The dark side of love (2)

 
It didn’t take long for Gerald Purcell Fitzgerald to recover from the loss of Alice (see Part I). 

Within months of her demise, early in 1899 he met American heiress Lida Eleanor Nicolls (b. 1875) on a train and married her in the Cathedral of St. Vibiana in Los Angeles, California on 1 March 1899. Three sons were born to the couple: John, in September of that year, and twins Gerald and Edward a year later in 1900.

Lida Eleanor Fitzgerald, later Princess Lida of Thurn and Taxis

It was obviously a stormy marriage and by August 1904 it was all over. The divorce documents available to read online extend to well over 80 pages and are full of savage and vitriolic accusations.

Who to believe? Gerald’s affidavit states that Lida committed adultery with one Kenneth Macdonald in London on several occasions in 1904, as well as with another unknown man from whom she contracted a sexual disease. Lida countered saying that she had contracted the sexual disease from him, that Gerald had committed adultery with various women.

Her accusations of the violence make for alarming reading, detailing episodes when Gerald threatened to kill her and also the baby, verbally and physically abusing Lida so she was in fear of her life. Witness statements on behalf of Lida concur with some of this.

Issues over Gerald’s domicile – he claimed to be English but his residence was considered to be Ireland – resulted in the whole case being thrown out and it required an Act of Parliament to finally seal the divorce by 1906.

Lida with her son John Fitzgerald and second husband, Prince Victor

Lida went on to become Princess Lida of Thurn and Taxis with a dubious colourful life that involved many more headlines, court cases and litigation, so one has to treat her statements with caution. * 

Gerald didn’t waste time moving on either. In 1907 he married Mabel Marie Gossip (b. 1878), daughter of chess master and writer, George H D Gossip. She would give him two more children, his only daughter, Mary Augusta, b. 1908, and another son Nicholas Francis, b. 1913.

I can find no record of their eventual divorce in the newspapers or the genealogical sources (divorce court documents are closed under the 100 year rule) but Gerald seems to have lived a low-key life with Mabel although it didn’t last and they must have parted by the 1920s, as Mabel went on to marry Arthur Patrick Douglas, the Fifth Baronet Lushington in 1929. Lushington was a widower of 68 and Mabel was 49.

Gerald’s next marriage was to Lamorna Jessie Richards (b. 1897 - she was 32 years younger than Gerald). Her father was the artist Frank Richards, famous for his plein-air pictures as well as portraits. 

It seems Gerald and Lamorna were together for quite a few years before they made it legal. While no official records can be found in the usual marriage entries, in Lamorna’s 1961 death notice in the Southern Rhodesia [Zimbabwe] records, her executor makes the declaration that she married Gerald in Jersey [Channel Islands] on 13 June 1929. Gerald and Lamorna must have had investments or business interests in Southern Rhodesia, hence the requirement.

This entry from the London Gazette shows that Lamorna officially changed her surname to Fitzgerald much earlier, in 1925, by which time the couple already had one son, Patrick, born in 1922. He died while serving on HMS Invincible in 1943.

Gerald travelled a great deal and his name appears on many passenger lists, including RMS Lusitania on a sailing to New York in February 1915 at the height of World War I. That ship was famously torpedoed just a couple of months later on the same route with a large loss of life and the sinking was one of the catalysts for bringing the United States into the War.

He died in Waterford in 1946 and his Probate record for England shows a paltry sum of 1,255 pounds bequeathed to his wife, Lamorna. Perhaps after all his marriages and children, he was no longer as wealthy as he had been, or his assets were tied up in some way in trusts or other schemes that would obviate duties and taxes.

Photographs or portraits of Gerald and all his wives are difficult to find and probably remain in private family collections and some may still grace the walls of Waterford Castle. If anyone reading this can provide more information, it would be appreciated.

Stairs with portraits at Waterford Castle, my own photo 2019

* Interesting to spot a comment about her in the Wikipedia entry from that other outrageous unreliable character Rudolph Festetics who was the subject of one of my recent blogs!