A Mysterious Incident

GRANT ALLEN AND THE CRACKANTHORPE DROWNING

Hubert Crackanthorpe (1870-1896) was a rich, minor author of the 1890s, a contributor to the Yellow Book and author of Wreckage, a set of grimly naturalistic short stories. He disappeared in Paris on 5 November 1896 and his body was recovered from the Seine on 23 December, so badly decomposed that it had to be identified by a ring and a cuff link.

On 15 November 1896, ten days after Crackanthorpe disappeared, the Daily News in London reported as follows:

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"LOST IN PARIS. THE MYSTERY STILL UNEXPLAINED. AN UNFOUNDED REPORT.

Down to a late hour last night the disappearance of Mr Hubert Crackanthorpe remained a mystery. His friends have no clue to his fate, and they are not even able to formulate a probable theory on the subject.

We are informed, on the best authority, that both the Prefecture and the Surete Publique in Paris have been from the first in possession of every fact which could throw any light on Mr Crackanthorpe's disappearance. He took rooms at an hotel there in his own name, for himself and his mother, and had made every arrangement to return with her to London the next morning.

We are also informed on the best authority that there is no foundation whatever for a story which was reproduced last night in some of the evening papers. The story was to the effect that on October 20th Mr Hubert Crackanthorpe, in company with a young lady described as "slim, petite, exceedingly pretty, and dressed somewhat loudly," called on Mr. Grant Allen, the novelist, at the Hotel Cambon. It was said that "she passed as a friend of Mr Crackanthorpe, and as such was introduced to Mr. Grant Allen," who was represented to have borne himself "very distantly towards her, suspecting things." It was further stated that, "after that visit of October 20 neither Mr Crackanthorpe nor his companion was seen again."

Fortunately the concluding words -- as has been pointed out to us -- afford an opportunity for the most conclusive refutation of the insinuations made in these allegations. This will appear from the following statement of facts, the absolute accuracy of which is assured: A young married English lady was recently in Paris on a visit to Mr. Crackanthorpe and his wife. She is an old friend of Mr. Grant Allen's, and she was the means, at about the time mentioned, namely, October 20th, of introducing Mr. Crackanthorpe to that gentleman. This step was the natural outcome of a feeling that, as both were literary men, they would like to make one another's acquaintance. The statement that the young lady in question has never been seen since October 20th is wholly untrue. Soon after that date she left Paris to re-join her husband in London, where she has since remained. It was not until November 5th, or subsequent to the lady's departure from Paris, that Mr. Crackanthorpe disappeared.

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We can assume that every reader of the Daily News, unless incredibly naive, would have smelt a rat despite the Daily News' talk about a "most conclusive refutation". The more cynical ones may have agreed with John Mortimer's Rumpole, who never believed anything he read in the papers until it had been categorically denied.

What was the twenty-six-year-old Crackanthorpe doing running round Paris with a "pretty", "loudly dressed" young woman, whose husband was in England? Crackanthorpe had been married for three years. Where was his own wife? Crackanthorpe was supposed to be staying with his mother in a Paris hotel: where was she when he was squiring a young lady around town, or when he disappeared? What is the innuendo in "passed" as a friend? Wasn't the man whom the couple visited at his hotel that same Grant Allen who was notorious as a freethinker, and who only the year before these events had published an infamous novel, The Woman Who Did, where the institutions of marriage and of female celibacy are mocked and condemned? Why should such a man as Allen "act distantly" to the visitor, and what did he "suspect"? Why did they call on Allen out of the blue anyway, of all the literary people in Paris? And -- the biggest question of all -- who was responsible for Crackanthorpe's disappearance, and what part, if any, had the "young lady" played in it, before she retreated (so it was said) to the arms of her own husband in England?

Actually all these questions had answers, but they were not the ones served up to the media by the Crackanthorpes. Hubert's father was a QC: the family was rich, with powerful connections, and had nothing to learn from modern practitioners about the art of spin. Behind the decorous denials of the News lay a different story.

