Skegness Magazine

October 1929…

SKEGNESS “MARRIAGE” SENSATION
Would-be Bridegroom Vanishes – Said to be Married
TURNED OUT BY GIRL’S PARENTS
It has been definitely established that Albert Victor Fallon, who was to have been married to Miss Eva Audrey Wrigglesworth, the daughter of the owners of the Waverley Boarding House, South Parade, Skegness, left the town hurriedly last Thursday.
It will be recalled that the wedding ceremony was postponed at the eleventh hour by the intervention of the Police, when the guests were assembled in St. Matthew’s Church, and that the incident caused one of the biggest sensations ever known locally.

The reason for the postponement was that the Police had been informed that Fallon was already married. The town has been agog with speculation since the postponement of the ceremony, and reports that the couple were to be married at St. Matthew’s last Saturday week caused further excitement. Neither of the principals put in an appearance on that day, much to the disappointment of the crowd which had gathered.

In an interview with a Press representative, Miss Wrigglesworth’s mother, Ada Louisa Wrigglesworth, stated that when her daughter brought Fallon to their home ten months ago, her first impression was not favourable, but she overcame it for her daughter’s sake.
“When the Police told me of the allegation,” she said, “Fallon vowed to me and my daughter that there was a ghastly mistake somewhere, and as he was still keen on the ceremony going on after he also had been interviewed by the Police. I allowed him to stay on in my house until my solicitor had made inquiries through other solicitors at Castleford (Yorks.).
The result of those enquiries, according to a statement made by the girl and her mother to our representative, was that it was established that he was a married man and that his real name was Falloon. When they were all at the solicitor’s office and this evidence was produced, he eventually admitted that he was married. Thereupon Mrs. Wrigglesworth told him he must leave her house at once.
Mrs. Wrigglesworth also said her daughter has told him that before going to the solicitor’s office he tried to persuade her to go to some big city with him, where no one would know them.
In the register of banns, Fallon was described as a painter and decorator, aged 32 years, and Miss Wrigglesworth was given as 27.
The  sensation has given much publicity to Skegness, as reports of the affair have appeared in all the daily newspapers, while much interest has been taken in the affair by people all over the country. Now, however, the sensation is at a close, Mr. Fallon is gone, and Skegness is quiet again.

Miss Wrigglesworth and her parents must have gone through a trying experience since the first intimation that the would-be bridegroom was a married man, but happily the warning was administered in time and the ceremony did not take place.
Fallon certainly had a nerve to “face the music” in the fashion which he did, but his action was of a grossly callous nature.

***

(The old newspaper story above gives the impression that there may have been further coverage in the previous issue. We’ll be investigating this possibility shortly.)

This, however, is not the end of the story…

Eva Audrey went on to give birth to a baby boy, Anthony, the following April (1930) – which means at the time of the wedding drama , she must have been ‘with child’. As a church wedding was planned, and at three months pregnant she would not have ’shown’, the family was either unaware of the pregnancy or it was kept secret. Certainly the fact wasn’t reported in the newspaper stories. We could not find a birth announcement for the baby.

The family hit the local newspaper headlines yet again four years later in October 1934 when Mrs Ada Louisa Wrigglesworth and her husband Edward coincidently died within the same week:

“IN DEATH NOT DIVIDED”

SAD FAMILY AFFAIR AT  SKEGNESS
We briefly recorded in our last issue the death of Mr. Edward Wrigglesworth, of Sandbeck Avenue, Skegness, which occurred at his home on Tuesday week (October 23rd). He was 61 years of age, and his passing terminated a long period of weary and intense suffering.
Greater sorrow was in store for the family, however, as on Friday last, the widow, Mrs. Ada Louisa Wrigglesworth, who had also been ill for some time, passed away at the age of 60 years.
The funeral of Mr. Wrigglesworth had been fixed for the Friday, but when the second sad occurrence took place on this day, the interment was postponed so that the couple might be buried together—”in death not divided.”
The funeral service took place at St. Matthew’s Church, Skegness, on Monday noon, after which the deceased husband and wife were conveyed by motor-hearse to Newark, where they were buried together the same afternoon.
The service at Skegness was carried out by Rev. W. S. Boldon, who accompanied them Newark and performed the last rites at the graveside.
Much sympathy goes out to the two daughters of the couple—who resided with them—on their tragic double bereavement. The Misses Wrigglesworth have now left Skegness to take up residence at Newark.

Mourners and Floral Tributes

In 1935, Eva Audrey Wrigglesworth went on to marry a man named Scrutton in Newark, who adopted the child, now five years old.

The years passed and young Anthony, now Anthony Grand-Scrutton, took himself a wife, and the daughter born to them contacted us a few weeks ago!

But what happened to Albert Victor Falloon? It’s said that he was eventually sent to prison for bigamy, dying from tuberculosis whilst in custody, whether this is true is yet to be investigated!

Pictures: (top) A 1920s advertisement for the Waverley Hotel, showing Mrs A Wrigglesworth as the Proprietoress. (bottom) The Waverley Hotel, South Parade, Skegness in the 1940s.

Special thanks to Gaynor Mayes for her help with this story.