The Army Officer and the French Lady

Although this sounds like a melodrama it is a true story, which surprisingly, has not appeared in any books. 

Walter Meredyth Thomas was a 28 year old Army officer, and 17 year old Carmen de Fleury came from an old noble French family. They were both living with their families when they married on 13 June 1895 at the Kensington Register Office. 

The marriage certificate shows the full details:
Walter Meredyth Thomas (28) Lieutenant, late East Yorkshire Regiment. His father was James Lewis Thomas, late Chief Surveyor to the War Department. 26 Gloucester Street Pimlico.
Mathilde Elsie Clementina Carmen St Anthoine de Fleury (17). 15 Colherne Mansions Earls Court. Her father, the Viscount Clifford de Fleury, had died in Jersey when she was just three. Her brother Gaston had inherited the title. 

Walter and Carmen had a daughter who was born in 1898, but it was not a happy marriage and they parted in October 1902. In November 1903 Carmen was living at No.3 St Stephen’s Mansions in Smith Square Westminster when Walter forced his way in, threatened her with a heavy Webley revolver and ransacked the flat. While defending his sister, her brother hit Walter in the mouth, he filed a charge of assault against Gaston. However, Walter Thomas did not appear for the court hearing, and when Carmen told the magistrate what had happened and she lived in fear of her husband, a warrant was issued against Walter. 

At the end of November, Carmen received a letter apparently from Walter’s Lincoln’s Inn solicitors in which he asked for a meeting with Carmen and her solicitor to try to resolve the matter amicably. After speaking with her solicitors, Arthur Newton and Co. she agreed, and at 6.00 pm on 1st December a grey-haired man wearing a frock coat, gold coloured spectacles, and carrying a black brief case, arrived at her flat. He said he was a family solicitor representing Walter. He opened his brief case and took out some letters which he said his client had obtained from the flat. He said to Carmen, ‘You know they are very compromising – what are you going to do about them. What are they worth?’ But when he started to speak, she whispered to William Pierrepont, a private detective working for her solicitors; ‘I believe he is my husband’. When Pierrepont challenged him, Walter suddenly pulled out a revolver and threatened Carmen, shouting ‘Well perhaps you will do it for this’. Bravely, Pierrepont jumped between them and was grazed by a shot which whistled past his head and hit his out-stretched hand. They fought violently and he managed to get the gun out of Walter’s hand. The police were called, but Walter managed to escape.

The Illustrated Police News, 12 Dec 1903

Detective Inspector Fuller of Scotland Yard later found the silver-grey wig which Walter had discarded in the street. The wig had a label from Willy Clarkson the theatrical wigmaker and costume designer of 45 Wellington Street, off the Strand. He provided costumes for all the leading actors in the West End theatres, and even for Queen Victoria when her children put on plays in Windsor Castle. When the police interviewed him, Clarkson said that Walter Thomas bought the £4 wig and had asked to be made up like a London solicitor. A description and a country-wide warrant for Walter’s arrest was issued, but despite the best efforts of the police he could not be found.

On 29 December 1903 Carmen de Fleury began divorce proceedings. She claimed that between May and November that year Walter had committed adultery with two women, and on 1 December he had threatened her with a revolver in her flat. 

In January 1904 Scotland Yard was informed that a Canadian called Robert Vernon had shot and killed himself in a Monte Carlo hotel after losing all his money at the casino on the 13th. At the end of the month, further police investigation confirmed that he was really the missing Walter Meredyth Thomas, who had gone into hiding in Monte Carlo. 

We could not find out what happened to Carmen, but hopefully she had a happy life and was able to attend her daughter's wedding in 1946.