The Bigamists

You may be surprised to learn that Stewart Easton Morgan was a woman despite her rather masculine sounding name.  Although she is related to me only through marriage, her story and the story of the men who came in contact with her is an interesting one and is a story where "family lore" is once again proved to be slightly untrue. The story is (was?) that in England in 1917 she was swept off her feet by a New Zealand soldier while she was grieving the death of her elderly husband and that he took her back home to New Zealand on the troop ship with him and made her his bride.

I think the true story goes something like this.

Stewart was born on 3 April 1893 in West Calder which lies to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. The daughter of James Llewellyn Morgan and Elizabeth Steel Carmichael.  She was named for her maternal grandmother who was Stewart Easton. Her older brother John and younger sister Lilly were also born in Scotland but by 1901 the family was living at 52 Copland Terrace in Newcastle-on-Tyne which is where Stewart's younger brother James was born in 1901.  In the 1901 census, Stewart is recorded as a boy aged 7 years - it seems the enumerator hadn't come across a little girl named Stewart before. The picture  shows the family with James as a baby on his mother's knee. John is standing beside Lilly who is sitting on a stool and Stewart is the wee girl holding her father's hand. As James is "sitting up" I assume this photo was taken about July 1901.

In 1911 James Morgan and his family were living at 8 Mafeking Street, Gateshead-on-Tyne where he is recorded on the census as being a cooper working for a brewery.  Stewart, aged nearly 17, is not living with the family and neither is her brother John but there is a new little daughter named Elizabeth aged 6 years.

It is possible that on 04 August 1910 Stewart left London and sailed to Brisbane on board the Oswestry Grange.  There is a steerage passenger named Stewart Morgan aged 17 recorded as being a domestic servant on the ship's manifest. On the Australian Electoral rolls for 1913, there is a Stewart Morgan recorded living in Darling Downs, an electorate in Queensland, and working as a domestic servant. There is no record of a return to England.

What is known for sure is that a young man named James Alexander Meddings, an Australian soldier from Ecucha, Victoria, crossed paths with Stewart either in Australia or later in England. James was 6 feet tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and dark brown hair.  He had attested on 4 January 1915 in Melbourne and had seen a lot of action in many theatres of war including Anzac Cove, France and Flanders. It would be true to say that James had some problems coming under authority in the army and his records show that he had been court martialed for being drunk in France on 17 May 1916.  He also spent a lot of time in hospital as a result of being gassed in France, for an injury to his arm from an exploding shell and also for a bout of gonorrhea. He was sent to England for medical treatment on 14 June 1916 and at time of his marriage gave his address as Whinney House, Gateshead. Did James and Stewart meet in a medical setting? Was Stewart, perhaps, a nurse?  However it happened, the couple did indeed meet and on 30 September 1916 they were married in the Parish Church of St George in Gateshead.

Stewart's parents were still living in Gateshead at 8 Mafeking Street and that is the address that James had noted on his army file as the address of his wife.

One would think that Stewart settled down to the life of a soldier's wife but that is not quite what happened.  Seven months after her marriage to James Meddings, Stewart married again.

Husband number two was Claude Milne, a New Zealand soldier born in my home town of Wanganui and working as a Fireman for the railways when he went to war. At his attestation on 2 May 1916 he gave his birthdate as 23 January 1896 but he was not telling the truth. He was born exactly three years later than that on 23 January 1899. Lots of conduct issues are mentioned in his army file - breaking bounds, disobeying orders, late for parade are some examples. He was posted as a deserter on 22 October 1916 and on 7 December 1916 was admitted to hospital in London with VD.  From there he was moved to the army hospital in Codford.  Codford Hospital, on the Salisbury Plains in Wiltshire, was notorious for its VD patients who were separated from the general patients by a barbed wire fence.  Claude was transferred out of the isolation wing on 23 January 1917 and was admitted No. 3 NZ General Hospital. Claude's marriage to Stewart was at The Independent Chapel, Codford, St Mary, on 26 April 1917.  He is recorded as having forfeited 5 days pay for breaking bounds and disobeying an order on 3 June 1917.

Claude made sure Stewart was added as his next of kin in his army file. On 21 June 1917 Claude was classified as unfit for service and sent to Torquay to await his transportation back to New Zealand.

Stewart had now married two soldiers who had been hospitalised. At the time of Stewart's second marriage her first husband James Meddings was in Wareham Camp preparing to be shipped out to France again.  She was not a widow, she had not been divorced. Her second marriage was therefore bigamy.

Husband number three was my second cousin twice removed Vernon George Collins, a rifleman from New Zealand who, you guessed it, was transferred to Codford Hospital on 3 March 1917. Vernon had been badly wounded in his left arm on 16 September 1916 and the wound was taking a long time to heal. The powers that be decided that Vernon was no longer physically fit for service due to his wounds and he embarked for New Zealand on the troopship Ionic on 23 July 1917.  The family story is that Stewart travelled with him and that may be true. Vernon and Stewart were married in Auckland on 3 October 1917.  On the marriage registration it says that Stewart was the widow of James Meddings who had died on 16 May 1917.  However, on her third wedding day in less than two years, Stewart's first husband James was in France.  He returned to England on 6 November 1918 where he made sure that Stuart was officially listed as his next of kin.

