THE TICHBORNE CASE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1921, Page 5

THE TICHBORNE CASE.

A FASCINATING TRIAL, Exactly fifty years ago (writes a London correspondent under date May 12) the most amazing and fascinating trial in legal annals coin Tn eneed, when the Claimant appeared at Westminster Hall—the Law Courts were not then completed—-io sustain his allegation that he was the rightful heir to the great Tichborne estates in Hampshire and London. Claiming to be the Roger Tichborne, son of “old Sir Roger,” he told a marvellous story how he had sailed away in the good ship Bella, been the sole survivor after a wreck, and eventually settled down in the little Australian township of Wagga Wagga. For twenty years the Dowager Lady Tichborne had been persistently advertising for her lost son, her announcements appearing in all the chief newspapers of the world. The first trial, as action to dispossess Sir Joseph Tichborne from the estates, lasted 108 days. It made the reputation of Sir Henry—then plain Mr. —Hawkins, who shattered the Claimant’s ease. This was followed by his arrest, trial for perjury and forgery, and, after a protracted trial, he was sentenced to the maximum sentence of fourteen years. In prison he was always addressed by the warders as “Sir Roger,” and was quiet and well-behaved. After he was liberated he was “exhibited” by Charles Moritt, the “illusionist,” of the old Egyptian Hall, and paid a salary of £5O weekly. This he spent with reckless extravagance that he complacently claimed was a “mark of the Tichborne in him.” After hoaxing two Sunday journals, he died in utter poverty, and was buried in Paddington Cemetery.