“ALMOST A MIRACLE.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 26 November 1925, Page 8

“ALMOST A MIRACLE.”

TRIBUTE TO EX-CONVICT. A MAN WHO MADE GOOD. “I am not going to mar the career of a man who has accomplished what you have, for it is almost a miracle. bo said the Recorder of London when he had before him, at the Old Bailey recently, an ex-convict after seiving throughout the war with every credit, had made a determined and successful effort to live an honest life. Walter Meredith, aged 45, who is known at Hoxton as “The King of the Costers,” was in the dock on a. charge of bioainv. The Recorder described the case '"as a technical offence, and Meredith, told that he was free to go left the dock deeply moved, and with tears streaming down his face. In passing a formal sentence of two davs’ imprisonment, the Recorder said the case was a strange one. *ou served in France, with an excellent record,” he said to Meredith, “and, out of the money you earned while m the tobacco trade and your pension, you started n reputable career. I have before rue the creditable and laudable spectacle of a man who, having been in all sorts of trouble in his earlier years, picked up the pieces of his life, and became trusted by people and worthy of their credit. T am perfectly convinced that you were a good husband to this woman.” , , c It was stated during the hearing of tjie case that years ago Meredith was an inveterate 'thief.- and paid for his crimes in long terms of imprisonment, including three or four periods of penal servitude. When war broke out he had just loft prison, hut lie at once joined the army, and served with credit throughout the hostilities. He received a pension, and from the time he left the army kept his resolution to go straight "at all costs. Obtaining work with "a firm of tobacco manufacturers, he was paid good wages, and saved his money to such purpose that when discharged owing to bad trade he was able to set up in business as well as buy a house. Meredith married his real wife m 1900 while living a life of crime, and the following day was sentenced to four years’ penal servitude. On his release he discovered that his wife had gone to Gateshead, where she is said to he still living with another man. From 1896 to 1913 he only remained out of gaol for three years. Then the war came, and when on leave in 1918 Meredith met Charlotte Jane Steadman, then a girl of 18, and after a few days’ acquaintance married her. The union, however, turned out very unhappily for him, and soon after he returned to civilian life he obtained a separation order. Meredith, who had a stall in Hoxton at the. time, sought the _ aid of the police to find bis real wife. After a good deal of difficulty they traced her at Gateshead, hut they also discovered ithat Meredith had been guilty of .bigamy/ Meredith now called witnesses to 'prove that the woman Steadman knew Ithat he was married at the time she 1 went through the ceremony with him, Ihut this she emphatically denied. He attributed his trouble with _her to the fact that he supplied her with so much mouev that she began to associate with undesirable characters ( and drank to excess.