Frederick Bailey Deeming - South Africa and Return To England

South Africa and Return To England

Later police and newspaper research discovered Deeming had been active in Cape Town, South Africa in 1888–1889, but his exact movements at this time are unclear and it appears he returned to Birkenhead, England, at least once. Marie had another child at this time. He was known to have been involved in conducting a Transvaal diamond mine swindle in 1889. His return to England via the steamship "Yumna" was well remembered by the Captain and passengers for his ostentatious display of jewellery and money, and his unwanted attention to some of the female passengers.

He had arrived at Hull by November 1889, lodging in the nearby town of Beverley. Here he passed himself off as “a retired sheep farmer named Harry Lawson from Mount House Farm, Rockhampton, Queensland, living on 1,500 pounds a year. He wooed Helen Matheson, the 21 year old daughter of his landlady and married her, bigamously, on 18 February 1890. About a month later, after a honeymoon in the south of England, he suddenly disappeared, taking his expensive gifts to Helen with him. Deeming’s wife and extended family had heard of his bigamous marriage to Helen according to Gurvich and Wray.

Deeming was later found to have then visited Marie and his (now) four children in Birkenhead. He apparently gave Marie several hundred pounds and announced he was leaving for South America. He would send for her and the children once he was settled. Before leaving he conducted another swindle at a jewellers in Hull. He was arrested for this on arrival at Montevideo and extradited back to England on a charge of “obtaining goods by false pretences,” being sentenced to nine months prison.