Fran Zilio's presentation to the Sydney Passengers

The most recent Sydney Passengers meeting hosted Fran Zilio, who is the Manager, Archives, Library & Australian Polar at the South Australian Museum. 

I met Fran when I contacted the Museum as part of my research into the passing acquaintances of ACD (a plan to write a biography of every person mentioned in his book), seeking Museum records related to ACD's visit to Thomas Bellchambers (I recently posted the article here). Fran was incredibly helpful to me, and we had a flurry of e-mails back and forth.

Furthermore, I was stunned to learn that Fran and her colleagues had recently researched and created a display on Arthur Conan Doyle's visit to Adelaide. How, I wondered, did the Sherlockian world miss out on this? Well, they didn't have to, and I connect Fran with Bill Barnes at the Sydney Passengers who arranged for Fran to deliver a presentation at a meeting of the members, on 28 April 2024.

Virtual meetings of the Sydney Passengers are posted to Youtube, so the great news is that everyone can watch Fran's presentation here (permanent link https://youtu.be/UL25Hav7c-A) :

Fran and colleagues became interested in Doyle via reading about his visit to the Museum of South Australia in a book about the history of that museum:

Adelaide was the first true stop on Doyle's tour of Australia. This map from the ACD Encyclopedia :

The team at the South Australian Museum did an amazing amount of investigation and archival searching to piece together how ACD's time was spent in Adelaide. While Doyle referenced some activities in his memoirs (Wanderings of a Spiritualist), some were fairly non-specific and indirect. Other activities were (understandably) not mentioned at all.

I wanted to highlight an example of the impressive discoveries Fran and her group found. 

Doyle mentioned visiting a winery ; and the team eliminated possibilities, tracked down the visitors book for that year (!) held at the National Museum of Australia, and confirmed it was indeed Penfolds that Doyle visited.

They found that both Doyle and Major Wood were made honorary members of the Adelaide Club, and that this was likely where Doyle had dinner with a group of doctors.

While it is NOT mentioned in Wanderings, Fran and team also discovered that Doyle lunched at Government House with the Governor

What a spectacular presentation, and a wonderful piece of Doylean research !!!!

Upcoming Sotheby's auction of the library of Rodney Swatko

It was recently announced that the library of Rodney Swatko would be auctioned at Sotheby's. The major item that received attention in the news was the manuscript copy of 'The Sign of The Four' - one of Doyle's four Sherlock Holmes novels. See for example this article in the Smithsonian Magazine.

The full auction list has now been posted by Sotheby's; https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/the-library-of-dr-rodney-p-swantko 

Some information on Swatko from the Sotheby's site.

"Rodney Swantko (1940–2022) was born in Indiana and became a specialist in oral and maxillofacial surgery. He conducted his book collecting almost entirely by telephone bidding at major auctions and maintained a low profile in the book world, although he was a generous benefactor to both the Lilly Library at his alma mater, Indiana University, and the Newberry Library, Chicago. While undoubtedly part of the fabric of the book-collecting world, Swantko remained very private about this collection. Many people were familiar with some of what he had, but no one really knew all of what he had."

Let's take a look - it's a small list of exceptional items. It will be interesting to discover whether any of the people who purchase these items allow themself to be known to the public!

The complete autograph manuscript signed three times ("A. Conan Doyle") of The Sign of the Four, the second Sherlock Holmes novel, 1890

What a beauty! The earliest known Sherlock manuscript. I love the inlaid letter where Doyle points out an inconsistency in the story that needs to be repaired ; and another debating on the title between 'The Story of the Sholtos' and 'The SIgn of Four'. The manuscript was handed to Stoddart (editor of Lippincott's who commissioned the story). The first page of the manuscript went missing and Doyle provided a replacement - that first page is now held by the University of California San Diego.

Official description:

161 leaves of ledger-ruled paper (324 x 200 mm), comprising an original covering title-sheet and 160 text leaves, foliated [4], 5–160 in several hands, written on rectos only in brown-black ink in a clear, confident hand with only occasional, and usually minor, autograph revisions, emendations, and deletions, Bush Villa, Southsea, [September 1889], the first text leaf an autograph fair copy supplied by Doyle (see below) with Conan Doyle's card mounted at top and inscribed in his hand "With kind remembrances," verso of leaf 122 with a pencil sketch apparently by Doyle; with additional editorial annotations, mostly in pencil, regularizing the author's punctuation and other incidentals to American conventions and Americanizing British spellings (e.g., cucaine, grey, neighbourhood, coloured, demeanour, endeavoured, harbour, odour, splendour); occasional light finger-soiling and a few short marginal tears at front and rear, supplied fair-copy leaf with clean tear at edge of mounted card, withal in remarkable condition considering the manuscript served as the printer's copytext. Red skiver gilt by Stikeman, marbled endpapers, red edges; extremities quite rubbed, front free endpaper loose.

Accompanied by 4 important autograph letters signed by Conan Doyle ("A. Conan Doyle") to Joseph Marshall Stoddart, editor of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, relating to the composition of The Sign of the Four and its first publication in that periodical: all Bush Villa, Southsea,... the letters all inlaid to size and bound, on guards at the front of the volume with a typographic title-page printed in red and black bound at front and with a mounted albumen photograph portrait of Conan Doyle (145 x 98 mm) serving as frontispiece; the letters, title-page, and photograph all evidently later additions to the binding 

Sidney Paget's original illustration of "The Death of Sherlock Holmes"

Wow. This is a truly iconic Paget illustration of the tussle with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls. This was owned by Adrian Conan Doyle and was part of the 1951 Sherlock exhibition in London. 

"Original pen and ink and wash drawing heightened with white of The Death of Sherlock Holmes (269 x 186 mm), an illustration for the story "The Adventure of the Final Problem," signed and dated lower left "Sidney Paget | 1893," the drawing done on two sections of paper (the lower portion 95 mm height), mounted on board, with a clear but close, even horizontal separation between them, the lower margin evidently bearing a sizing instruction, "5 inche." Matted, framed, and glazed."

 

The Hound of the Baskervilles; perhaps the best-loved crime story

A first edition of Hound of the Baskervilles.

