Passion Poems Of A Pastor

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 123, 25 May 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

Passion Poems Of A Pastor

NO case in the annals of British crime presents such curious features as that known in its day as The Pimlico Mystery"; no novelist would dare invent such a curiously behaved trio as Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett and the Rev. George Dyson.

ByF. Reeder

The downfall of the "unco' guid" is ever a subject for mirth amount the impious, and the London of lSSti found just the sort of story to arouse its ribald mirth in the downfall of the Rev. George Dyson, VYesleyau pastor of Putney, who used to write to liis friend's wife such verses as: Who is It that hath burst the door, Unclosed the heart that shut before, And set lier qiicenlike on its throne,And made its homage all her own? My Birdie. Of technical interest is the fact that the Pimlico case is the only one in which it has been alleged that the victim was poisoned by liquid chloroform. Father Was Highly Placed! The unacknowledged daughter of an Englishman of high social position, Adelaide Blanche <!e la Tremotiille was born at Orleans in December, 1 Soo, and her marriage to Thomas Edwin Bartlett, ten years her senior and owner of half a dozen grocery shops in Brixton and Dulwich, was arranged in 1575 by her father, who paid the husband a considerable sum of money. For the first two years of her marriage the wife wtw sent to school to complete her education, spending the vacations with her husband, but in 1877 she took up house with him. The only noteworthy event in the next eight years occurred in IS7B, when Mr. Bartlett's father, a widower, who was living with the couple, made certain unpleasant charges against Mrs. Bartlett as to her relations with her brother-in-law, Charles, and was forced to apologise in writing. Jlis daughter-in-law never forgave him. In 188 d the couple, still childless, were living at "The Cottage," Merton Abbey, near Wimbledon, when the Rev. George Dyson was appointed Wesleyan pastor there, and the popular and handsome young divine was soon on such terms of intimacy with the Bartletts that a pair of slippers were kept at the fireside for him. Mr. Bartlett being away at business all day, the Bev. George Dyson used often to arrive at the house as early as 9 a.m. and stay all day— with the curtains pinned across "the windows of the room where he was, doubtless comforting the lonely wife with spiritual exhortation. Complacent Husband , The pastor's zeal was matched only by the extraordinary complacency of " the husband, who, when Mr. Dyson was promoted to the spiritual care of Putney, presented him with a season ticket from Putney to Waterloo, the Bartletts having shifted to furnished apartments at No. 58, Claverton Street, Pimlico. According to Dyson, when Bartlett made his will, leaving everything to Mrs. Bartlett and appointing the pastor

executor, he gave Dyson a reversionary interest also in Mrs. Bartlett. Under this arrangement, the Rev. Mr. Dyson was wont to kiss lier in her husband's presence, take her out, and even entertain her in bis bachelor quarters. It seems, in fact, that the Rev. Mr. Dyson entered into the enjoyment of this legacy before its present owner's decease, In view of the fact that Mr. Bartlett was an exceptionally strong and healthy man (one bilious attack in 13 years was his medical history) it seems surprising that, towards the end of 1885, Mrs. Bartlett should have started dropping hints that her husband had suffered, for the past six years, from an internal complaint, for the relief of which he was accustomed to tuse chloroform. In December Dr. Alfred Leach was called in to see Mr. Bartlett, whom he found to be suffering from indigestion and mercurial poisoning, as shown by the condition of his mouth. At various times during the month, Mr. Bartlett had teeth removed, and his condition steadily improved. Purchase of Chloroform At Mrs. request, the Rev. Air. Dyson went on a curious shopping errand on Monday, December 28. She wanted, she said, some chloroform to help her husband to sleep, and, as instructed by her, the pastor went to four different chemists, buying a bottle of chloroform from each, for the purpose, he told the chemists, of removing grease stains, lie poured the contents of all four bottles into one large one, which he gave to Mrs. Bartlett. On New Year's Eve, Mr. Bartlett was in excellent spirits, declaring himself so far recovered in health that he would go to the seaside shortly. After an oyster supper at nine, he went to bed. At 10.30 the maid took coals to his room, and Mrs. Bartlett told her not to go into the room again, but to leave some beef tea outside the door. At 4 a.m. Mr. Doggett, owner of the house in which the Bartletts had apartments, was awakened by Mrs. Bartlett with the news that her husband wajs d£ad. Entering the room, he noticed a strong smell of chloric ether. Bartlett was lying on his back in bed and had been dead two or three hours. Mrs. Bartlett explained that she had dozed off in the. chair be«ide him and had awakened to find him dead. She had poured some brandy down his throat in the hope of reviving him. A post-mortem next day revealed a considerable quantity of chloroform in the dead man's stomach, a discovery which naturally proved most upsetting to the Rev. Mr. Dyson. He learned it when he called to take Mrs. Bartlett to the house of a friend at Dulwich, and he was further perturbed to see Mrs. Bartlett searched before she left the apartment. By some strange oversight, the police neglected to search the drawers in the room where Mr. Bartlett died, and, according to Mrs. Bartlett'a subsequent statement, the chloroform that Dyson had bought for her was there when ehe returned to the apartment on January 6, and she then poured it out. At the inquest. the same month, Mrs. Bartlett refused to give evidence, but Dr. Leach repeated the curious story that she had told him. This was that her husband induced her, at the time of their marriage, to enter into a compact that their relations should be of a purely platonic nature, and, save for one specific breach, resulting in the birth of a stilll>orn child, this contract had been maintained.

