LLOYD'S WEEKLY NEWS

London, England

28 November 1909

"LORD" IN KILTS.

DECREE GRANTED AGAINST ECCENTRIC HUSBAND.

TEMPLE OF MIRRORS.

INVENTED A NEW RELIGION.

STRANGE EVIDENCE IN DIVORCE CASE.

Many curious stories were told in the Scottish Court of Session, on Wednesday, of a husband who called himself a “lord,” wore a kilt, studied ancient manuscripts, and built himself a temple of mirrors in his house in Scotland.

These statements were made in an undefended action for divorce brought by Rose Edith Kelly, aged thirty-five, against her husband, Alister Crowley, who both gave addresses in London.

The wife is the daughter of the Rev. F. F. Kelly, vicar of Camberwell. She was married in 1897 to Capt. Frederick Thomas Skerrett [Frederick Thomas Skerrett], who died in August, 1899. In 1902 she was staying in Paris with her brother, Mr. Gerald Festus Kelly, an artist, and there made the acquaintance of the defendant.

“Was he then calling himself Alister Crowley?” asked counsel.

The reply was: “He was then Count Skellet. I knew, however, his real name was Alexander Edward Crowley. Later he called himself Macgregor, to identify himself with Scotland.”

In July, 1903, she went to Strathpeffer, and again met Mr. Crowley, whose name had then become Alister Crowley Macgregor. He tried to identify himself with Scotland as much as possible, had bought a home in Inverness-shire named Boleskine, and used to wear a kilt and all that sort of thing. At Strathpeffer on Aug. 11 he asked her to marry him, and she consented.

They were married next day in Scottish fashion, and went to stay at Boleskine. The marriage was registered in the usual way. Shortly after the marriage the husband assumed the name of Lord Boleskine, because people in Scotland, he said, took the names of their property.

Wife Sent Home.

Counsel: I take it he is a little eccentric?—Oh, yes.

In July, 1904 [Nuit Ma Ahathoor Hectate Sappho Jezebel Lilith], a child was born, who died twenty-one months later. For a year they travelled about in the East together, and in 1906 she and her husband were at Hongkong. Her husband left her there to return home by America, telling her to go straight home.

She came back to England and joined her father in June, 1906. At her father’s house a baby [Lola Zaza] was born in September, 1906, and she was suing for the custody of that child. Then they lived in Chislehurst for two years, and in March, 1908, she went to stay at Warwick-road, where the house was taken in her name, the defender wishing to avoid responsibility for the rent, as he was becoming a little impecunious.

They stayed there until the summer of this year, and she left because her husband treated her cruelly. She left him on July 21.

Some time before he had asked her to take care of a child for one of his most intimate friends. She, however, accidentally opened a letter addressed to him; which gave the address of the mother, a Miss Zwee, and she went to see her. She learned that her husband was the father of the child Miss Zwee was a milliner in the Burlington Arcade.

Mrs. Danby, of Fulham, a charwoman, told of a short, dark woman who held high revelry one night with the defender.

Charles Randle, of Chelsea, chauffeur, said Miss Zwee, who was a friend of his wife, boarded with them. The defender, whose portrait he identified, frequently visited her.

Lord Salvesen (looking at the photograph): He looks as if he belonged to the stage.

Counsel: He is a literary character; he rather affects the artistic.

Lord Salvesen thought the domicile had become Scottish whatever it was originally, and seeing also that the marriage took place in Scotland, he thought there was sufficient ground for granting a decree. Accordingly his lordship granted a decree with custody of the child to the wife, aliment at the rate of £1 per week.