BRIDE'S BOGUS FATHER

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 177, 29 July 1939, Page 9 (Supplement)

BRIDE'S BOGUS FATHER

REFUSED permission to marry by her parents, a pretty girl of 18 and her 21 -year-old sweetheart adopted a desperate ruse to evade the marriage laws of England. For a payment of 5/, the bridegroom persuaded a friend to pose as the girl's father and inform the registrar that she >vas over 21. Their deception was soon discovered, ind at Hendon Police Court the young ■ouple and the girl's bogus "father" Aere summoned for signing a false leclaration for the purpose of procuring i marriage. They pleaded guilty, with the result :hat Richard Colenso Entwhistle, of Alperton, was fined £5, with £2 10/ X)sts; Florence Gertrude Entwhistle, his wife, was placed on probation for six months; and Arthur Clarney, 39, of Wembley, was fined £3, with £2 10/ losts. Mrs. Entwhistle, a tall blue-eyed blonde, told a reporter the story behind the wedding. "I met Dick, my husband, when I was Dnly a schoolgirl," she stated. "He came to work as a tilemaker at a factory near my home at Alvechurch, near Birmingham, where my father is a railway signalman. "I was not happy at home, so I came to London and entered domestic service. Dick also secured a job as a labourer with the L.M.S. "We had no intention of marrying without my parents' permission. Instead we agreed to wait until I was 21, and, in the meantime, we hoped to save enough money to get a little home together.

"When I went home for Christinas niy mother said that I had to stay there. I persuaded her to let me return so that I could give in my notice. When I saw Dick I told him how unhappy I was, and that I did not want to return home. "It was then that we decided to get married. Dick asked Mr. Clarney to do us a good turn by saying he was my father, and lie agreed. We did not realise we were doing an3'thing seriously wrong, or we would not have done it." In Court Mr. F. D. Barry, prosecuting, stated that when Entwhistle gave notice of the marriage he declared that both he and his bride-to-be were over 21. He was told he must produce birth certificates. At the wedding on January 21 the registrar asked for the certificates. Entwhistle produced his, and Mrs. Entwhistle said she had not got hers, but that her father was present. <S> _

Clarney stepped forward, saying he was the father, and that she was born at Alvechurch on December 31, 1917. These particulars were entered in the marriage register. The marriage was solemnised, and Clarney signed the register in the name of "George Field. 7 ' Clarney gave himself up to the police at Wembley. He stated that he had no idea of the girl's age, and just before going into the register office Entwhistle handed him a slip of paper and said: "You will have to sign as her dad." "I bad no idea I was doing wrong when I acted as the girl's father," Clarney's statement added. "The only reason I did so was to help Entwhistle out of his difficulty." The chairman, Mr. E. Holt, told the defendants that they could have got over the difficulty quite easily by coming to the Court. The case was too serious, to be overlooked.