A TITLED WOMAN'S DOWNFALL

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 521, 11 May 1915, Page 2

A TITLED WOMAN'S DOWNFALL

After a protracted trial extending over six days, an Old Bailey jury returned a verdict of guilty against Lady Ida Sitwell, wife of Sir George Sitwell", Bart., of Renishaw Hall, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, and sister of the Earl of Londesborough. She had been indicted, together with Julian Field, 60, of no occupation, and Oliver Herbert, 38, commission agent, on a charge of conspiring to cheat and defraud Miss Frances Bennett Dobbs, of Northside, Streatham Common, in connection- with the acceptance of bills of exchange for £6,000.

After being absent for au hour and 20 minutes, the jury found Lady Ida Sitwe.ll and Field, guilty on all counts, and Herbert not guilty on any. Mr Muir (who prosecuted for the Treasury) stated that Field was con- i victed in 1901 for forging an agreement, and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. Mr Justicej Darling;, in discharging Herbert, said: " The jury have found you not guilty, and j'ou may be dis- | charged, with as much satisfaction as you can get out of your conduct in the j whole of these proceedings. You may go. Do not again propose marriage to- 1 anybody — while your wife is alive, at ! all events." Herbert hesitated to | leave the dock, whereupon the Judge i added, in severe tones: " I don't want j to see you any longer; you can go." — I Field stated that he was educated at j Merton College. He added that he had j written several books, and had been ' making between £3,000 and £4,000- a year in company promoting. Dr Dyer, medical officer at Brixton Prison, said he had examined Lady Ida, and she had what is called an ir- ! ritable heart. Her general health v seemed to be fair, but she wasof rather neurotic tendency. — Mr Justice Darling, addressing Lady Ida Sitwell, said: "You have been convicted on what I think is perfectly satisfactory evidence upon each count of this indictment. I desire to say, before I pass sentence upon you, that, if I had known when this case began who you are, I would, for reasons upon which I need not now enter, haye endeavored to get some other Judge to preside at this trial. But I knew r nothing except tliat you were the wife of Sir George Sitwell, ' and it only came out after the case had proceeded who you really were. I desire to. say no more about it. Now, my duty is plain. You were, I believe, greatly influenced by that man Field, who is a man who had already «been convicted. I quite believe, in, 'fact it 'is undoubted, that most of the letters you wrote were dictated or drafted by him. But, ifor kil that* with your knowledge of the world and education, and knowledge of .affairs, you' must have known that what you were doing was a thoroughly dishonest thing. You copied those letters without a word of question, and sent them off regardless of what happened, so long as you got the money which you required. I regret to have to pass sentence of. imprisonment upon you. I can only say that if it were not for the state of your health it would be more severe. It has been proved already in this case that you have long suffered from a severe illness. The sentence I pass upon you, with the deepest regret to me, is that you be imprisoned in the second division for three calendar months." Addressing Field, the Judge said: "You were the prime mover in this conspiracy. Without your ingenuity and counsel to that unfortunate woman the fraud could not have been committed. I cannot deal with you except upon the basis that you are a dishonest man by choice, and a very ingenious man in committing frauds which you hare conceived. You had been trusted by that foolish woman, j'ou. found Herbert a man easily led by you, and through him you got hold of this rather eccentric woman, Miss Dobbs, and exploited her for your own advantage. You were not even honest to your own employer. You made more out of this than she or anyone else. Although Herbert benefited to the extent' of £1,000, I must treat you as what you are— a man who has designedly adopted a fraudulent means of getting a living. Ido not know what hai-m you may have done;, you have done enough in this -case. You will be imprisoned for 18 calendar months/'

Lady Ida took the sentence very calmly, ana walked firmly from the dock to the cells helow.

Lady Ida Sitwell is one of the famous ladies whose features have beea immortalised by Sargent. The picture by that great painter of Lady Ida, her husband Sir George Sitwell, and their three children is a wonderful. work, and was one of the sensations of' the 1901 .Academy. Sir George Sitwell is' a* man of many -parts— an all-round sportsman,, an enthusiastic antiquary, a traveller, a politician, a horticulturist^ aji> author, and a sceptical inquirer ,The SitwSlls Ijiave been . , 4 actively -'associated with the social l _,rM' /philahthrppic affairs of Scarborough; fand Lady Ida, like all the.members of>ythe. Lojidesborough family, has taken a lively part in local sport and outdoor life. She was Lady Ida Denison, Lord Londesborough's sister, when she niarried Sir George in 1886. It is an ironic fact that Lady Ida Sitwell should be tho granddaughter of a man who' inherited one of the biggest fortunes ever left in the City of London. On tjie death of his uncle,. William Joseph Denison, the banker, in 1849, Lord Albert Conyngham (afterwards firs. Lord Londesborough), second son of the Marquess Conyngham, found himself heir to £2,300,000 on the easy condition that he changed his name from Conyngham to Denison. The foundations of this vast fortune were laid by Joseph Denison, the son of a woollen cloth merchant in Leeds in a small way, who came up to London to push his ; fortune — travelling in a waggon, as the family finances were not equal to a coach fare.- He entered the warehouse of Dillon and Co., and afterwards started business on his own account in Lothbury as merchant and banker. By dint of continuous -labor and scraping, he amassed an enormous fortune. He had a son and two daughters. The elder daughter married Lord Conyngham, and gained an unenviable notoriety during the Regency and afterwards as the mistress of George IV. The other married Sir Robert Lawley.