Vincent Starrett | The Unique Hamlet: "one of the rarest pieces of Sherlockiana"

I have to be honest, I don't love pastiches. This early pastiche was produced in a small print run, and is considered to be one of the rarest and most sought-after Sherlockian items. More information on this item at the ACD Encyclopedia.

 

"This early pastiche of a Sherlock Holmes detective story is widely considered one of the preeminent imitations of Arthur Conan Doyle of the many in existence. It follows Holmes as he solves the case of a missing 1602 edition of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Published as a Christmas book in 1920, it was intended to have a print run of 200 copies, half with "For the friends of Vincent Starrett" to the title, and half with "For the friends of Walter M. Hill." However, due to a printing error, only ten copies were printed with the name of the author. Here Starrett has inscribed this scarce copy: "Dear MacKay—Warmest greetings at Christmas! Dec. 1920."

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, a large paper dedication copy of this pinnacle of Sherlockiana

Two copies of 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes'. One of them was one of three copies privately bound by Starrett - absolutely beautiful:

The full page inscription by Starrett as follows: "Before The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes was officially published in October 1933, I was inspired to ask the publisher for three sets of the unbound sheets untrimmed and uncut, intending to have them appropriately bound for three favored Sherlockians of my acquaintance. Nothing, alas, came of this commendable gesture, and the sheets remained in my possession for a quarter of a century, gathering a little dust (I fear) on my shelves. Now, at long last, through the generosity of a friend, I have been enabled to fulfill my original intention. This, then, is one of three (only) large paper copies of The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, especially bound for the author (aet. 72) in February 1959. This first copy is signed in friendship for Lloyd Springer, for whom the game is always afoot. Vincent Starrett".

 

The Company Canon

I recently got hold of a (complete) set of seven Sherlock Holmes publications titled the 'The Company Canon' published by the Franco-Midland Hardware Company. Each of these books contains a single Sherlock Holmes story, with annotations created by Philip Weller. All seven books were published in 1994 and 1995, are spiral-bound, and each has a differently-colored card cover. They are quite attractive, but what I was not prepared for based on the photos I'd seen is how small they are (4 inches by 6 inches) - see the standard-sized iPhone placed next to the seven books to give a sense of scale!

 

The seven stories that were annotated are (not in order, which I cannot determine):

• The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb (236 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Devil's Foot (123 annotations)
• The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (127 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Dancing Men (212 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk (301 annotations)
• The Problem of Thor Bridge (138 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Empty House (191 annotations)

The various newsletters of the FMHC I own do not really provide any articles with a context for the creation of the series. There are brief pieces stating 'Company Canon' issues are available for sale, but I can't find any announcement of the series. The books do have a 'General Introduction' :

"The Company Canon is a collection of singular case Holmesian texts, produced in a convenient working format for scholars by The Franco-Midland Hardware Company, The International Sherlock Holmes Study Group. The basic texts used are those of The Strand Magazine, this having been the form in which the majority of the cases were first published. Variations between those texts and other important editions of the Holmesian Canon are noted, including the manuscript version, if available, and the datings assigned by the major Holmesian chronologists are listed. Space is provided for the inclusion of additional annotations.

The cover displays the crest of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, and the Contents are listed. I'm showing Engineer's Thumb as an example. The story is not short, and the Contents show the story occupies about 33 pages,. The annotations occupy about 20 pages. Some annotations relate to differences in formatting between editions, while others provide historical context, geographical context, or meanings. Weller encouraged textual study and in these volumes he provided a 'Additional Annotations' section to allow the owner to jot down other annotations (see my post on his Geographica Baskervillia for another example of this approach). Finally, the inside of the back cover provides the dates determined by eleven Sherlockian chronologies - very handy indeed.

It's a shame (as always) that the series from Weller wasn't continued beyond these seven editions, but they provide a useful complement to the Baring-Gould and both Klinger annotations, among others. They also look great!!

As a side-note, this is not the only annotation of a Conan Doyle story published by Weller. Doyle's story 'The Winning Shot' was also published in 1995 by 'Sherlock Publications. This publication contains further detailed analysis of the story including discussion of the Dartmoor connection and maps of the area.

The Baker Street Cinematograph

I purchased a copy of David Stuart Davies book 'Holmes of the Movies" published in 1977. 

That's not much of a blog post on it's own, but one of my 'favorite things' is finding an item inlaid into a book. In this case, I found a single sheet of paper printed. on both sides, and dated 1977 (the same year the book was published). The document was created by Jon Lellenberg for the National Film Society in Washington, D.C., for 5 November 1977. The document concludes with a description of the Baker Street Cinematograph, a Sherlockian group I've not heard of. 

Given the topic, author, and timing, I feel this is worth transcribing and sharing - though I should say the single-sentence review of the DSD book is fairly brutal !!

What do you think of Lellenberg's list?

THE FILM MYSTIQUE OF MR, SHERLOCK HOLMES

Jon L. Lellenberg, National Film Society, Washington, D.C., November 5, 1977

Filmbooks

• Michael Pointer, The Sherlock Holmes File, Clarkson, N. Potter Inc., 1975. Highly recommended ; worth its price as a portrait gallery alone.
• Robert Pohle & Douglas Hart, Sherlock Holmes on the Screen, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1977. A first-rate survey of Sherlock Holmes films.
• David Stuart Davies, Holmes of the Movies, Clarkson, N. Potter Inc., 1977. Very superficial and error-ridden account of the subject.
• Ron Haydock, Deerstalker, Scarecrow Press, forthcoming 1978. Bibliographical survey of Holmes on film and television, of unknown quality.
• Chris Steinbrunner, The Cinema of Sherlock Holmes, Citadel Press, forthcoming 1978. A recommended study of Sherlock Holmes films.

Landmarks of Sherlock Holmes Films

1. SHERLOCK HOLMES BAFFLED, unknown cast. 1900, American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (US). The earliest known Sherlock Holmes film.

2. THE SPECKLED BAND, Georges Treville, 1912, Franco-British Film Company (US/Fr). First of a series of eight, Sherlock Holmes films became a big business at this time.

