Bold Imposter's Life

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 193, 30 July 1932, Page 7 (Supplement)

Bold Imposter's Life

Posing as a Doctor

CASE OF FALSE PRETENCES.

FIVE YEARS IN PBISO!

Revelations which caused a crowded court at Somerset last month to gasp with astonishment were made when a man who had posed as a doctor and a clergyman was unmasked. He was shown to be a carpenter of humble upbringing, who, by means of forged references, had obtained a responsible medical appointment in a mental institution. At another time he professed to be in Holy Orders, and conducted burial services and preached in churches. After contracting a bigamous marriage, he got a medical position in the East. He borrowed money from his “wife’s” father and sailed away with his “bride.” The truth leaked out; he was arrested at Si”'’,“pore, and brought back.

William Faulkner, alias Norman Nelson Kirkup, aged 35, a native of Belfast, pleaded guilty to bigamy, to obtaining £6B from the North British Borneo Chartered Company, and £l9O from Joseph Frederick Court, by false pretences. It was an astounding story which Mr| E. H. C. Wethered, prosecuting counsel, unfolded. At the outset he made it clear that Faulkner had no medical qualifications of any kind, and since 1928 he had lived by a series of frauds. Falsely pretending that he was a medical man, he had impersonated Dr. Kirkup, whose name appeared in the colonial section of the British Medical Register, and was believed to Be practising in Canada.

Proposal of Marriage. In 1929 Faulkner was convicted at Nottingham of frauds involving £2OOO, and there he posed as a medical man. Later on, having completed a sentence at Exeter, he set up in practice in that city as Dr. Kirkup, and there he mot Miss Anna Padfield Court, the daughter of a retired farmer, living at Clevedon. Miss Court was an elocutionist at a girls’ school, and Faulkner won her affection and proposed marriage. Believing him to be a medical man, she accepted his offer, and he was invited to visit the home of her parents. In April of last year he was appointed a temporary assistant medical officer at Bristol Mental Hospital, after he had impersonated Dr. Kirkup and produced forged testimonials which completely deceived the authorities.

During his term of office at the hospital Faulkner treated patients, and there was no suspicion until after he had left the country that he was not all that he pretended to be. Position on Medical Staff. In September Faulkner wrote the North Borneo Company, inquiring if they had a vacancy on the medical staff, and, receiving a reply that a doctor was required for the East, he made application. He described himself as a medical man, with very high qualifications, including a B.Sc. degree and a Public Health diploma. He represented that his father had been a medical missionary.

The application was accompanied by two testimonials, one purporting to be from the governor of a mental hospital in Madras, who wrote that “Di. Kirkup’ had been employed there for two years in a consulting capacity and had rendered valuable services. The other was from an American Church Missionary Society, stating that he had been employed for five years, and praising his service. Both these testimonials, added counsel, were forged. Faulkner had not been in India. Indeed, he had spent most of the time mentioned in prison in England. After an interview with the North Borneo officials in London, Faulkner got the appointment. It was definitely understood that only single men were eligible, as the position was in the interior, and Faulkner represented that he was single. He was to have £4O for a tropical outfit, a free passage out, and half salary during the voyage.

Wedding And Arrest. Having secured the appointment, Faulkner approached Mr Court, and stated that he had a Government post on a Medical Research Commission, and would be away from England six to nine months. Mr Court consented to the marriage with his daughter, and shortly afterwards Faulkner exclaimed that his banking account had been transferred to the East and he wanted £2O. This sum was lent him, and then he borrowed £9O to pay the outward passage of ■ his future wife. He afterwards got £BO, making £l9O, the whole of which Mr Court had lost.

The marriage took place at Clevedon on October 27, Faulkner describing himself as single. The honeymoon was spent at Bournemouth, and it was from there he wrote Mr Court for one of the loans to pay for his wife’s passage home from Singapore, his excuse being that she would have to return sooner than he could. He received from iho company £6B, and he mads out a

cheque for Mr Court’s money, dating it the day after he sailed. While Faulkner was on the voyage the fraud was discovered, and also the fact that he had been previously married. On the arrival of the ship at Singapore he was arrested. Miss Court returned home, and Faulkner was taken back on a warrant bj’ Inspector Dunster, of the Somerset force. While on the voyage out with his new-ly-married wife, Mr Wethered observed, Faulkner actually wrote to his lawful wife and their boy.

Faulkur’s Past Revealed. Revelations as to Faulkner’s past were made by Inspector Dunster. In early life Faulkner ran away from his home in Belfast and was at sea until 1914, when he joined the army. He was attached to the R.A.M.C., and served in Saloniea. On his discharge in 1919 he went back to Belfast, where he married, the expenses of the wedding being paid by his wife’s mother, as Faulkner had no money. He was then employed as an electrical engineer in the name of Alexander. In 1920 he obtained a similar job at Glasgow and in 1923 he was working as a carpen. ter at Wembley Stadium and residing in Kentish Town. His wife suspected him of associating with other women, and this so affected her health that she left him. She took the child with her, and had not lived with him since. Faulkner, remarked the inspector, was described as an inveterate liar on whose statements no reliance could be placed. He established a sun-ray clinic at Nottingham in 1929 and engaged a widow as nurse. From her he obtained £350, leaving her penniless. He had gained the confidence of all classes of people by professing to be a medical practitioner, with degrees to which he was not entitled. He had also represented that he was a clerk in Holy Orders, and while engaged at Bristol had preached at various churches and conducted services for the burial of the dead. Among things found in his possession were the hood of a 8.A., a surplice, and a cassock. Faulkner’s convictions began at Glasgow in 1922, and were continued at Marylebone, the Mansion House, Plymouth, and Nottingham. They comprised cases of fraud, false pretences, and posing as a doctor. At Nottingham he gave the name of John Hamilton Ramage, and he had 15 months’ imprisonment for obtaining goods by false pretences, there being six charges and 19 outstanding cases. He was fined in March last for posing as a doctor at Bristol Mental Hospital.

Defending counsel, in an appeal for leniency, urged that no physical harm had been done to anybody by Faulkner posing as a doctor. He had been a medical student in Toronto, and would have carried on to qualify but for the war. He conceived a genuine affection for Miss Court, and it was reciprocated by her. He had already been in prison six months awaiting trial.

Mr. Justice Avory, in passing senience of five years’ penal servitude, remarked that the bigamy had no mitigating circumstances at all. There was no doubt that when Faulkner sailed away he never intended to come back to England at all.