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David Henry Frost, prisoner in Ceylon 4 years 3 months ago #67041

  • BereniceUK
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ABERDEEN DIVORCE CASE.
Lord Pearson heard evidence, in the Court of Session yesterday, in an action for divorce brought by Mary Ann Henderson, or Frost, 66 Great Northern Road, Aberdeen, against her husband, David Henry Frost, engineer, cited as residing at 45 King Street, Aberdeen. The action was defended.

Pursuer (31) said she was married to the defender in Aberdeen in 1893. There had been three children of the marriage. In 1895 her husband went to Pretoria. She followed him shortly afterwards. In 1900, in consequence of the war, they were obliged to go into a refuge camp at Port Elizabeth. Her husband left the camp, and went to Bloemfontein and Pretoria. She was seven months in the refuge camp, and then she left, and took a situation at Port Elizabeth. She learned that her husband was taken prisoner, and was sent to Ceylon. He had been making ammunition for the Boers.

Counsel for defender objected that that had nothing to do with the case.

Lord Pearson said it had nothing to do with the case. All they had to do with the Ceylon incident was to express their sympathy with him.

Pursuer resuming, said she learned that after being liberated from Ceylon, defender returned to Aberdeen, and that he was now in London carrying on his trade. She returned to Aberdeen in May, 1901, along with her youngest child. She went back to South Africa in September, 1901, and was in various situations there. She received information, upon which she had raised this action. She returned to this country last year, partly for the purpose of being present at the proof in this case. She last saw her husband in 1900 in the refuge camp.

Cross-examined - In 1899 she had a quarrel with her husband about another woman whom she had suspected he was running after. He denied it.

Replying to Lord Pearson, pursuer said she learned of her husband's conduct in 1901. She raised an action against him then. The summons was served upon him in Ceylon, but on his release defender came to Scotland instead of going to South Africa, and there was no jurisdiction against him.

The evidence of witnesses taken in South Africa was read.

Defender said he was 34 years of age. There was not a single word of truth in the statements which had been made against him. He did go to a house in Pretoria a few days before the Jameson Raid. He and one of the witnesses dined together, and then his friend said he had business at a house. They went to the house, an ordinary Dutch house, but not obviously a house where women were kept. There were three Kaffir maids in the house. There was nothing improper on his part.

This was all the evidence.

Lord Pearson, having heard counsel upon the evidence, said he was of opinion that there was clear and sufficient testimony, and he gave decree of divorce. He found Mrs Frost entitled to the custody of the youngest child of the marriage, with £1 a month of aliment for it, and to the expenses of the action.

Aberdeen Daily Journal, Friday 17th March 1905
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AN ECHO OF THE WAR.
ABERDEEN WOMAN'S DIVORCE ACTION.
Evidence was led to-day before Lord Pearson in a defended action by Mary Ann Henderson or Frost, employed in a tea-room in Pretoria, South Africa, against her husband, David Henry Frost, 45 Skene Street, Aberdeen. Mr D. Anderson appeared for the pursuer, and Mr A. R. Brown for the defence.

Pursuer (31) stated that she was married to the defender in 1893 at Aberdeen, and there were three children. Her husband was an engineer, and in 1895 went to Pretoria, where pursuer subsequently joined him. In 1900, in consequence of the Boer War, parties had to go to the Refugee Camp at Port Elizabeth. Her husband remained there a short time, but pursuer was seven months in the camp. Defender went first to Bloemfontein and afterwards to Pretoria. Subsequently she took a situation in the outskirts of Port Elizabeth. She heard that her husband had been taken prisoner and sent to Ceylon. In answer to the Judge, witness said that her husband went as a prisoner. It was said that he had been making ammunition for the Boers. At this stage, Mr Brown intervened and stated with emphasis that his client denied having done anything of the kind, and such a statement had nothing to do with the case. His lordship agreed, and said that nothing would go down in the notes but the mere fact that defender went to Ceylon as a prisoner. Witness returned to Aberdeen in 1901, and returned to South Africa in the autumn of that year. In Pretoria she received information as to her husband's conduct, which caused her to bring the present action. She last saw her husband in 1900 in the Refugee Camp. She took proceedings against defender in South Africa, and he was served with a summons in Ceylon, but he returned to Scotland instead of South Africa, and the proceedings there were dropped.