3. A STUDY IN SCARLET, James Bragington. 1914, Samuelson Film Mfg. Co. (UK). The first feature Sherlock Holmes Film. Followed by H.A. Saintsbury in The Valley of Fear (1916), the first time Holmes was portrayed on film by a first-rank actor.

4. SHERLOCK HOLMES, William Gillette. 1916, Essanay (US). The film version of the great stage play, starring the actor who molded the public image of Sherlock Holmes.

5. SHERLOCK HOLMES, John Barrymore. 1922, Goldwyn Pictures (US). Gustav von Seyffertitiz (Moriarty), Roland Young (Watson). The first Holmes film made on an "A" budget.

6. THE SIGN OF FOUR, Eille Norwood. 1923, Stoll Pictures Productions (UK). The culmination of a series of forty-seven Holmes films, the first to update Holmes into contemporary times.

7. THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Clive Brook. 1929, Paramount (US). The first Holmes film in sound, made the same year as the last silent Holmes film. Followed by Brook in Sherlock Holmes (Fox, 1932), with Ernest Torrance as Moriarty.

8. THE SPECKLED BAND, Raymond Massay. 1931, British & Dominion Studios (UK). Lyn Harding (Grimesby Rylott). Photgrapher by Freddie Young. The first British Holmes film in sound, the film version of the stage play.

9. THE SLEEPING CARDINAL, Arthur Wontner. 1931, Twickenham Film Studios (UK). Wontner is perhaps the best Sherlock Holmes on film. Followed by The Missing Rembrandt (1932), The Sign of Four (1932), The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935), and Silver Blaze (1937). 

10. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Basil Rathbone. 1939, Twentieth Century Fox (US). Nigel Bruce (Watson). The most famous Sherlock Holmes on film, in a splendid return to period format. Followed by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and the series of twelve Universal films (1942-1946).

11. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Peter Cushing. 1959, Hammer Films (UK). Andre Morrell (Watson), Christopher Lee (Sir Henry). The first Sherlock Holmes film in color. Cushing would later star as Holmes in a BBC television series in the late 1960s.

12. A STUDY IN TERROR, John Neville. 1965, Compton-Cameo Films (UK). Donald Houstin (Watson), Robert Morley (Mycroft Holmes). The last major Holmes film to be made for the sake of the adventure.

13. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Robert Stephens. 1970, Mirisch Productions (US/UK). Colin Blakeley (Watson), Christopher Lee (Mycroft Holmes). Directed by Billy Wilder. The first film to tamper with Holmes's image, the release version is only two-thirds of the completed film.

14. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, George C. Scott. 1971, Universal (US). Joanne Woodward (Watson). A film about the desire to be Sherlock Holmes, rather than about Holmes himself.

15. THE SEVEN-PERCENT SOLUTION, Nicol Williamson. 1976, Universal (US). Robert Duvall (Watson), Laurence Olivier (Moriarty), Alan Arkin (Sigmund Freud). The film version of the bestselling novel.

Forthcoming: LIMEHOUSE (based upon The Return of Moriarty by John Gardner) with Donald Sutherland; THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (the tenth film version!) with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ; SHERLOCK HOLMES AND SAUCY JACK. 

Holmes on Television

The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes on television was in 1937, in a U.S. live broadcast of The Three Garridebs ; the first series began in 1951 with Alan Wheatley, on BBC in Great Britain. Since that time Holmes has been played on television by Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Ronald Howard, Douglas Wilmer, Peter Cushing, John Cleese, Christopher Plummer, and others. The first feature Sherlock Holmes film made for television appeared in 1972, The Hound of the Baskervilles with Stewart Granger ; followed in 1976 by The Return of the World's Greatest Detective with Larry Hagman, and Sherlock Holmes in New York with Roger Moore as Holmes and John Huston as Moriarty. There will be more.

The Baker Street Cinematograph

is an organization established to perform four functions in the area of Sherlock Holmes films: (1) to assist in the preservation of rare Holmes films threatened with destruction due to age and neglect ; (2) to collect and preserve related filmic materials for research and scholarly purposes ; (3) to assist in making Holmes films available for viewing by Sherlockians and scion societies of the Baker Street Irregulars ; and (4) to sponsor an annual showing of rare Sherlock Holmes films during the Baker Street Irregulars weekend in New York every January. For information write to Richard L. Katz, The American Film Institute, 501 North Doheny Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068, or Chris Steinbrunner, WOR-TV, 1440 Broadway, New York, NY 10018. 

The first year of the blog - reviewed

Well, it's been ONE YEAR since the first post on my Sherlockian blog (221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/05/hello.html). At the time I knew it was a little risky to start a blog that awkwardly sat around without posts, and I've tried to keep a good level of activity. Looking at my blog activity, I see I've made 60 posts in 12 months! Some of these posts were short notes or observations, others were drafts of Sherlockian articles I was working on. These article drafts are useful for me to post because they are usually longer than the edited-for-space-or-readability article that is ultimately published. Perhaps best of all I find that ideas I post on the blog are 'markers' I can return to when thinking about concepts to develop into an article or talk.

Looking at my first post on the blog, these were the topics I planned to post on:

1. Posts on Sherlockian books, new and old - including tracing original owners.

2. Books published by the 'Baker Street Irregulars' (because I'm trying to collect all BSI publications)

3. I hope to interview people. This hasn't really eventuated.

4. Report on new Sherlockian publications or events I attend.

Point 3 never really took off because I discovered other blogs already doing interviews in a way that was far better than anything I'd thought of. I did recently interview someone for an article I'm writing and I do have a list of people. I'd like to speak to on specific topics.

What has been 'popular'? Here are the five most viewed blog posts.

1. March 2024: The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library
Most visited, and one of my most recent posts. Describes my visit to the collection while in Toronto, with highlights from the collection including a Beeton's first edition. 

2. August 2023: The Sherlockian podcast world
This could do with a companion piece on Sherlock drama/pastiche postcast series.

3. June 2023: Sherlockian glimpses in London
This is a compilation of sites I visited in London related to the world of Sherlock. I'd like to do the same thing for the Doylean world on a future visit to London.

