“FOOL’S MONEY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 March 1939, Page 11

“FOOL’S MONEY”

£lOO,OOO SPENT IN FIVE YEARS ENTERTAINING like a prince. AN EXTRAORDINARY CAREER. Glimpses of the extraordinary career of a man who in four years ran through a fortune of £lOO,OOO were afforded in a prosecution at Buckinghamshire Quarter Sessions. He is Charles .-Edgerley, -aged 54, ; timber merchant, of Marlow, Buckinghamshire. For forging a receipt in connection with a deal he was about to transact with another timber merchant, he was sentenced to three months’ hard labour. The receipt, it was said, enabled him to obtain £6 17s 6d. Detective-Sergeant Wright, of High Wycombe, told the Court that Edgerley was “known as a fool with his money.” Originally he worked as a bank clerk in London, but before the war he went into his father’s business in the timber trade at High Wycombe. It was during the war, while engaged on Government contract work, that he became a rich man. According to Edgerley’s own statement, he squandered the whole of the £lOO,OOO he made in four years. During that time he unsuccessfully contested the Maidenhead division of East Berks as a Liberal candidate. He was married, stated Sergeant Wright, but had not seen his wife since 1910. There were two convictions against him, both for false pretences, in 1913 and 1922. Edgerley lived like a prince during his period of prosperity, according to friends who knew him. He made-his money by doing carting work for the War Office on Salisbury Plain. As his fortune increased he moved into a luxurious home beside the Thames at Maidenhead. He employed a staff of servants, furnished it lavishly, and bought several cars. He also took a flat in Park Lane, London, and entertained on a grand scale. He bought racehorses, and went to Society functions. Part of his campaign, while standing as a parliamentary candidate, was to invite about 2000 ex-Servicemen at Maidenhead to a spectacular tea party. Wearing a military overcoat, he led the men in procession through the town. After his fortune ran out Edgerley called on a woman who had advertised for £5OO capital for her business. He told her he could raise ££>oo in ' an hour if she could lend him £6O to show an uncle. She fell for the trick, with the result that Edgerley was caught and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. While in Maidstone Gaol he met Horatio Bottomley, with whom he became very friendly. He later boasted that he smuggled Bottomley’s story of his life out of prison. Edgerley’s first conviction was in 1913, when he became engaged to a girl, persuaded her to give him her jewellery to be valued, and then disappeared with it. One of his old acquaintances declared, “Edgerley would sell you anything—even his shoes or his hat —if he thought he could profit out of it. “He has a great personality, and also a kink which leads him into trouble.” A keen lover of music. Edgerley in his palmy days equipped his Maidenhead home with a fine organ. After completing his last sentence he used to tell his friends how he performed on Sundays on the prison organ.