Fired a few shots to let his neighbours know that he had a gun

By 1937 Theodore Wilhelm Vetter had been in and out of gaol a number of times, and this was having an effect on his marriage.

The electoral rolls for that year show that his wife, Mary May, was living in Wright Street, North Croydon, and that their eldest daughter, Mary Louise, was also on the electoral rolls as living there.  We can assume that their youngest daughter, Joan Margaret was also living there.

However there was no sign of Theodore on the electoral rolls, and in fact during his last time in prison Mary did not visit him, whereas previously she had always made the trip to Yatala Prison to do so.

This may well do with the fact that Mary was now suffering from myxedema, a disease resulting from under activity of the thyroid gland, and was most likely unable to make the trip. In fact Mary was to die from the disease on June 30th of this year.

In late January of 1937 Theodore was again arrested, and once more was in Hindmarsh Court explaining his way, or at least trying to explain, out of another fine or prison sentence.

Constable Shannon had arrested Theodore under the Firearms Registration Act.  He had been called to Wright Street, North Croydon, after there had been a compliant about bullets being fired through a glasshouse.  The glasshouse being next door to where Mary and her daughters lived.

On arresting Theodore the Constable had asked him if the gun was registered, and Theodore honestly answered that it was not.  Constable immediately confiscated the gun.

Constable Shannon then asked Theodore why he fired the gun at the neighbour’s glasshouse.  Theodore replied that he had just bought the weapon and had fired a few shots to let his neighbours know that he had a gun.

Once in front of magistrates Evans and Cooley at the Hindmarsh Court house, Theodore had little chance of getting his gun back, and was dually charged and fined £2, and £1 costs.

I can imagine Theodore’s annoyance at this, especially having only just purchased the gun.  But what does not make sense to me is the fact that it looks like Theodore was not living there.  So why was he firing a gun at the neighbours glasshouse.  Knowing that Theodore had a temper, I am inclined to make the assumption that he had called round to visit his wife and family, and that, perhaps, they had denied him entry.  So he decided that the only way to gain entry was to fire a gun!

Divorce

In December 1913, a Mrs. Vetter of Brown Street, Norwood, in Adelaide, advertised in the local papers for a “Domesticated Companion”.  Mrs. Vetter was the 1^st wife of Theodore Wilhelm Vetter.  They had moved to Adelaide around 1906 from Fremantle in Western Australia.  Theodore by now was running a Contracting business, and had a name for himself in the local building industry as well as the local German community.  He had been President of the South Australian Allegemeiner Deutscher Verein from 1909 to 1912, covering the 25^th anniversary of the Club in 1911, when he entertained the Governor of South Australian at the celebrations.

Sometime during 1914 Mary May Brice was employed by the Vetter household.  Mary had been born in Port Adelaide in 1887, and spent time working as a domestic servant in Melbourne in her very early 20s, but now was back in Adelaide looking for work.

Now lets skip forward to 1919 and the Adelaide Advertiser for the 5^th of September reports the details of a divorce proceeding that was being heard in the Civil Court in Adelaide.

Albertina Vetter was petitioning for the dissolution of her marriage with Theodore Wilhelm Vetter on the grounds of adultery.  Her council was stating that Theodore had committed adultery with Mary Brice at Greenock between February and March of that year.

Mrs. Vetter stated she had three children by Theodore and they had been married in Fremantle before coming to South Australia.  She was represented by the noted South Australian lawyer Mr. Paris Nesbit.

Mr. Nesbit had hired a private detective – a Mr. Hurtle Levison Gray, who had journeyed up to Greenock, north of Adelaide.  Theodore was now the Licensee of the Greenock Arms Hotel.  On Mr. Gray’s first visit to Greenock he had not been able to see or find Theodore, but he did find Mary Brice at the hotel.  He returned again where both Theodore and Mary greeted him, and Theodore made the disclosure that he was the father to a child born to Mary.

In July of 1919, Mr. Gray returned to Greenock, taking with him Thomas Crowley (safety in numbers!!), where he intended on serving Theodore with citation papers.  It was now that Theodore provided a bit more information for Mr. Gray to take back to Mr. Nesbit.

Not only was Theodore father to one child, but two, by Mary.  Theodore was quick to the point on how this had all come about, stating that his wife, Albertina, was very difficult to live with, and that he had so much trouble with servants while living with her, that the only way he could retain them was to commit adultery with them.

Mr. Justice Buchannan dually listened to the evidence provided by Mr. Nesbit.   In fact Theodore’s council, Mr. G.H. Degenhardt, said very little, his client having said enough already.

His Honor found the charges of adultery proved, and granted Albertina her divorce, but she would have to go to the Full Court to get a decree nisi.

A lot had happened between when Albertina put the request in the newspaper in for a companion in 1913 to the divorce being granted in 1919.

Theodore’s contracting business mysteriously caught fire in January 1915, and there were rumours that he had asked a former employee to set fire to the premises.  He then place advertisements in the papers saying that he was selling everything and going farming.

By April 1915 Theodore was no longer living at the family home, and Albertina had taken him to court to get maintenance of £1 per week.  But by early November Albertina had Theodore back in court, as he had not paid any maintenance for over ten weeks.  The judge ordered the outstanding amount to be paid within one week or Theodore would be imprisoned for 1 month.

However on the 27^th of November, Mary gave birth to a baby daughter at a local Nursing Home in Kent Town.  There was no father listed. The informant on the birth certificate was T.W. Vetter of 8 Brown Street, Norwood, listing himself as her Employer.  8 Brown Street was the home Theodore had shared with Albertina, and she was still listed as living there on the local electoral rolls, but not Theodore.