4. May 2023: Why Does Glen Miranker Collect Books?
This is actually the first post (after the introductory post) that I made. I recorded Glen's presentation to the Red Circle, and continue to record and post scion presentations.

5. September 2023: My fascination with Calabash Press
This fits into the 'book collecting' category - I've been collecting every book published by Calabash press. More importantly, this post lists all books published by Calabash Press.

I've also reflected on my personal favorite posts: 

1. The dancing miners and their photographer
A blog post studying one of the first Sherlockian photographs - taken in Australia - and identifying the location and photographer.

2. Donald Girard Jewell’s Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series
Describing Jewelll's book series that I'd finally managed to bring together.

3. A book is more than just a book. Gisela Susanne Seligmann (1929-?)
Where I identify the backstory of the owner of a cope of The White Company.

4. Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies by Frances Griffiths

A book review, with backstory on the ACD connection to the Cottingley Fairies.

5. Mrs. Hudson and the Return of Sherlock Holmes

A filming (by me) of a wonderful performance of a new short play written by Ray Betzner and performed at the 2024 William Gillette luncheon.

So there it is. Just like ACD"s list of his twelve best stories, it's true that my favorite posts are a little different from those that are widely read. I'm incredibly thankful that ANYONE reads these posts, and I'm also satisfied that I've managed to continue posting. I don't think I expected to post on Scion meetings as much as I have - and writing these reviews and linking them to presentation recordings is a nice way of capturing the context for these recorded presentations.

My current priority is to write a set of Sherlockian articles I've sketched out, and I'll be posting drafts of these articles in the next few months. 

Conclusion: this blog was totally worth it! 

Some new books (including from Curtis Armstrong)

It's been a while since I shared some new books on the blog. I have to be honest: I'm not amazing and finding and judging books based on their rarity and quality and value. I have a list of books I'm looking for that is not long, and are mainly obscure things that are 'rare but not valuable' because I really want to read them. And then I keep an eye out for Granada-related publications, BSI publications, and British Sherlockian society publications.

Apart from that, what I look for are things that catch my fancy - because they are pretty, or because they have an owner's inscription that I'd like to trace to learn more about the owner (my favorite hobby).

Here are some examples of books I managed to get hold of recently, and why I purchased them. Three of these things were purchased as part of Type Punch Matrix, a book dealer that acquired the collection of Curtis Armstrong and have been releasing the books in batches - with the last batch being released a week or two ago. 

First is a copy of Through The Magic Door, a conversational book where Arthur Conan Doyle shares his favorite writings. The books os not a first edition, but came with a dust jacket split into two parts at a crease. What I really like is the bookplate inside the cover, signed by Curtis Armstrong.

London: Thomas Nelson. 7.25’’ x 4.75’’. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered spine. In original dust jacket with photographic paste-on to front panel. 256 pages. From the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong, with his signed bookplate to front free endpapers. Jacket in two parts, split along front joint, with about 1/3 of spine lacking, moderate wear andsoil. Book with light edgewear and bumping. Very good plus in good jacket.

Next is a set of the first six issues of the Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society.  I'd really like to own a set of this journal - the articles are wonderful and there aren't too many collections of Doylean articles. I keep an eye out for these issues - but don't see them too oftem.

Chester: The Arthur Conan Doyle Society. 8.25’’ x 5.75’’ each. Original pictorial wrappers. Ranging between 80and232pages.Thoughnoprovenancemarkings, from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Moderate soil to wrappers (a bit heavier to Vol. 3, with crease to front wrapper). Interiors clean. Overall very good.

Third from this purchase was GRANADA COMPANION NUMBER ONE: A Sherlock Holmes Album. This one was a bit of a gamble. It was produced with Granada as an overview of the series to date. What I was hoping to find were some behind-the-scenes photographs - especially information about the Baker Street File. No luck there - you can see the contents of the magazine in this video from the Jeremy Brett podcast guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZUvy2yZlI .

London: Karizzma. 12.75’’ x 9.25’’. Original saddle-stapled color pictorial wrappers. 40 pages. Though no provenance markings, this copy from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Light bumping, edgewear. Very good plus. 

This isn't part of the above purchase, but one I picked up on eBay. It definitely fits into the 'pretty' category for searching. I love this dust jacket.

Tales of Sherlock Holmes. Published by New York: Grosset & Dunlap, New York. Early 1940s.

Thomas P Bellchambers - new article in the Passenger's Log

I was pleased to receive the latest issue of the Passenger's Log, the journal of the Sydney Passengers. It contains my second article on the people ACD met in Australia, the first being on Victor Cromer (https://221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/08/plans-for-articles-on-wanderings-of.html).

This second article is on Thomas P. Bellchambers. I'm slightly embarrassed to say this article in 7 pages long, but it was an absolute delight to write. Thomas P. Bellchambers was an intriguing man who marched to the beat of his own drum. He lived in the Australian bush, protecting animals, communing with nature, and making a modest living for his family. One reason this was enjoyable to research and write is that Doyle's visit to Bellchambers resulted in multiple articles providing different perspectives, and there are some wonderful articles about Thomas, and by him, in Adelaide newspapers. I sourced a book that compiled articles written by Thomas (I have another to find), and was very happy to find a published biography of T P written by his descendants. Best of all, I made a connection with Fran Zilio at the Museum of South Australia as a result of my searches, that led to an enjoyable correspondence.

My article draft was so long that it required some editing. In the blog post I'm posting the original draft prior to some much needed editing by Erin at the Passenger's Log that led to the final improved polished article. Everyone should consider joining the Sydney Passengers - it comes with this wonderful journal: http://www.sherlock.on.net/Membership.html 

I recognize that creating biographies of people ACD met in Australia is niche, but I'm pleased to find that I'm shining a light on some intriguing personalities who may not have received attention in decades.

The Passing Acquaintances of Arthur Conan Doyle - Part 2: Thomas P. Bellchambers

Matthew D. Hall

During his tour of Australia and New Zealand, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle interacted with many people, and spoke to tens of thousands in his audiences. Yet ACD’s book describing the tour, ’The Wanderings of a Spiritualist’, mentions relatively few people by name. This article is the second in a series that shines a light on those people ACD mentions by name on his visit. Why did ACD choose to mention those that he did? Who were these Australians? The biosketches presented aim to address these questions, and point to more detailed resources. 