Subsequently, so Mrs. Bartlett told the doctor, her husband had given her to the Rev. Mr. Dyson, and encouraged her association with the pastor, up until the time of his last illness, when he suddenly showed a disposition to infringe the terms of the contract. Her sense of propriety was outraged and she pointed out to her husband that he had given her to Mr. Dyson. When Mr. Bartlett continued hie importunities, she obtained the chloroform, intending, when they went to bed, to put some on a handkerchief aiul wave it in his face, so as to send him innocently off to sleep. The inquest concluded, however, with the following verdict from the jury, "We are of opinion that the deceased, Edwin Thomas Bartlett, died from chloroform administered by his wife, Adelaide Bartlett, for the purpose of taking his life, and that the Rev. George Dyson was an accessory before the fact." Both people were promptly arrested, but when tlie trial opened, on April 12, 1880, the Attorney-General, Sir Charles liussell, announced that the Crown would offer no evidence against the Rev. Mr. Dyson and Mr. Justice Wills ordered the jury to acquit him. As a witness, Dyson denied that any impropriety had ever occurred between himself and Mrs. Bartlett, though there was an understanding that he should marry her if Bartlett died. He admittsd buying the chloroform for Mrs. Bartlett. In cross-examining Dyson, Sir Edward Clarke very skilfully strengthened the association between Dyson and Mrs. Bartlett, aiming to build up, in the minds of the jurymen, a reluctance to give her to the hangman, while he passed uruebuked. Further evidence produced by the Crown proved fairly conclusive that the marital relations of the Bartletts were those of an ordinary man and wife, disproving Mr 9. Bartlett's story of the "platonic" contract, but the case was fought principally on the medical evidence. The doctors called by the Crown admitted than anyone swallowing liquid chloroform would feel pain and a hot, fiery taste, and it would be difficult, though not impossible, to pour chloroform down the throat of a person already made insensible by its fumes. When, however, skilled anaesthetists tried to chloroform sleeping persons, 75 per cent of the persons awoke immediately. The summing up of Mr. Justice Wills must have left the Rev. George Dyson with very little self-respect left. Referring to the pastor's "discreditable relations" with Mrs. Bartlett, the judge commented that both admitted they had reached the stage where Bartlett's death and Dyson's succession were familiarly discussed, and when things came to that, a husband's life was not one an insurance company would take at any premium. "Not Guilty" Verdict Cheered It was certain that Bartlett had been killed by chloroform, either by himself or his wife. On the Crown's evidence of their marital relations Mrs. Bartlett'* story of the use for which she got the chloroform was discredited. There was no reason for Bartlett to commit suicide, though there was the possibility that he had taken chloroform to induce sleep. After two hours' deliberation, the foreman of the jury told the Court. "We have well considered the evidence, and 1 although we think grave suspicion is attached to the prisoner, we do not think there is sufficient evidence to show how or by whom the chloroform was administered." A verdict of "Xot Guilty" was therefore entered, this result being received in Court by an outburst of cheering that the judge described as "an outrage on decency."