FRAUD WHO WAS CHAPLAIN

Evening Star, Issue 19052, 22 September 1925, Page 9

FRAUD WHO WAS CHAPLAIN

PLAUSIBLE HUMBUG SENTENCED FRIEND OF PRINCES Fx-chapkin in ilio Army and plausible humbug were but two of the many roles filled by Thomas Albert Brim ton Douglas, of' Hagraby, Lincolnshire. Douglas has fully occupied bis sixly-ono years of life. He lias been «. soldier, served in India and in tiro Boor War; travelled in India, where ho acted as a Wesleyan chaplain for nine months, as a railway clerk, ns a maharajah’s garden superintendent,, as guardian to Indian princes; twicer manned; seined again in the Army; ami been a schoolmaster 1 . So bo has tasted of fho romance of the East; in his latest exploit ho has shown a leaning towards the melodrama of fho West. It has landed him in prison for throe months for obtaining food and lodging by false pretences. “TWO INDIAN PRINCES.” Before ho went to India, in 1919, Dougins had stayed with a Mrs I'isher a;t Woking. 1 rom India he wrote to her asking it she could accommodate him and two young Indian princes. Mho agreed. i.Vmglas arrived last November, but no Indian prince came with him. Ho said bo had retired, was fo get a good pension, wauled a house, and was going to marry and set tle down. Of course, he was already married The first week he paid his landlady. Tho next he made excuses, which continued until ho left in December. Mm Fisher found on the lid of a cardboard box tbo following message:— “Ho that hath no sin, let him bo the first to wist a .Tone.” X have served King and country faithfully in the Army from 1886 to September, 1924. I am 'too old and worn out now. Nobody wants mo. I am fed up. Should search bo made for me, look at the bottom of the canal. —T.A.B.D. But this letter did not servo to cover up his tracks, as obviously ho intended it should, and he was arrested in Hull. THE “ INNOCENT.” It was ns tho mnoh-to-bc-pitied innocent that Douglas pleaded in the dock. To him was put a letter in which ho wrote a fulsome proposal of marriage to “'My darling F .« That, ho said, was looked upon as a huge joke. The police story' of Douglas’s career revealed him as having been born hi India in 1834. He was sent to college at Aberdeen at the age of iv.olve, but ms adventurous spirit nsw-.rf.-vl in-elf when ho ran away at the age of nineteen. , , , Voim-g .■<■■■ mid the wander,list, unit ho joined the Army in order -to, travel. lor twelve years ho served in India. Ho wgs back in this country at the end of yha! term, and in 1893 he was married at htlintlio Boer War found him on active eervioe once again, a Hording him an opportunity of adventure and travel. In 1932 ho i 1 ’- turned to Edinburgh, only to leave tho inflowing year with ills wife and family u*r India. VARIED ROLES. During that stay he, varied his activities to an as tons-bins degree. Fm; irve r ' l ho acted as Wesleyan chaplain to the Xorce.-, at. Meerut. Then he went to ~.a,0.e as a railway clerk, a position he occupicu lor me Next, according )o the, police stmy, he was in the surprising role of garden superintendent -to the Maharajah nt Jvowh. t hat Douglas “ hud a way with him is be.'oml doubt for he. so impressed the no mm nik-is for a lime that lie afterwards became guardian to Indian princes. Let it. be nmed that Douglas was fitly years old when the Li real. War brmm >n;i, ami a widower bv reason ol his wife < m am in India,. But where a younger man, mitered Douglas never hmolatecL lie oiniMeil again, and served in the Army lav t orps. He married a second tmi* at Moomb,, Lines., nnd after the war became a schoolmaster at Stickford, Linos. . The hire of the East drew him to India acaiu in 1919. The rest of the fieri- n liavo in the story- of his fraud on h,s laml*,l“TTo is nothing more nor less thana, pla.us.me hum-ua. oml dupermieudcnt Bosliili in the Police Court.