THE REYNOLDS'S NEWSPAPER

London, England

28 November 1909

(page 8)

INVENTED A RELIGION.

Amusing Revelations in a

Scottish Divorce Action.

Curious evidence regarding a man’s weakness for assuming names other than his own was given in the Edinburgh Court of Session during the hearing of a divorce petition brought by Rose Edith Kelly [Rose Kelly], otherwise Skerrett or Crowley, against Alister Macgregor Crowley, formerly Edward Alexander Crowley, of Boleskine, Foyers, Inverness-shire. It was stated that the plaintiff was the daughter of the Rev. F. F. Kelly, Vicar of Camberwell. The defendant was said to have a great admiration for everything Scottish, and to have called himself by a more Scottish name than his own for that reason. He also passed as “Count” Skellet, called himself a Cabalist, studied ancient manuscripts, invented a new religion, and covering the walls of a room with mirrors, called it a temple. After receiving an honour of some kind from an Indian chief he called himself “Lord Boleskine.” A witness stated, amid laughter, that there was plenty of land called Boleskine, but it was “mostly perpendicular.”

The plaintiff said she was thirty-five years of age, and was married in 1897 to Captain F. T. Skerret [Frederick Thomas Skerrett], who died two years later. In 1902 she was staying in Paris with her brother, Mr. G. F. Kelly [Gerald Kelly], an artist, and there she made the acquaintance of the defendant, who then called himself “Count” Skellet. Witness, however, knew his real name was Edward Alex Crowley. Later, he called himself Macgregor in order to identify himself with Scotland. In July, 1903, she went to Strathpeffer, and again met defendant, who then called himself Alister Crowley Macgregor. She knew he bought Boleskine before 1900, and that his home was there. It was the only house he ever had. Defendant was much attached to Scotland, wore the kilt, and “all that sort of thing,” and gave out that he was a Scotsman. While at Strathpeffer defendant asked her to marry him, and on August 12, 1903, they were married. They went abroad for the honeymoon, and subsequently resided at Boleskine. Shortly after the marriage defendant assumed the title of “Lord” Boleskine, and said that he did so because people in Scotland took the name of their estates. He was, remarked witness, a little eccentric. After travelling in the East they lived at Chislehurst, and later in Warwick-road, Earl’s Court, where the house was taken in her name. Her husband was impecunious. In July last he had bruised her, and she consulted her solicitor about his conduct. On August 5 she learned from the charwoman that the defendant had taken a woman to the house the night before. She learned through accidentally opening a letter that the defendant had had a child by a Miss Swee, and she then brought her action.

In reply to the Judge, witness said her father was Irish, and she was born in England. The defendant was “sp fearfully interested” in the other woman’s child that he asked her to go to Scotland with it and take her own also, but she did not go. Mrs. Danby, the charwoman, gave evidence as to a woman staying with the defendant, and a chauffeur named Randall, with whom Miss Swee had boarded, spoke to the defendant visiting her. The plaintiff’s brother, George Festus Kelly, said defendant, when writing to witness from abroad, sometimes signed himself “Macgregor” and sometimes he changed his name from Alexander to Alister, because it was Scottish. Defendant appeared in complete Highland costume, and the Macgregor tartan was very bright. (Laughter.) The Judge: Personally, I never have been able to get up any admiration for the Macgregor tartan from an artistic point of view, but its associations, of course, are very romantic. Defendant’s father, continued witness, was a Plymouth Brethren, and had lots of money. Lord Salveson granted a divorce with the custody of the child [Lola Zaza] of the marriage, and ordered defendant to pay £52 a year for the maintenance of the child.