Chronicle (Adelaide, SA : 1895 - 1954), Saturday 7 November 1914, page 24


A SECRET MARRIAGE AND ITS SEQUEL.

Melbourne, November 3.

A secret marriage, the contracting parties to which were both connected with the theatrical world, ended in the Divorce Court yesterday. The suit was heard be-fore Mr. Justice Hodges, and the parties were Vera Dampier (29), of Phillip-court, Phillip-street, Sydney, petitioner, and Alfred Julian Dampier, respondent. Evidence was given that the petitioner met Dampier at the beginning of 1905, and

he asked her to marry him. She was lot.i to do so on account of his want of means to give her a home. Towards the end of that year Dampier told her he was going to England to try his luck, stating that he had influence there through his father, the late Alfred Dampier, a well-known Australian actor, with the celebrated Eng-lish actor, Terry, and others. He pressed her to marry him before he left, and fin-ally she consented to a secret marriage. The ceremony took place, and afterwards the petitioner continued to live with her mother. She had never lived with the re-spondent as his wife. There was no issue of the marriage. A few weeks later the respondent left for England, and the petitioner continued to support her-self on the stage. The respondent wrote to her on the voyage and afterwards, but he failed to get employment in England In 1906 he returned to Australia and went on a tour with a company of his own. The petitioner was also on tour, and they did not meet. They continued to correspond, and in 1908 they met by appointment at Rushcutter's Bay, Sydney. She asked him to make a home for her. She had not seen him since, though she had a letter from him in February, 1909. He had sent her small sums of money from time to time up to that date. The ups and downs of a theatrical career were shown in a number of letters from the respondent to the petitioner. In three letters it was shown that Dampier bad been variously employed in a barber's jshop, as a ship's steward, ticket collector at a picture show, and barman in an hotel. The petitioner had received in-formation that the respondent was now supposed to be in America. Mr. Wolf said in order to keep the marriage secret the respondent had tried to conceal his identity by making false entries in the marriage register, describ-ing himself as Fred Dampier, draper. The decree nisi was granted*