On 21 January 1908, a messenger arrived at Cox
and Co. the army bank at 16 Charing Cross. He presented a typewritten bill of
exchange for £300 from the account of Captain EH Brassey of The Lifeguards,
payable to Mr AF Cox. The money was put in an envelope addressed to AF Cox at
87 Shaftesbury Avenue and the messenger boy delivered it to that address.
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| Cox an Co, army bank Charing Cross, c1918 |
On 27
January this happened again. But the sum at the top of the bill was for £700
while the body of the bill said £300. In accordance with custom, the bank paid
the lower amount and wrote to Captain Brassey about the discrepancy. He was
away on leave and did not receive the letter until a few days later. On 1
February, a messenger again came to the bank, this time with a bill for £1,000.
Knowing the Captain was away, the bank did not pay. The following day Brassey returned
and told the bank the bills were forgeries.
The police were informed, and Detective
Inspector Benjamin Allen of ‘A’ Division arrived at Cox and Co. just as a messenger
was presenting yet another bill for £400. DI Allen instructed the bank to put a
blank piece of headed paper in the envelope and the messenger boy was told to
take it to 87 Shaftesbury Avenue. This turned out to be a shop where letters
could be sent and collected for a small fee. The shop keeper James Squires said
all the letters were collected by a man he knew as Philip Beresford, who said
he was a friend of Mr Cox, or forwarded to an office at Cecil House in
Shaftesbury Avenue.
Philip Beresford, described as a 34-year old
engineer of Victoria Villas, 43 Victoria Road Kilburn, appeared in Bow Street
court on Saturday 8 February 1908, charged with forging four bills of exchange
in the name of Captain Brassey. His solicitor was Arthur Newton, who three
years later acted for Dr Crippen in the spectacular murder case. Philip’s
father must have paid to hire Newton who ran one of the top legal firms in
London.
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| Arthur Newton, by 'Spy', 1893 |
DI Allen said Beresford used several aliases,
and had been identified as a man calling himself ‘Templeton’, who had opened bank
accounts in Bloomsbury and Windsor and cashed the bills. Allen had followed the
messenger boy from the bank to 87 Shaftesbury Avenue (near the Chinatown area) and
waited until Beresford
collected the letter addressed to AF Cox. Allen followed the man through the
back streets into Bedfordbury near Covent Garden, and said ‘Mr Beresford?’ The
man turned around and said ‘Yes’.
Allen identified himself as a police officer and arrested him on suspicion of forgery.
When he was searched at Cannon Row police station, the blank sheet of headed
notepaper from the bank, a driver’s license and business cards in the name of
Philip Beresford, were found in his pocket.
He asked to write a statement which said: ‘I
know nothing whatever about any forgeries. I have known a man called Arthur Cox
for some years, and about three weeks ago I met him in a bar just off Charing
Cross. He told me Captain Brassey owed him a lot of money and if I would help
him to get it he would ‘go halves’ with me. I sent letters to the bank and
received replies at Shaftesbury Avenue. I got half the money, and like a fool I
asked no questions. I met him at Edgware Road station today and I was on my way
to meet him at Waterloo station when I was arrested.’ Because DI Allen had been
following Beresford, he knew this was untrue.
In
his Kilburn lodgings the police found a Cook’s ticket in the name of ‘Appleton’
dated 27 January for Paris and enquires with the French police found that some
of the bills had been cashed in an account he had opened there.
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| Edgar Hugh Brassey (IWM) |
Captain Edgar Hugh Brassey, who lived at 1 St
James Place Westminster, gave evidence in court. He said he employed the man he
knew as Captain Stutfield as his chauffeur from December 1905 to April 1907. Stutfield
was paid by cheque and had an account with the same Cox and Co. bank where the bills had been
presented. Brassey said did not know a man called AF Cox nor had he signed any
bills of exchange. A handwriting expert gave evidence that the bills were
written by Beresford/Stutfield. At the Old Bailey on 31 March 1908, Beresford
pleaded guilty to forgery and uttering (cashing the forgery) and was sentenced
to 12 months imprisonment in Wormwood Scrubs.
We have discovered that Philip Beresford was
really Philip Lowry Stutfield, who was born in March 1873, the eldest of twelve
children of Frederic Stutfield, a very respectable and wealthy City wine
merchant who lived at 121 King Henry’s Road in Hampstead. Philip had received a
good education and studied for the Indian Civil Service, but he suffered from TB.
He enlisted in the 5th Lancers in 1892 and transferred to the 2nd
Royal Berkshire regiment the following year. Having received a legacy, he
quickly spent the money, and in December 1899 he enlisted as a trooper, serving
in South Africa from 13 March 1900 to 10 April 1901 during the Boer War. He was
wounded by a shell splinter in his spine, invalided home and discharged on 11
June 1901. He clearly liked the army, because he joined the Yeomanry, a mounted
volunteer force, on 28 December 1901. He received his commission and was
promoted to Captain for bravery in the field.
In July 1896 he had married Lilian Parnell in
Plymouth and their daughter Dorothy was born in Stoke Damerel Devon on 14
August 1897. After the Boer War, the couple separated but did not get divorced.
Lilian died in Bournemouth in 1952.
Soon after leaving Lilian, Philip married
Annie Lilian Mary White on 15 January 1902 in Farnborough Surrey, while he was
at the Aldershot camp serving in the Imperial Yeomanry. They had several children;
his son Francis was born in Folkstone on 19 January 1903 and Katherine was
born in Kingston in 1905. On 26 July 1904 he was found guilty of bigamy at the
Old Bailey and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Presumably, Lilian had
reported that he was still married to her. He was released in January 1905 and began
working as a chauffeur.
After
serving his 12-month sentence for forgery he was released about April 1909. At
some point, he and Annie sailed to Australia under an assumed name. Perhaps his
father paid for the trip as a way of getting rid of the embarrassment Philip
had caused?
Once
in New South Wales he became
Francis Anthony Stutfield. After WWI began, he joined the Australian Army on 10
January 1916 when he was nearly 43 years old. Stationed at the Victoria
Barracks in Melbourne, Philip served as a sergeant in the Camel Corps. He did
not see overseas service and was discharged as medically unfit on 17 May 1917. At
the time Annie was living at ‘Koyoo’ Bottle and Glass Road, Vaucluse, an eastern
suburb of Sydney.
Philip became a fruit farmer in Mittagong,
south of Sydney. In 1926 he got into financial trouble and sold a pearl
necklace, which belonged to a credit union, at the Randwick racecourse, near
Sydney. He was found guilty, fined £2 and ordered to pay back £45. Despite his
criminal record he became a JP in Gosford City NSW. He died aged 77
in Mittagong on 13 September 1950. Annie died in South Granville NSW in July
1958. They were survived by their children Robert and Evelyn who were born in
Australia.
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| 43 Victoria Road today (Google Street View) |
It
proved difficult to trace Philip Lowry Stutfield because of all his aliases,
and we have not discovered why he was living in Kilburn in 1908.
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