She Hoaxed County Society

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 51, 1 March 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

She Hoaxed County Society

ABABY boy who might have been the fifth holder of a British barony gurgled and crowed in Chester Assize Court, England, recently as Lizzie Ireland, known as Lady Haldon, the woman -who claimed to be his mother, was sentenced to three years* penal servitude.

According to Ireland, the baby is the son of the fourth Lord Haldon, but her claim to have had a child by Lord Haldon was not believed.

She was found guilty of conspiring and making a false claim about the babe's birth, and of two charges of bigamy.

Lizzie Ireland is 02, wife of a Tunstall, Staffordshire, doctor, but for years, as "Lady Haldon"' or "Lady Clive" she hoodwinked both the exclusive county society of Cheshire and gay circles in London's night life.

When she left the dock to start her sentence, the legend she had so carefully spread about her birth and her titles had been badly shown up by the police. Had Large Income

She has still one secret, the source of her undoubtedly large income. The police confessed in court that they did not know where she got her money, estimated at £3000 a year.

But they have proved that Lizzie Ireland is one of the greatest women hoaxers of the century.

Two years ago the fourth Lord Haldon died in London. He had been penniless and sick, but a little time before his death he suddenly had money. He gave parties in night clubs. Some of his acquaintances say his last burst of gaiety killed him.

Immediately he died, Lizzie Ireland said she was his widow. She claimed his body and buried him in the churchyard at Toft, Knutsford, Cheshire.

Until then she had been known in Toft as "Lady Marcia Clive." She was wealthy, had good taste, and had trans-

formed a former policeman's cottage into a perfect country residence. Expensive furniture, rare china, and perfect servants had appeared, and her generosity had endeared her to the poorer ot iier neighbours.

There was some publicity, but no proof, to her claim that, she had married Lord Haldon in a Scots "irregular marriage" shortly before lie died.

■ Some months later she announced that she had become the mother of a l>aby boy—son of the late Lord Haldon, and the new heir.

A few daye before slie made this claim a woman in black had arrived at the home of Mrs. Kvelvn Basford, a labourer's wife, in Kiiidcrton Street, Middlew'k-li, and arranged to adopt Mrs. Bedford's newly-horn baby boy, Jier sixth child. J'he child was taken away. A few days later it was returned. Baby Christened In tin , meantime, a baby boy was christened by the vicar of Toft as Lawrence I'M ward Broonitield l'alk—the family mi mo of the Haldon peerage. The liov was registered ars the sou of ths late Lord llaldon and Lady Haldon. The baby was Mrs. BasldrJ'f. Police started their inquiries. They found that "Lady Haldon'' w is liorn at Tipton, StafVoidshire, in ISTS. Her father was a groom, Robert William Summers. His' daughter ran away at the age of 12. She was 20 when she took a job a« mother's help at Sharley, Worcestershire., and soon afterwards she became houeekeeper to a man called Jacks, with whom she stayed until 1914. She left him to work for a man called Porter at Wimbledon. By these two men she had eight children. Then she met Arthur John Ireland, a young Canadian captain in the R.A.M.C. She married him in 1917. By this time ehe had money. She was beautiful, and had wit and charm. She described herself at the wedding not as '"Lizzie.' , but as Korah Marcia Florence Jacke, a widow.

Soi!ir> f im<? I.i tit i=he met the third L'Til Hiil Inn nt MriphtuM. but lie would liuve nothing to <li> with her.

She wen! to live nt Blackpool, in comfort, and there met a young Preston man, .Joseph Allan Kickards, whom she

'•married , ' in 103.1 at St. .Tame*', Westminster Tho marriage ended in the Divorce. Court. Mr. Bickarde cited a man named Ireland as co-reepondent. Tn ]0."57 she "married" Fre<lerick George Hiifrh Glive Lin wood. That marii:iLre ended in a nullity decree on her petition in May, 1935. Joke On Name Lin wood had lieon known l>y friends a? ''Lor<l Clive"—a joke on his name—and now Li/zie Ireland had taken her house at Toft and wae known a«s ' - Ladv Marcia Clive." When she read that Lnrd TTaldon—successor lo the man who had snubbed her at. Brighton, was ill and penniless in London,she wrote him. * They met and ehp provided him -with a new homo and Hofhes, and made him an allowance. Ho be-an to be seen iiprain in London's night clubs.

When Lizzie Trel;uid annoimeed after his death that she had jriven birth In hie heir, the flood of publicity eaused lier to run aw.-iy back in London, wliere she took a flat at Balham. There she was arrested.

Lizzie Ireland persisted to tho end of her trial that she. was 46, not 62. She in*i*tcd that she was the child "of unknown parents born in Paris and fostered by the Summers.

>>ow tho police have to find out not only where she got the money but whose child it was that she passed off ae her own and Lord Haldon's.

They know that ehe has been paying for the baby's keep in the nursing homl near Reading. They believe it was born in London.

Ireland's nureo - secretary, Isabella Blaekett. a former school teacher wae sentenced with her to 12 months' imprisonment on the charges concerning the registration of the baby's birth. °