Cross-examined. - Witness said that she suspected her husband's relations with a woman in 1899, but was not sure. She had had a quarrel with him about that woman. The evidence of several witnesses were examined on commission in South Africa was read. It was to the effect that defender had been unfaithful.

THE DEFENCE.
The defender, in the box, stated that he was 34 years of age. He remembered going, a few days before the Jameson Raid, to a house in Pretoria with a man named Watson. He had no idea of Watson's purpose in going there, and Watson's account of what took place was absolutely untrue. There never were improper relations between defender and the woman in whose boarding-house he lived. He never admitted to a man named Stanley that he had been unfaithful. He earned between thirty and forty pounds a month in South Africa, and was now making thirty-five shilling a week in London. He denied that he had ever been unfaithful. Mr Anderson stated that they had arranged about the custody of the girl going with the mother, and the two boys with the father.

Lord Pearson was of opinion that the case was proved against the defender. The view that he took was that, making all necessary allowances for the rule that admissions so far as a case was founded on them must be well supported, and making also allowance for the circumstance that the only direct evidence was the evidence of a man who was said to have had a quarrel with the defender, the incidents libelled had been sufficiently proved for the purposes of the case. His lordship accordingly gave decree of divorce, with £1 a month aliment for the girl.

Edinburgh Evening News, Thursday 16th March 1905
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I found a birth and a death who could be the man above: -

David Henry Frost, born 1871, birth registered in the St Nicholas district, Aberdeen.

David Henry Frost, death registered in the fourth quarter of 1951, at Greenwich, London, aged 80.

David Henry was the son of William Skene Frost and Mary (Christie) Frost. There were six children, two of the others being a brother, William, and a sister, Bathia Maurice.
www.myheritage.com/names/bathia_frost#

The Aberdeen Daily Journal, of Tuesday 7th September 1915, under the headline 'Scottish Soldiers in London Hospitals,' reported on the work of the South-East London Scottish Association, a charitable organisation which assisted wounded and injured Scottish soldiers who were in London hospitals. The Conveners of the Visiting Committees included one David H. Frost, 35 Hopedale Road, Charlton, London.
The following user(s) said Thank You: Elmarie

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David Henry Frost, prisoner in Ceylon 4 years 3 months ago #67074

  • BereniceUK
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Some more information, thanks to the helpful people at RootsChat. The Aberdeen and the London David Henry Frost are the same man.

DHF was the son of William Frost and Mary Helen Dow; he was born 23rd December 1870.

Following the divorce in March 1905, DHF remarried, to Catherine Johnston, in the third (September) quarter of 1906 - both were residents of Croydon, London, and both were born in Aberdeen.

In the 1911 census, DHF was a motor engineer living at Elborough Street, Southfields, in Wimbledon Park, London SW.
The residents there were: -
David Henry Frost - 40 - born Aberdeen
Catherine Frost - 37 - Aberdeen
John Dow Frost - 14 - Aberdeeen (born 1896)
David Henry Frost - 12 - Pretoria
William James Frost - 3 - London - birth registered in the second (June) quarter of 1907, at Wandsworth.

John Dow and David Henry, junior were the two boys he was given custody of.

David Henry Frost, jr., aged 26, son of David Henry Frost, fitter & turner, married Ellen Mary Ann Leete at St Mary Battersea on 30 May 1925. One of the witnesses was a John Dow Frost.

David Henry Frost, senior, died on 14th December 1951, at St Alfrege's Hospital, Greenwich; his home address was 46 Hopedale Road, Charlton.

So was he sent to Ceylon because he was suspected of making ammunition for the Boers, and when was he released?

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