The dark side of love (1)
A general search for information on the early feminist South African writer, Olive Schreiner, ended up sending me off on a completely different tangent and new discoveries, which is one of the joys of this hobby.
I had come across a highly melodramatic illustrated article from the Boston Sunday Post of 4 March 1900, with the headline “Two Love Stories that have Come Out of the Terrible South African War”, one sub-heading being, “Olive Schreiner, the Famous Novelist, Jilted by Cecil Rhodes, Became His Most Inveterate Enemy.” (The idea of that Empire-builder, Cecil Rhodes, being romantically involved with any woman is fanciful. Rhodes was either totally asexual or a closet homosexual. While it is true that Olive was initially impressed with him, she became disillusioned with his ruthless character and ambitions and did everything she could to discredit him. Her famous book Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland is worth reading to gain an understanding of her views.)
But I digress - Schreiner and Rhodes have been thoroughly explored by academics and my passion is investigating lesser-known people and their stories and so it was the other half of this somewhat lurid article on Boer War romances that sparked my interest. The second sub-heading reads:-
“General Gatacre, England’s Famous Commander, Like Ruskin, Gave Up His Wife to the Man Whom She Loved”.
Boston Sunday Post, March 4, 1900
It seems that the beautiful Irish wife of Brigadier General William Forbes Gatacre, Alice Susan Louisa (nee Kirwan), and mother of his two surviving sons (another had died in infancy) had become tired of the long separations that marriage to a military servant of the Empire entailed. Gatacre had served in India, Burma and South Africa. At some point in April 1890, Alice encountered the dashing Irish Captain Gerald Purcell Fitzgerald and began an affair with him.
The scandal was the buzz of high society and, as is common, the husband was the last to know. When he did find out, he sued Alice for divorce. The divorce documents can be read via Ancestry. Some of the places where the adultery was said to have taken place include the aptly-named Love’s Hotel in Albemarle Street, London and a cottage called “The Nest” at Wargrave in Berkshire, also another cottage at Dunmore, near Waterford, Ireland.
In October 1890, Alice and Gerald sailed for North America and their adultery was alleged to have continued in New York, Coronado near San Diego, and also Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. Somewhat surprisingly, as can be seen in the divorce papers, the two Respondents denied any guilt and swore they had not committed any acts of adultery! But the witnessed evidence against them was far too strong.
Gatacre’s affidavit states he first knew of the affair when he received a letter from his wife while he was in command of an expedition near Mandalay. Alice told him that “… she had left me forever with a man whom she loved better.” Shortly afterwards, he received a packet that “… contained the said Respondent’s wedding ring and other articles of jewellery which I had given her, there was no letter or writing of any sort therewith.”
Rather than the noble and romantically forgiving gesture suggested by the Boston newspaper article, harsh conditions were placed on Alice as the guilty party. Initially, she was allowed a strict 2 hours per week to see her children at specific places when they were not away at school, but eventually Gatacre obtained sole custody of their sons and she would never see them again.
Alice retreated with her new husband to an estate with orange groves in Duarte, California, leaving her two sons with their father – or, more likely, given the era and Gatacre’s peripatetic military career, they were largely raised by nannies, governesses and elite schools.
Orange Groves at Duarte, c. 1895
I was curious to discover what happened to Alice and whether she had any regrets? Surely, she must have missed her children? But there is nothing to be found. If she left any written observations along those lines, perhaps they are still kept in private hands somewhere. Nor can I find photographs or portraits of Alice, apart from that paltry newspaper sketch as above. Below is a photograph of her son John Kirwan Gatacre who died during World War I.
Alice must have been quite a bit older than Gerald. Her exact date of birth is difficult to establish, but as she was of “full age”, presumably 21 or more, according to her first marriage certificate in 1876, it would suggest she was born in 1855 at the latest, whereas Gerald had been born on 5 May 1865.
Ancestry.co.uk
After the divorce became final, Alice and Gerald tied the knot in San Francisco, at the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Ebenezer Church on 28 September, 1892. She used the surname of Kirwan. Perhaps the Swedish Lutheran church was more forgiving of marrying divorced persons than others would have been. However, due to the scandal, the couple were never wholly welcome in the community where they lived in Duarte.
Could a broken heart have played a role when Alice died only a few years later in 1898 aged most likely in her mid to late forties? Gerald shipped her body back to Ireland. She is buried in the Abbeylands Cemetery directly across the River Suir from the city of Waterford.
Alice's grave
Given what I would find out about Gerald’s later life, I wonder if Alice had become disillusioned with her decision when she discovered that Gerald had a dangerously dark side. Could she have suffered domestic violence at his hands?
Gerald went on to have three more wives and and was involved in yet another sensational and messy divorce that was splashed across the headlines in England, Ireland and the United States and his later life will feature in my next post.
However, what did absolutely astonish me when I began this project, is that Gerald was the owner of Waterford Castle and just two years ago I was fortunate to stay there for a couple of nights.
I so wish I had known then what I do now about the Fitzgerald family, and Gerald in particular!
Fitzgerald family at entrance to Waterford Castle, c. 1900s?
(Names not given)
Entrance to Waterford Castle, 2019
View of The Island from my bedroom
in the home of Gerald Purcell Fitzgerald,
Waterford Castle, 2019.
TO BE CONTINUED ...
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