The second individual mentioned is Thomas Paine Bellchambers (page 68, see Note 1), and he receives a significant amount of attention. What is immediately striking is that ACD sought out a meeting with Bellchambers while in Adelaide, specifically to discover whether someone “who was so near nature might know something of nature's more occult secrets”. ACD outlines the meeting in some detail in his book:

There was one man whom I had particularly determined to meet when I came to Australia. This was Mr. T. P. Bellchambers, about whom I had read an article in some magazine which showed that he was a sort of humble Jeffries or Thoreau, more lonely than the former, less learned than the latter, who lived among the wild creatures in the back country, and was on such terms with our humble brothers as few men are ever privileged to attain. I had read how the eagle with the broken wing had come to him for succour, and how little birds would sit on the edge of his pannikin while he drank. Him at all cost would we see. Like the proverbial prophet, no one I met had ever heard of him, but on the third day of our residence there came a journalist bearing with him a rudely dressed, tangle-haired man, collarless and unkempt, with kind, irregular features and clear blue eyes— the eyes of a child. It was the man himself. "He brought me," said he, nodding towards the journalist. "He had to, for I always get bushed in a town."

This rude figure fingering his frayed cap was clearly out of his true picture, and we should have to visit him in his own little clearing to see him as he really was. Meanwhile I wondered whether one who was so near nature might know something of nature's more occult secrets. The dialogue ran like this:

"You who are so near nature must have psychic experiences."

"What's psychic? I live so much in the wild that I don't know much."

"I expect you know plenty we don't know. But I meant spiritual."

"Supernatural? "

"Well, we think it is natural, but little understood."

"You mean fairies and things? "

"Yes, and the dead."

"Well, I guess our fairies would be black fairies."

"Why not? "

"Well, I never saw any."

"I hoped you might."

"No, but I know one thing. The night my mother died I woke to find her hand upon my brow. Oh, there's no doubt. Her hand was heavy on my brow."

"At the time?"

"Yes, at the very hour."

"Well, that was good."

"Animals know more about such things.' '

"Yes."

"They see something. My dog gets terrified when I see nothing, and there's a place in the bush where my horse shies and sweats, he does, but there's nothing to see."

"Something evil has been done there. I've known many cases."

"I expect that's it."

So ran our dialogue. At the end of it he took a cigar, lighted it at the wrong end, and took himself with his strong simple backwoods atmosphere out of the room. Assuredly I must follow him to the wilds.

This, then, is ACD's first meeting with Bellchambers, presumably at the Grand Central Hotel in Adelaide. ACD then moves on to describe his first lecture in Adelaide, and other activities in Adelaide. A few pages later in Wanderings, ACD returns to Bellchambers, and reveals that he repaid the meeting and did 'visit him in his own little clearing', spending a day with Bellchambers at his nature sanctuary, and providing some insight into the life of Bellchambers.

"I refreshed myself between lectures by going out to Nature and to Bellchambers. As it was twenty-five miles out in the bush, inaccessible by rail, and only to be approached by motor roads which were in parts like the bed of a torrent, I could not take my wife, though the boys, after the nature of boys, enjoy a journey the more for its roughness. It was a day to remember. I saw lovely South Australia in the full beauty of the spring, the budding girlhood of the year, with all her winsome growing graces upon her. The brilliant yellow wattle was just fading upon the trees, but the sward was covered with star-shaped purple flowers of the knot-grass, and with familiar home flowers, each subtly altered by their transportation. It was wild bush for part of the way, but mostly of the second growth on account of forest fires as much as the woodman's axe. Bellchambers came in to guide us, for there is no one to ask upon these desolate tracks, and it is easy to get bushed. Mr. Waite, the very capable zoologist of the museum, joined the party, and with two such men the conversation soon got to that high nature talk which represents the really permanent things of material life—more lasting than thrones and dynasties. I learned of the strange storks, the "native companions" who meet, 500 at a time, for their stately balls, where in the hush of the bush they advance, retreat, and pirouette in their dignified minuets. I heard of the bower birds, who decorate their homes with devices of glass and pebbles. There was talk, too, of the little red beetles who have such cunning ways that they can fertilise the insectivorous plants without being eaten, and of the great ants who get through galvanised iron by the aid of some acid-squirting insect which they bring with them to the scene of their assault. I heard also of the shark's egg which Mr. Waite had raped from sixty feet deep in Sydney Harbour, descending for the purpose in a diver's suit, for which I raised my hat to him. Deep things came also from Bellchambers' store of knowledge and little glimpses of beautiful humanity from this true gentleman.

"Yes," he said, "I am mostly vegetarian. You see, I know the beasts too well to bring myself to pick their bones. Yes, I'm friends with most of them. Birds have more sense than animals to my mind. They understand you like. They know what you mean. Snakes have least of any. They don't get friendly-like in the same way. But Nature helps the snakes in queer ways. Some of them hatch their own eggs, and when they do Nature raises the temperature of their bodies. That's queer."

I carried away a mixed memory of the things I had seen. A blue-headed wren, an eagle soaring in the distance; a hideous lizard with a huge open mouth; a laughing jackass which refused to laugh; many more or less tame wallabies and kangaroos; a dear little 'possum which got under the back of my coat, and would not come out; noisy mynah birds which fly ahead and warn the game against the hunter. Good little noisy mynah! All my sympathies are with you! I would do the same if I could. This senseless lust for killing is a disgrace to the race. We, of England, cannot preach, for a pheasant battue is about the worst example of it. But do let the creatures alone unless they are surely noxious! When Mr. Bellchambers told us how he had trained two ibises—the old religious variety—and how both had been picked off by some unknown local "sportsman" it made one sad.

