PARSON UNFROCKED.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18608, 2 July 1930, Page 2

PARSON UNFROCKED.

DEATH IN ASYLUM. WAKEFORD CASE RECALLED. A case that startled and mystified the nation is recalled by the death, in Banning Heath Mental Home, of the Rev. John Wakeford, former Archdeacon of Stowe, who was unfrocked by a decision of the Consistory Court after one of the most sensational trials in Church history. Mr Wakeford was found guilty of improper association with an unknown woman at the Bull Hotel, Peterborough. He protested his innocence, and his wife, whose devotion knew no bounds during his lifetime, declared shortly after receiving the news of her husband’s death: “I shall always be convinced of his innocence.” ’ The fall of the archdeacon w’as emphasised by his outstanding position in the church. He "was recognised as one of the most eloquent preachers in the country, and, in addition to the office of archdeacon, was a canon of Lincoln Cathedral and vicar of Kirkstead, near Horncastle. Was ex-Archdeacon Wakeford guilty of the charges brought against him? In spite of the decisions of the courts, thousands of people believe he was innocent. £3OOO was Subscribed by the public towards the cost of his defence, and when Mrs Wakeford, unable longer to continue her terrible struggle against poverty in silence, made known the plight of herself and her husband, bishops and other prominent churchmen raised about £2OOO for the relief of the ex-archdeacon and his wife.

It was in February, 1921, that the Consistory Court, over which Mr S. Talbot, K.C., chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln, presided, held its first sitting to inquire into the grave charges brought against the archdeacon. So great was the interest in the case, that crowds thronged the streets of Lincoln during the trial and the court room was packed with prominent churchmen and women. Witness after witness from Peterborough swore that the archdeacon stayed at the Bull Hotel for two nights with a young, and pretty woman. Every search was made for this girl, but in vain. Other witnesses, notably farmers and dealers who knew Mr Wakeford well, said they saw him at the Bull Hotel having his meals alone. When Mr Wakeford entered the box he at once declared that he was entirely innocent. The most dramatic moment came when the chancellor put questions about the hotel bill to Mr Wakeford. “If you were alone in the house can you account for the hotel register debiting you with meals for two on Saturday night and Monday, except tea? “The book purports to say that £4/1/6 was paid by you. If what you are saying is true, that you were alone, can 3'ou account for the fact that you are charged for meals for two?” “I did not pay more than £2/2/- at the most,” was Mr Wakeford’s reply. The end of days of evidence brought the decision: —“We find the defendant guilty on each charge, and that is the decision of us all.” Those words damned for ever the career of the man who has met his melancholy end in the four walls of a dreary asylum. The indomitable spirit of the exarchdeacon did not forsake him in his hour of crisis. He went on lecturing tours to prove his innocence, and he and Mrs Wakeford appeared in a propaganda film, “The Mystery of the Wakeford Case.” Practically from the day of her husband’s conviction, the devoted wife kept up the little home at Biggin Hill, Kent, to which they retired. For seven years she worked as a saleswoman in a London business house. In 1928 the terrible ordeal through which the archdeacon passed began to tell on his mind, and Mrs Wakeford' had to stay at home to nurse him. Five days after her husband’s removal to the asylum, Mrs Wakeford said: “When the accusation of immorality *was made against him and his appeal failed, the effect, even then, was to kill him, all except physically. The charge, too, not only involved his position, but was a blow which he felt as much as I did against the only woman he ever cared for—myself. “Mercifully, I believe my husband never realised that his reason was going. He went into the asylum diagnosed as suffering from nervous breakdown.”