You will no doubt recall my fascination with this historical figure who seemed to do a lot of amazing things around the world from a young age but about whom there seems to be little remaining evidence.
I was pleased to get a message from reader Kim who told me about a book by Fernando Salamanca called Diez crímenes sorprendentes de la historia de Colombia, published in 2019. Obviously I am going to have to track this book down and get to the bottom of this side of Honore's (I'll call her that from now on as her last names are a revolving list of strip-in strip-out married names and reversions to maiden names that just confuses me) biography. Kim says:
Apparently, when she left for South America, (with two detectives on her trail), she ended up in Brazil. There, after enjoying herself immensely, she was charged with prostitution and drug use. After the justice system found no evidence to support the charges, and dismissed them, the women of the area (the driving force of the witch hunt) turned instead to the church for help in removing her from the company of their men (she was drinking and gambling with the men at the clubs - maybe had an affair or two). This action resulted in her being ousted from South America and back to England.
Kim also tells me/us that Honore died in Thailand on 19 March 1970. I'm obviously going to have to look into that further too. Thanks Kim for your help with adding more to the story.
Meanwhile I found an interesting (?) Australian angle, I suppose a slightly tenuous one. Honore's parents met in Newfoundland. Her father, Admiral Alfred Paget (b. 1852) was not much younger than his wife, Viti McGregor's father, William McGregor (b.1846), who was the governor of Newfoundland then. Alfred and Viti married in 1906, and three years later William McGregor was the Governor of Queensland and also the first Chancellor of the University of Queensland (he'd previously been Administrator of British New Guinea). So he had a formative role late in his life in Australia.
Viti, who appears to have spent much of her time after giving birth to Honore in continental Europe engaged in war work, was also quite a personality. She 'established a name for doing things that are eccentric' according to the Akron Beacon Journal for 10 August 1911 (p. 6). This was a report of a party she held 'at which her man-milliner was the guest of honor. When she was criticised for introducing a tradesman into society, she replied that he was not a tradesman, but a great artist.’
You will recall (or not) from earlier posts that Honore was orphaned at a young age (11) when both her parents died within a few months of each other. I suppose Alfred was not exactly a young man in 1918 - 66 I think - but Viti was surely quite young but there doesn't seem to be an official record of when she was born. Apparently she had worked unceasingly during the war, but I am yet to establish what she died from.
More soon!
Exeter Western Times 27 May 1916 p. 4
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