We had a touch of comedy, however, when Mr. Bellchambers attempted to expose the egg of the Mallee fowl, which is covered a foot deep in mould. He scraped into the mound with his hands. The cock watched him with an expression which clearly said: "Confound the fellow! What is he up to now?" He then got on the mound, and as quickly as Bellchambers shovelled the earth out he kicked it back again, Bellchambers in his good-humoured way crying "Get along with you, do!" A good husband is the Mallee cock, and looks after the family interests. But what we humans would think if we were born deep underground and had to begin our career by digging our way to the surface, is beyond imagination.

There are quite a clan of Bellchambers living in or near the little pioneer's hut built in a clearing of the bush. Mrs. Bellchambers is of Sussex, as is her husband, and when they heard that we were fresh from Sussex also it was wonderful to see the eager look that came upon their faces, while the bush-born children could scarce understand what it was that shook the solid old folk to their marrow. On the walls were old prints of the Devil's Dyke and Firle Beacon. How strange that old Sussex should be wearing out its very life in its care for the fauna of young Australia. This remarkable man is unpaid with only his scanty holding upon which to depend, and many dumb mouths dependent upon him. I shall rejoice if my efforts in the local press serve to put his affairs upon a more worthy foundation, and to make South Australia realise what a valuable instrument lies to her hand.

Thomas Paine Bellchambers (1858-1929) was a naturalist of  local repute in South Australia, who received significant press attention in Australia and in international publications. Today we might refer to Bellchambers as a prominent 'citizen conservationist' who was driven to protect Australia's unique fauna and flora. It is surprising that T.P. Bellchambers does not have an entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, but a biography was published by a descendant (Note 2), and there are first-hand accounts of Bellchambers' life and motivations in two books that gathered published articles - the first published in 1918, and the second in 1931 following his death (Note 3 and 4). There are also newspaper interviews that provide supporting information. Bellchambers' books are solidly focused on Australia's fauna and flora, and do not mention ACD. 

Figure 1. Portrait photograph from 'A Nature Lovers Notebook' (Note 4).

Bellchambers was born in Walworth, Surrey (south London) in 1858, the son of Naomi nee COLLINS and George Thomas BELLCHAMBERS (married in Surrey UK 1855). Thomas' parents appear to have been primarily based in or near Brighton where the family were in the 1861 census: Thomas' father was listed as a 'journeyman tailor'. His father died in 1871 (the family still in Brighton), and the family evidently were in financial difficulty. Like so many others, Thomas emigrated to Australia, sailing with a friend on the 'Lightning' for Adelaide in 1876. The four-month journey on the 'Lightning' provided a tumultuous end, as Thomas' reminiscence years later relates:

"JULY, 1876 found my mate and me in Adelaide looking for a job. We were straight from a stranded vessel in the Gulf. We had a drunken captain, and lively and exciting had been the experiences of the last few days. We were strangers in a strange land and when my mate told me of the work on a road contract he had acquired, we decided to stick together." (Note 5).

Bellchambers became fascinated with the Australian wilderness during his work in the districts around Adelaide, exemplified by an early prize for his entry in the 'drawing from nature' section of the Crystal Brook Exhibition in 1884 (Note 6). He was joined by a brother in 1880 (who died shortly afterwards), and his widowed mother and remaining brother and sister joined him in 1884. Arriving with Bellchambers' mother was 'a girl his mother had adopted' named Eliza HARMER, and they were married in 1887: 

"BELLCHAMBERS—HARMER.—On the 5th November, at Mannum, by the Rev. W. R. Milne, Thomas Paine, second son of the late T. G. Bellchambers, to Eliza, third daughter of Thomas Harmer, both of Brighton, England." (Note 7). 

The Bellchambers family lived and made a living from the great Murray River, before settling in Humbug Forest (subsequently named Humbug Scrub) about 50 km northeast of Adelaide.

By 1905 the 'Humbug Scrub Sanctuary' had been established, centered around Bellchambers' goal 'to teach Young Australia to love God's creatures, who all have a place in His great scheme'. Interviews and articles indicate that this mission arose from a love for Australia's wildlife, and concern for environmental damage that were well before his time, including the introduction of foreign species (fox and rabbit), shooting and trapping ("that wantonly pulls the trigger on any living thing, nothing being sacred"), and land clearance. At the Sanctuary, Bellchambers rehabilitated wounded animals and birds, and through years of careful observation and experimentation he became the first person to successfully breed the Mallee fowl in captivity. Bellchambers churned out articles and letters published in newspapers, gave educational lectures, and hosted visitors to the Sanctuary. His income appears to have been derived from providing animals to zoos - either bred in captivity or caught in the wild ("You would hardly think of him catching and grappling the deadly tiger-snake.... but he will catch you one and send one to a zoo for a Ten Shilling Treasury Note"), and a committee of prominent South Australians formed a committee to help him financially. 

In 1918 Bellchambers published a collection of articles originally published in 'The Saturday Journal' aimed at young people, titled 'Nature: Our Mother', and the book was placed in every school library in South Australia. ACD's visit to the sanctuary was covered by reporters (see below), and publication of Conan Doyle's Wanderings furthered Bellchambers' international audience. Remarkably, in 1925 Bellchambers gifted a breeding pair of mallee fowl to the King, and these were placed in the London Zoo (Note 8). Bellchambers also formed the Nature Lovers' League of South Australia in the same year. Bellchambers was respected for his scientific observations and work, and regularly appeared in newspaper articles. His death at home on 18th July 1929 aged 72 resulted in multiple obituaries and letters to newspapers lamenting his death. His wish that he be buried at Humbug Scrub was granted, and his grave remains at the sanctuary and can be visited to this day (Figure 2). The 'roughness' of ACDs trip to the sanctuary had not improved in the decade since he visited, and at a rainy funeral "the roads were so bad that many arrived when the service was over. One car had to be left three miles from the house, and the occupants tramped through the mud to the burial place" (Note 9). Bellchambers had a large family, with four daughters and five sons alive at his death, and the family continue to operate the sanctuary. 

Figure 2. Grave of Thomas Paine Bellchamber (1857 - 1927) and his wife Eliza Mary Harmer (1887 - 1930), at the Humbug Scrub sanctuary that he founded. Source of photo: playfordspast.recollect.net.au .

