March and in April, 1920, he stayed at the Bull Hotel, Peterborough, with a woman whom lie represented to be his wife. She was described as a woman of twenty-six to thirty years of age. All attempts to find her had failed, and her identity remained a mystery. Witnesses could only vaguely describe her personal appearance and attire. The accused archdeacon denied the allegations, and maintained that the whole proceedings were a conspiracy to hound him out of the Church. The Consistory Court at Lincoln, however, decided that the case was proved against the archdeacon. He appealed and there was a long hearing by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Lord Birkenhead, who was then Lord Chancellor, presided over the court. Lord Hailsham (then Mr. Douglas Hogg) was leading counsel for the Bishop of Lincoln, and Lord Carson (then Sir Edward Carson) defended Archdeacon Wakeford. The appeal was dismissed. The costs involved by the retrial amounted to about £S,OOO. An Action for Libel An action for libel arising out of the proceedings was brought by Mr. Wakeford against Mr. Henry Wright, managing clerk to Messrs. Lee. Bolton and Lee, solicitors to the Bishop of Lincoln. This action the ex-arch-deacon also lost. During the proceedings against Mr. Wakeford and his subsequent appeal there was much conflict of evidence. Eight farmers and horse breeders, who were staying at the Bull Hotei during a horse fair in March, 1920. when Mr. Wakeford was said to have been at the hotel with the mysterious woman, swore that they saw liim there at meals, but he was alone. There remained many who were not satisfied with the finding against him, and Mr. akeford has often spoken of the generous loyalty of many of his friends.

* After the hearing of the unsuccessful appeal, Mr. Wakeford wrote a review of the evidence and the findings. A largely signed petition was sent to the Home Secretary asking for a reopening of the matter, but without avail. At the time of his appeal the public subscribed £3,000 toward Ihe cost. Mr. Wakeford subsequently went on a lecture tour, and spoke, among other places, at the Tivoli Theatre, New Brighton. He also stated his a film entitled "The Mystery of the Wakeford Case.” Mrs. Wakeford was associated with her husband in the film. Pie also paid several visits to Liverpool, calling upon oid friends in his former parish at Anfield and elsewhere. His Wife’s Devotion Mrs. Evelyn Wakeford, who was a daughter of the late Rev. W. Worthington, vicar of North Lew, Devon, never faltered in her belief In her husband’s innocence of the charge of immorality. For seven years after his deprivation of his Church offices she maintained their little home at Polesteeple, Biggin Hill, Kent. For some time she was engaged as a saleswoman at a London business house. 11l January, 1928, her husband’s mental trouble developed, and she had to stay at home with him. There she tried “to keep the wolf from the door” by spinning, paper-flower making, the selling of garden produce, and the breeding of cats aud dogs. When in March, 1.928, Mr. Wakeford had been removed to the Kent County Asylum at Banning Heath, and the penury of the \Yakefords became known, an appeal, signed, among others, by the Bishops of Lichfield Liverpool, Guildford and Plymouth! was made to raise an annuity for Mrs Wakeford, £l,lt>o was raised, and it was invested in her name. £7OO was also raised for her by a Church newspaper and £4OO by a fund opened by Mr. Malcolm Scott. Mrs. Wakeford, in recalling the time of privation, declared: “In spite of the evidence against him I firmly believe John Wakeford, to be innocent, and, whatever the world may say, no woman can live with a man seven years, suffering for him and with him, as I have suffered for and with him. “A Happy Release” The Rev. G. N. Whittingham, a London vicar, who was associated in the administration of flip Wakeford Fund, in an interview, said: “It is a happy release, a very sad end to v very great scandal. I should imagine •that the vast majority of the clergy looked upon him an innocent. The whole thing was disastrous. It is a blessed relief to hear that he is dead.” Ex-Archdeacon Wakeford was educated at the Universities of Durham and London; he was ordayied deacon on June S, ISB4, and priest the following year by the then Bishop of Exeter. watching him slowly lose his reason without finding out the truth.” Five days after her husband's removal to the asylum, Mrs. Wakeford said: “When the accusation of immorality was made against him and his appeal failed, the effect, even then, was to kill him, all except physically. The charge, too, not only involved his position: but was a blow which he felt as much as [ did against the only woman he ever cared for—myself. Mercifully, 1 believe my husband never realised that his reason was going. He went into the asylum diagnosed,as suffering from nervous breakdown.”