Hubert Crackanthorpe - The Mystery of His Passing

The Mystery of His Passing

The state of Crackanthorpe's marriage to Leila began to disintegrate rapidly after 1895. Leila miscarried in 1896 because of a venereal infection she contracted from Hubert; soon after, she left Hubert and traveled to Italy. Left to his own philandering devices, Hubert promptly began an affair with a woman named Sissie Welch. After a few months, Hubert managed a reconciliation with Leila. Leila was now living in Paris with a lover of her own. Hubert and Leila set up house once more with their respective lovers in tow. This complicated domestic arrangement did not last long, and Leila left Hubert on November 4, 1896.

Hubert Crackanthorpe was never seen alive again after his wife left him for the second time. Leila walked out the door of the Crackanthorpes' Paris home and boarded a boat for London in December 1896. Hubert's body was found in the Seine on Christmas Eve; it is unknown whether he was a victim of foul play, or if he succumbed to a suicidal impulse. In subsequent years the aristocratic Crackanthorpe family was eager to keep the story of Hubert Crackanthorpe from coming to public attention.

Critics tend to group Crackanthorpe together with a clutch of young British writers and artists of the 1890s who suffered untimely deaths caused by various factors, including suicide, alcohol abuse or tuberculosis; e.g. Oscar Wilde, Ernest Dowson, Lionel Johnson, and the two editors of the Yellow Book, Aubrey Beardsley and Henry Harland.