What was the "article in some magazine" that inspired ACD to seek out T.P. Bellchambers? While ACD is a little vague, the journalist Rufus' (Ernest Whitington (1873-1934), Note 10) accompanied ACD on the trip to Humbug Scrub and published an article on the visit in 'The Journal' (Note 11). Whitington comments that that "When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called on the Editor of The Observer he mentioned that there was one man in Australia he wanted to meet, and that was Mr. T.P. Bellchambers, whose nature work he had become deeply interested in through reading an article in My Magazine by his old friend, Arthur Mee" (Note 12). Passenger Mark Jones in the UK was kind enough to visit the British Library to inspect the indexes of 'My Magazine', and identified that the article in question was published in the July 1920 issue, just months prior to the Conan Doyle family departure for Australia. Possibly the magazine was one ACD's son had read, or the issue was laying about on the long journey to Australia by ship.

Figure 3. The opening pages of the article in 'My Magazine' on T.P. Bellchambers that ACD read. Photograph by Passenger Mark Jones.

The trip ACD took to visit the sanctuary was something of an event, and his enquiry led to a party of three cars accompanying ACD. Based on the available articles those on the trip from Adelaide included:

• ACD and his sons Adrian and Denis

• Mr. Edgar Ravenswood Waite, Director of the Museum of South Australia

• Evan Kyffin Thomas and wife Mary, General Manager of the family-owned Register newspaper

• Ernest Whitington, journalist (nom de plume ‘Rufus')

• W. Sidney Smith, press photographer

• Dr. W. Munro Anderson (a guest Mr. Smith visiting from Japan)

• Carlyle Smith, ACD's agent for the tour who accompanied the Doyle family

• Major Alfred Wood, ACD's private secretary who accompanied the Doyle family

Rufus 'exclusive' coverage of the party's visit to Humbug in 'The Register' (Note 11) that was accompanied by the photographs in Figure 4 (likely taken by press photographer W. Sidney Smith). The article provides a lively perspective on the trip and the banter between ACD and Bellchambers, and the charming insight that the orphaned juvenile possum held by ACD when it "crawled on his shoulders, got inside his coat, and eventually found a resting place in the great literary man's pocket". 

Rufus (Whitington) revisited the event in July 1930 in the Observer when marking the death of ACD (Note 13), and noted that "Sir Arthur asked me what I thought was the best way in which he might help the keeper of the sanctuary. I asked him to write an article for The Register telling of his visit to Humbug Scrub. He consented, and although tired by the long day's trip, he sat down at night and wrote an article which he handed me at the Grand Central Hotel. Conan Doyle's closely-written six pages of copy were penned without a correction." This article by Conan Doyle was first published in The Register on the 1st of October 1920, and is reproduced below (Note 14).

Figure 4. Left: A full page of photographs in The Observer on Saturday 9 October 1920 covering ACD's visit to Bellchambers' sanctuary, accompanying an account of the visit by ACD elsewhere in the same edition. It is likely all the photographs were taken on the visit (see comments regarding photographer in this article). Right: Only one of the eleven photographs in the spread is of ACD, captioned "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with a "joey" possum" (Note 15).

Figure 5.  Photographs of "Sir Conan Doyle" at Humbug Scrub. Left: holding the possum. Right: ACD at center, with his private secretary Major Alfred H. Wood at right. Source: South Australian Museum Waite Collection AA 356.

The Verities of Nature.

[Written for The Register by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.]

Before ever I reached Australia there was one man whom I had made up my mind to see. This was Mr. Bellchambers. I had read an account of him in some English magazine, and I knew him to be one of those men who were very close to Nature, who loved her as their mother, and who found in her communion a treasure which no worldly success could equal. Now I have not only met him, but I have seen his little domain out in the Humbug Scrub (is it too late to alter the name of that unlucky tract of country!) I will not easily forget my day.

Bellchambers is a mixture of the New Forest Brusher (see Note 16), a famous character whom I knew in my youth, who lived and died in a bark hut in the forest, and Thoreau, the American philosopher. He is half-way between those points — more refined than the first, less literary than the second. He is a kind-eyed, -unkempt man in the fifties, with no thought of appearances, but with the look and the voice which bespeak the gentle soul within. There is the real gentleman — that much-abused word; the man too gentle to be harsh to living creature, or to take pleasure in slaughter.

"Yes, I am mostly vegetarian, except fish," said he; "you see, I know the beasts so well that I can't bring myself to pick their bones."

I have come back from a long day with mixed impressions. There are vivid colour impressions — deep green of the Australian spring; late grey of eucalyptus trunks with untidy moulting bark; light yellow of budding wattle; purple pink of the carpet of knot grass; and everywhere the familiar home flowers, but all a little altered in their new home — the dandelion, the buttercup, the mustard plant, each imprinting its tiny yellow dot upon the variegated ground work of Nature.

Of my conversations, too. I had the same mixed impression. It was nature-talk. We spoke or those things which may seem slight to the world, and yet are more permanent than thrones and dynasties. I learned of the strange storks — the "native companions" who meet 500 at a time for their stately balls; of the bower birds who decorate their homes with glass and pebbles; of the little Ted beetles who fertilize the insectivorous plants without being eaten like other insects; of all manner of nature secrets. Some deep things were drawn from Mr. Bellchambers's store of knowledge.

"Birds have more sense than animals. They understand yon, like. They know what you mean. Snakes have least of any. They don't get friendlylike the same way."

Then I have the same mixed memory of the things I have seen. A blue-headed wren; an eagle soaring in the distance; a hideous lizard with a huge open mouth; a laughing jackass which refused to laugh; many more or leas tame wallabies and kangaroos; a dear little 'possum which, got raider the back of my coat, and would not come out; noisy mina birds which fly ahead and warn the game against the hunter. Good little noisy mina! All my sympathies are with you! I would do the same if I could. This senseless lust for kitting is a disgrace to the race. We of England cannot preach, for a pheasant battue is about the worst example of it. But do let the creatures alone unless they are surely noxious! When Mr. Bellchambers told us how he had trained two ibises — the old religious variety — and how both had been picked off by some unknown local "sportsman," it made one sad.

