"CAPTAIN" WALLIS' ESCAPADES.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXIX, Issue 1675, 13 January 1903, Page 5

"CAPTAIN" WALLIS' ESCAPADES.

The London Correspondent of the Daily Times gives some interesting particulars of the brief but brilliant career of " Captain " Wallis. This is the gentleman referred to in recent cablegrams as being committed for trial for bigamy, and who gave himself out to be an ex-lieutenant in the Dunedin Hus'■ars. He is described a3 a gentlemanlylooking young man, who presented a card on which was printed " Captain C. W. F. Wallis, D.5.0., V.S., R.N.Z A., Wellington, N.Z," and said he had conu from Gore, in Otago, and had been with one of the New .Zealand Contingents. He had been living in a fashionable way for soms time, but eventually the breath of suspicion seemed to surround him, and inquiries at the Agentgmcral's Office failed to elicit any definite information about him excepting the fact that numerous inquiries were being made anent the young man. An arrest followed, and Wallis was brought before the police court on a charge of bigamy. It was stated that the accused had served throughout the South African campaign, and that when he returned to this country in May last he married at Christ Church, Clapham, a young lady residing in Albion rord, Clapham. He was subsequently accused of having a wife—a Mrs Sutcliffe—living. For his defence mistaken identity was alleged. In support of the plea, a portrait purporting to be that of a Mr Sutcliffe in the uniform of a naval officer was product. The prisoner, on heir;g remanded,could not obtain bail, so was lodged in the cell.-. We make the following extract fn m the stoiy as t Id by the Times : It uppers that the accused represented himself to Mrs Clutterbuck and her two daughters as a partner in the firm of " Wallis Bros., sheep rxporti is, G.>re, Otago, N.w Zealand." He stated that he failed from New Zealand as one of the second hatch of troops for the South Afrioan war, and he added that he was called out " at-38 hojrs' notice." His brother George went at the same time. After they had been serving for six months at the front, his brother George was killed in action, and soon after that their mother died, leaving three-fourths of her personal property to accusid, who, on the death °f Gooige, became a partner in Messrs Wallis's firm.

Miss Clutterbuck became engaged !o ' Captain Wallis,' and he pressed for a speedy marriage on the plea that he ivas anxious for his wife to be provided for in ease of his death, aa he was ordered to leave in a week or two on his return to South Africa. As there seemed no reason to distrust him the ceremony was performed at Christ Church, He appears to have been made an honorary member of the Constitutional Club, and to have el -Tmed relationship with Captain Maedonald, who, ho alleged, had married his (accused's) sister, and, in short,he appeared to know so many "good" people and to be so eminently " eligible" that no doubt whatever was entertained of his good faith, Next he went to the London shipping office of the Ayerdsen Line, and applied for berths for himself and hi 3 wife to Capeto vn. He was asked for a deposit, but presented his card, and suggested that " a captain in the army " could surely be trusted. This view does not seem to have commended itself to the officials, who politely intimated that they should prefer to see " the colour of his money. He readily assented, and promised to send a cheque so soon as he got home. Accordingly he wired to the shipping office " Cheque posted," and shortly afterwards called Again to secure the berths. Still there was a d6mur, as the cheque had not yet arrived. " Well, at least," he said, " you can give me the labels for the luggage." This concession was made and he despatched to the docks all his wife belongings, leaving her with only the clothes she had on at the time. The luggage is still detained at the docks until the charges on it and the passage deposit money shall be paid, which will be a as the accused is said to have drained the Clutterbuck family of every penny they possessed.

An enquiry, addressed to his " brother-in-law " Cu.pt, Macdonald, elicited the fact that he knew nothing of Wal]is, and did not possess either the wife or five children Wallis credited him with, in fact he was a bachelor. Then accused had said that his brother Norman was coming to England in July, bringing documents conferring on liim the rank of mnjor. Accused reported his brother's airival, and was constantly reporting that Norman would call on the Clutterbucks Inquiries at all the agencies of the steamers by whieh he could have travelled, and at all the " best hotels " at which he was alleged to be staying, failed to elicit the slightest symptom even of the existence of such a person as " Norman Wallis."

Wallis had a cousin, he said, named Sutcliffe, who was extraordinarily like himself in personal appealance.. Sutcliffe had married a girl who, he regretfully alleged, had turned out badly, and had, in fact, been unfaithful to him. S-utcliffe was, he said, a captain in the royal navy. Inquiries touching Mrs Sutclifls elicited that thsre was no truth in the charges made against her character, and that she was good and respectable. It was found that exactly the same sort of story mutatis mutandis had been told by "Sutcliffe" as by " Wallis," and that the two men were as identical io their methods as in their personal appearanoa.

Another interesting- point in relation to those two "Wallis" and " Sncliffe" —is that their handwriting is as identical as their personal appearanc", and <vch boasts the Christian,name of " Cecil "—more curious coincident s!" , On being again brought before the court, it was sworn that Sutelifl'e and Wallis v.ere identical, and the accused then pleaded guilty. The case of obtaining money under false pretences was then gone on with. Mrs Emma Clutteibuck, an old lady, the mother of Annie Clntterbuck, the -u- ad " wife," said her daughter had known prisoner about two months bcfo.eshe went through the form of m image with him. Prisoner said he was Captain Cu'il Wullis, New Zealund Artillery, V.S., D.S.O. He si'id he was a single man. He had received L 62 from her in all. Aecas-ocl then pie .tied guilty. Evidence was given by a witness from the War Office that there was no such name on the Army list as " Captain C. Wullis."