CLAIM TO A PEERAGE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 19, 23 January 1913, Page 10

CLAIM TO A PEERAGE

A . cable- message published in The Post a few days ago stated that there was ah' Australian claimant to the Lindsay Earldom. Our Sydney correspondent writes:— Mr. Bethuno Lindsay, » distinguished looking old gentleman, who has li^ed for many years in. Victoria, where he has been a station overseer most of his time, is, according to his statement, the rightful Earl of Lindsay, head of the famous Scottish family of that name. Three years ago he married the widow of the late John Close, of South Africa, and till the other day his wife remained in ignorance of her husband's distinguished birth. Then, by some chance, she found something in " Burkes Peerage," that made her tax her husband, with his ancestry, and he admitted it. " I may, 1 ' said the claimant, in an interview with a representative of the Mel- . bourne Argus, " begin with the explanation that it is only a very strange series of circumstances that has caused ' me to break the' silence of many years. To make the whole thing clear, let me say that when about ten years of age I joined the Royal Navy in the capacity of -midshipman. Later on, when I had risen to the rank of lieutenant, 1 served under, my uncle, Admiral Bethune. After a bad smash I returned to England, and a strong attachment sprang up between a/ little lady and myself. My family considered her beneath me, and made my life well-nigh unbearable. To make a long story short, I came to Australia. 1 went as overseer to a station, Cannawigra, and during my stay, there received a copy of the Scotsman, which contained a photograph of my brother, the tenth Earl of Lindsay, who died in 1894. About the same time- a ■ gentleman • named- H&yes ; visited i Aus- ', ttdlia with the object of trying to locate me, it having come to the knowledge of my family that I had not died, as stated in " Burkes Peerage," in Marseilles, in 1862. I never made myself 1 known. . 1^ am an old man, and the loneliness used to affect . me when I 1 lived' in the country, so I came to Mel- • bourne for a holiday and stayed at' a ' boarding-house, and, .among other lodgers was the lady who is now my wife. 'I, never had' any intention of pdblishing" to 'the would' the story of my " chequered career, but for the sake «>f ' my 'wife I'~ have yielded- reluctantly to ' the actual- position being made known. '. The present earl is' my cousin, but ho '.' holds 'the ''position' without officials au- [ thority. I expect to have for England ' in ' March, and 4*4 * on ' arrival in the Old > Land will do .my best to find old folks who might possibly remember me, and to make myself known to the remnants " of my family.- The family history of ! the Lindesays or Lindsays dates 'back to ?' 135,6. • The present holder of the title, 1 who- is 80 years of age, has three- children, the eldest of whom, Viscount Gar- ' nock, was born in 1867.