We had a touch of comedy, however, when Mr. Bellchambers attempted to expose the egg of the malice fowl. He scraped into the mound with his hands. The cock watched him with an expression which clearly said — "Confound the fellow! What is he up to now?" He then got on the mound, and as quick as Mr. Bellchambers shovelled the earth in he kicked it back again, Mr. Bellchambers, in his good-humoured way, crying — "Get along with you, do!" A good husband is the mallee cock, and looks after the family interests. But what we humans would think if we were born deep underground, and had to begin our career by digging our way to the surface, is beyond imagination.

Might I, a visitor, take the liberty of giving a word of advice to the Government of this beautiful State? In Mr. Bellchambers you have a very rare and valuable man. Yon are wasting him. I have travelled far, and I know that both in Canada and the United States, by the time that Nature reservations have occurred to the powers that be, they have become economically impossible, save as spots so far from centres of population that they are useless to the average man. Here you have the very thine within, a drive of Adelaide. My advice is this. Let the State acquire several blocks round Bellchambers's area, and let the whole be enclosed. Let him be ranger with adequate remuneration. Let the roads connecting up be improved. All this would cost very little; but see what you would have in return! You would have a show place which folk would come from far to see. You would have a wonderful pleasure resort for the people of Adelaide. Finally, you would leave in the very best and most loving hands those numerous birds and other creatures which are seriously threatened with extinction. Do this, and your grand children will extol your wisdom. Don't do it, and in 10 years it will be too late.

No account of my day could be complete which did not acknowledge the company and teaching of Mr. E. R. Waite, Director of the Museum, who placed his stores of knowledge at my disposal. I admire learning, but I admire still more a man who Is a man; and when I learned that this gentle naturalist had gone down 60 ft. in Sydney Harbour to steal the egg of a shark, I took off my hat to him. That's a form of bird-nesting that's worth doing.

In this brief account for the newspapers Doyle wrote “I admire learning, but I admire still more a man who is a man”. This provides some key to what drew Doyle to Bellchambers. Bellchambers was certainly the central non-spiritualist interaction of ACD's time in Adelaide. A number of artefacts likely remain to be tracked down from Doyle’s naturalist jaunt. The first is ACD's "closely-written six pages of copy" for the Register - does this survive? Similarly, the sanctuary kept a visitor's book that ACD signed (Note 17), does this book survive? ACD's visit resonated in Adelaide for many years. A 1953 interview with press photographer W. Sidney Smith (aged in his 80s) shares that "Among Mr. Smith's treasures is Sir Conan Doyle's book, The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, autographed and sent him by the author in October, 1921... He readily gave Conan Doyle permission to use in photographs in the book" (Note 18). This copy of the book is possibly still sitting on a shelf in Adelaide.

ACD's visit to Adelaide left a lasting legacy on the reputation of Bellchambers and his sanctuary, and T.P. Bellchambers clearly left an impression on Conan Doyle. Earlier in his literary career, Doyle wrote stories (The King of the Foxes, 1901) and poems (A Hunting Morning, 1898) celebrating the thrill of hunting foxes. It is remarkable then to read of Doyle lamenting that “This senseless lust for killing is a disgrace to the race.” Did Bellchambers influence Doyle’s attitudes to hunting for recreation? A tribute from Doyle lies in ACD’s third Professor Challenger novel in 1926/ The "Land of Mist" tells a tale in which scientific empiricism is applied to shine a light on the spiritualist phenomenon. In the book, three men spend a night investigating a haunted home in Dorsetshire, owned by Mr. Belchamber.

References

Note 1. I am using the 1988 reprint published by Ronin Publishing, Inc. Berkeley CA.

Note 2. Phillip Bellchambers, "The Wizard of Humbug Scrub, The Story of Thomas Paine Bellchambers 1858-1929", self published, 1998. Author's copy.

Note 3. T. P. Bellchambers, "Nature: Our Mother (Reprinted from the Saturday Journal)", W.K. Thomas & Co., Adelaide, 1918. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia.

Note 4. T. P. Bellchambers, "A Nature-Lovers Notebook", The Nature Lovers League, Adelaide, 1931. Author's copy.

Note 5. T.P. Bellchambers, "Hindmarsh Island Long Ago", The Register (Adelaide, SA), Tue 16 Apr 1918, page 6. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60350215

Note 6. The Area's Express (Booyoolee, SA), Tue 15 Jan 1884, page 3. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia: trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/218913329

Note 7. The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922)  Tue 6 Dec 1887, page 2. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia: trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/207711436

Note 8. Illustrated London News, Sat 24 Jan 1925.

Note 9. Observer (Adelaide, SA), Sat 27 Jul 1929, page 16. Digital copy available at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164896515

Note 10. SA Newspapers: Pen names of SA journalists and cartoonists, maintained at State Library of South Australia: https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/sanewspapers/pennames

Note 11. Rufus, "Mr. Bellchambers at Home. Visited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle". The Journal (Adelaide, SA),  Sat 2 Oct 1920, page 11. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/200888266

Note 12. Arthur Mee (1875-1943), English writer, journalist and educator. Published a range of children's periodicals and encyclopedia's including The Children's Encyclopædia which ACD contributed articles to. 

Note 13. Observer (Adelaide, SA), Thu 17 Jul 1930, page 53. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia:  trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/164797612

Note 14. The Register (Adelaide, SA), Fri 1 Oct 1920, page 7. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia:  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57918477

Note 15. Observer (Adelaide, SA),  Sat 9 Oct 1920, page 25. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/165911424

Note 16. New Forest Brusher, also known as ‘Brusher Mills’ was Harry Mills (1840-1905), a resident of the New Forest in Hampshire England. Mills was a snake-catcher who lived in the forest and made his living catching snakes, and became a local celebrity. New Forest was a matter of miles from Portsmouth where Conan Doyle resided for eight years, and based on the phrase ‘whom I knew in my youth’ it is possible Conan Doyle sought out and met Mills.

Note 17. The Mail (Adelaide, SA),  Sat 24 Sep 1927, page 1. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia:  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/58530391

Note 18. The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA),  Fri 6 Feb 1953, page 4. Digital copy available at National Library of Australia:  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48301772