Vernon and Stewart had two children and lived together in Auckland until Vernon's death in 1970. Stewart, the serial bigamist, died in 1980.

James Meddings returned to Australia at the end of the war. I wonder if he ever knew what had happened to his wife.  His sad, lonely death was reported on Thursday 4 July 1929.

You will note that the title of this story is "The Bigamists". We are not quite finished with marriages yet! Claude Milne was sent back to New Zealand on 25 September 1917 aboard the same troopship - Ionic - that Vernon (and possibly Stewart) had returned home in. When Claude arrived home on 24 October 1917 he began a series of marriages that takes my breath away.

Milne had many aliases and used them freely as he married and had relationships with women in New Zealand and Australia. He was known at different times as:

Claude Milne

Alexander Kenneth Claude Milne

Alexander Robert Milne

Kenneth Claude Milne

Ken Milne

Alexander Robert Kenneth Milne

Milne also had several occupations:

Fireman

Soldier

Engineer

Veterinarian

Salesman

Tractor Expert

In various legal documents (including marriage registrations) he always correctly named his parents as Alexander Robert Milne and Annie Boswell which made the trail a little easier to follow. He always used his correct birthday on documents too but varied the birth year depending on the situation. According to his New Zealand army records he was a little chap of 5ft 6 inches with a 32 inch chest, dark hair and dark eyes. He was discharged from the New Zealand army because of his ill health although no medical board could find anything definitive which could be causing his fainting fits. He was classified as unfit for further service due to debility. In other words, physically, he doesn't really seem to have been a "catch".

However Milne seemed to have had no problem in attracting women.  On 3 June 1918 he married   Virginia Olive Pike in Foxton. Virginia and Claude had two children together but Milne was not often present during the marriage.  In 1919 he made the papers when he was found run down by a motor car in Napier.  Then Virginia tried to make him accountable when she sued for maintenance in 1922:

There wasn't much point though because Milne had already married Florence Evelyn Smith on 22 November 1920 in Auckland. But Virginia tried again:

Out of prison in 1923, Milne was soon back inside:

Leaving two "wives" behind him, Milne decided to try his luck in Australia.  On 31 March 1926 Milne married his fourth wife 21 year old Olive Powell Scroop at the home of Rev G Davidson in Dulwich, South Australia using one of his aliases, Alexander Kenneth Milne. Milne got a job as a Fireman in the South Australian Railways and on 18 November 1926 the couple had a son who they named Alexander Kenneth Claude. Unfortunately the little chap lived for only 5 hours.

On 7 January 1928 Milne "married" again - this time in the Presbyterian Church in Hawthorn, Castlemaine to Ina Mavis Dunning. But Milne's marriages were catching up with him and on 26 March 1930 a warrant was issued for his arrest in Glebe NSW on  a charge of bigamy:

When Milne appeared in court on 22 July 1930 his defence was that he had forgotten about his marriage in Adelaide:

I was aware that Milne had fathered a child (probably without marrying the mother) in Perth in 1939 when I began this blog.  The lady involved was the recently widowed Mona Blanche Blight.  I wondered why Milne would have been in Perth and so I checked the National Archives of Australia. Bingo!

There are two entries for Milne's enlistments (with the same alias but different next of kin) for the Australian Army in WW2.  As usual Milne gave his correct birthday as far as day and month but varied the year. This is the first:

MILNE ALEXANDER KENNETH CLAUDE : Service Number - 46655 : Date of birth - 23 Jan 1899 : Place of birth - WANGANUI NEW ZEALAND : Place of enlistment - PERTH : Next of Kin - MILNE KENNETH

This is the second enlistment when, to my surprise, he named his next of kin as Eunice Milne and so yet another wife popped out of the woodwork when I thought my story was complete:

MILNE ALEXANDER KENNETH CLAUDE : Service Number - WX10988 : Date of birth - 23 Jan 1906 : Place of birth - WANGANUI N Z : Place of enlistment - CLAREMONT WA : Next of Kin - MILNE EUNICE

Milne had married for the sixth time in the Lutheran Church in Adelaide on 6 June 1936.  His new wife was 18 year old Eunice Marjorie Joyce Harland.

There was a dramatic court appearance in Perth in 1941 as Eunice asked for more maintenance for their two children. Milne chose to insinuate that Eunice was a nazi spy because they were married in a "German church".

Using the name Alexander Robert Kenneth Milne, Claude took his seventh trip down the aisle with Agnes Mary Miller in 1944 in Annandale New South Wales. Their son Alexander Robert Milne was born the same year. Milne and Agnes Mary were still living together in 1980 in New South Wales. Two other people were living with them in 1972 - Robert Bruce Milne and Lorraine Milne - possibly two further children but not necessarily from Agnes Mary.

Milne died in Fairfield Hospital, New South Wales in June 1985.  His name is recorded as Alexander Robert Milne. His parents are correctly identified as Alexander and Annie.

Milne makes headlines in many other aspects of his life: lots of court appearances for his driving and his drinking and, surprisingly, a Humane Society Award for rescuing drowning children.  It is his record of marriages that makes him stand out however and so that is what I have concentrated on in this story.

There are several further marriage entries which to my mind look suspicious. Without spending a lot of cash to investigate further I will have to let them lie for the time being.  If anyone reading this has a grandfather or great grandfather with any combinations of the various names that Claude used over the years I would love to hear from them.