The ascertainable facts are as follows:

1. Hubert Crackanthorpe was of independent means, living on his family's money, and he married an even richer young woman, Leila Macdonald, on 14 February 1893.

2. The marriage was on the rocks by 1896. Leila was erratic in her behaviour to an extent which suggested mental instability. Both Hubert and Leila had taken lovers, and Hubert at least was living a dissolute life. Hubert may have contracted syphilis: such at least was the charge Leila made against him later, accusing him of infecting her.

3. The "young lady" in question was of course Crackanthorpe's mistress. She was Sissie (Mary Elizabeth) Welch and she was married to one James ('Jimmy') Welch, an actor. Born in 1868, her maiden name was Gallienne. She was said to be voluptuously attractive: the illustration is taken from a sketch of her by Wilson Steer from the Yellow Book of June 1895. Sissie's brother was Richard Le Gallienne (he added the 'Le'), a poet, who was one of GA's closest friends and a great admirer of his work: almost his disciple in fact. At the time of his disappearance Crackanthorpe was staying in Paris with Sissie Welch, and his wife Leila was there with a lover of her own, one d'Artaux, described as an artist. Apparently all four lived together in the same apartment for a short time, though not surprisingly the atmosphere was strained.

4. Grant Allen definitely knew three of these people through his friend Le Gallienne. He, Sissie, Jimmy Welch and H.G. Wells had all spent at least one afternoon at Grant Allen's home in Hindhead in June 1895, where they were sketched by Wells. Allen probably also knew Crackanthorpe through Grant Richards, the publisher, his nephew by marriage. Crackanthorpe was a friend of Grant Richards, and the two met in Paris around this time to discuss a publishing venture. In fact after Crackanthorpe's disappearance the police thought Grant Richards might have had something to do with it, and briefly questioned him until his uncle Grant Allen vouched for him.

5. Matters came to a head at the beginning of November 1896. Leila sent for her lawyer from London, intent on a divorce. On 5 November Sissie Welch went, or was sent, back to London. Crackanthorpe and Leila were arguing violently on that day, in front of Crackanthorpe's mother, who had arrived to offer support to her son. It was then that the syphilis accusation was made (apparently by her lawyer, in Leila's absence). Crackanthorpe vanished that evening, being last seen on the quais. It was never established if he committed suicide that night or whether he was mugged and pushed into the river. He lived dangerously and frequented dubious clubs, so the latter is possible. There was no letter on the corpse, despite reports: if there had been one, it would not have survived weeks in the water.

After Crackanthorpe's death his widow, Leila Macdonald Crackanthorpe, was pushed on to the sidelines and excoriated by her husband's family. She lived to be 73, dying poor in Paris in 1944. Sissie Gallienne Welch died in 1907, aged 39.

6. What of Crackanthorpe's and Sissie's visit to Grant Allen, at his hotel? It probably did take place, perhaps reported by some Paris-based freelance journalist who secured some gossip from the Cambon hotel and, familiar with what Allen stood for in most circles in England, dressed it up a little for whatever newspaper he could interest in it. Grant Allen's attitude ("very distant") to the pair of lovers may seem surprising from this apostle of free love, as he was regarded; but is quite in keeping with what we know of how he felt about sexual irregularities of this kind. Allen's published, theoretical views were often at variance with his private opinions; he had surprised his friends with his illiberal views about other, similar matters. In short, the author of The Woman Who Did had a strong streak of puritanism, no doubt exacerbated here because he was friends with Jimmy Welch.

7. An alternative, not unlikely, explanation is that Allen himself contacted the News -- for which he was continuing to freelance in these years -- in an attempt to quash the story which had introduced his name into a seedy affair which was nothing to do with him and could only damage his equivocal reputation.

The story of Crackanthorpe's last days has been uncovered by the historian Jay Adams, in his article "The Drowning of Hubert Crackanthorpe and the Persecution of Leila Macdonald",English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, 52:1 (Winter 2009), 6-29, from which most of the above facts are taken, with thanks to the author, who kindly provided some additional comments.