Theodore’s business adventures seem to be going in a downward trend, and his name was appearing many times in the local court reports, being sued by various business men in the Building Industry.

On October 22, 1916, Mary gave birth to a baby boy, again at the Nursing Home in Kent Town, and again no father listed on the certificate.  This time the informant was the matron of the Nursing Home.

By 1917 Theodore was living in at the Greenock Arms Hotel.

So the adultery by Theodore and Mary covered a much longer time than the February to March of 1919 as stated in the court proceedings, and despite Theodore’s very off the hand comment about how he “kept servants” exactly 3 months to the day after his decree nisi in March 1920 he   married Mary May Brice at the Registrar General’s Office in Flinders Street, Adelaide.

The scandal of divorce was extreme in these times, and in fact the Vetter divorce even made the papers in Perth, in Western Australia, where a local society reporter wrote the following piece.

IF HE DIDN’T[i]

In the divorce case Albertina Vetters v. Theodore Vetters and Mary Brice respondent admitted living with Mary, who was his servant, but said the only way to keep a servant nowadays was to commit adultery with her. A good servant couldn't' be kept without doing so.  

Oh, madam, suspicious and stern,

Oh, worrying, wowserish wife, See what a lesson you'll learn

From this chapter of everyday life,

For Years you've been blaming the man;

No plea or excuses you'd hear; so we ask you, in justice, to scan

Home-truths that hereunder appear. The lawsuit of Vetter and Brice

In highly religious South Oss

Just proves how a man pays the price When the fairy who feeds him is boss.

The case of poor Theodore V.

Might be any man's any old day, And proves, after all, 'tisn't he

That always leads women astray. Mr. V. was as pure as the snows

That fall from Antarctical skies Till womankind wafted him woes

By picking him out as a prize.

And the simplest amongst us can see - Here comes the riddle and rub! - Unless he had mashed Mary B.

He was sure not to get any grub:

Don't imagine, though he may be caught

Linking Mary Ann's lips to his own, That he ever gives Mary a thought

When at night he and you are alone. Good servants are scarce, that he knows,

And servant girls like to be loved,

And want, by their blokes and their beaux.

To be costumed and coiffured and gloved.

If you don't show the girl what she's worth

She'll learn it wherever she'll roam, And as things often happen in Perth

They may as well happen at home.

Oh, women who shadow the spouse

Who won't go to pictures and plays, Don't think it's a belle in a blouse

That's changing his wandering ways.

Though he shuns the Palladium or

Grand, Majestic, the Royal and Pav.,

Though his stay-homes you can't understand

You would, if you harbored some sav. While you laugh' at the quaint Charlie C.,

Or at Olga Petrova you sob,

He's got to nurse Kate on his knee

To keep her from jibbing her job!

It doesn't quite follow, dear ma'am,

Though you catch the old man kissing Kate,

That a writ for divorce you must slam  

And your soul from his soul separate.

There are always two sides to a scene,

And though you're a wife wide awake,

The cause of the kiss might have been

To reward her for cooking a cake. And if he proposes to hie

To Mandurah, down on the coast, it's a compliment p'r'aps to her pie,

Or her excellent tea or her toast. So, madam, if can you catch.

Your hubby at Armadale green;

Don't try your supplanter to scratch

Or make a sensational scene.

Though she's there as his wife and wears

A week-endy sort of a ring,

He's saving you cooking-range cares

By having this sort of a fling.

If she didn't get outings like this

With hubby to see she went straight There's no knowing who she might

kiss  

In a 10 p.m. park tete-tete.

And when East by the Transline you

run.

And you leave him behind all along, It's nice to know he is with one,

Who'll treat him as one of her own!

DRYBLOWER

---

[i] Sunday Times (Perth) September 7, 1919

“A QUICK-TEMPERED, VIOLENT MAN”

In the 1920s Theodore was having a run of bad luck with business deals and was constantly having income issues.  The household bills were feeling this, and his 2^nd wife, Mary May Brice, constantly had to deal with how to meet the unpaid bills.

The Adelaide Electric Supply Company had a number of unpaid bills with the Vetter home in Semaphore, and decided to act in May 1927.  Wilfred Aldersey, the Electricity company’s accountant arranged for one of their collectors to go out to Semaphore and get the unpaid bill finalized and if this didn’t happen to turn the electricity off at the home’s meterbox.

On May 5^th Francis Pascoe dually turned up at the Vetter home and knocked on the front door.  Mrs. Vetter answered the door, and Mr. Pascoe informed Mrs. Vetter why he was there.  Mrs. Vetter left Mr. Pascoe at the front door, leaving him with the impression that she was going to get money to clear the unpaid bill.  He started to fill out the receipt when Theodore appeared at the front door and asked Pascoe what he was doing there.

Mr. Pascoe repeated what he had already explained to Mrs. Vetter and that he was waiting for her to return with the money so he could complete the receipt. Theodore then advised Mr. Pascoe that he was going in to Adelaide the next day to do business and would pay the bill at the company’s office then. Mr. Pascoe informed Theodore that unless he was given the money then he was obliged to disconnect the electricity at the meterbox.

Theodore advised him that he had a deposit with the company as a guarantee that the electricity would not be cut off.  But Mr. Pascoe stated that he did not know of any such arrangement and needed to enter the house so that he could access the meterbox to disconnect the service.

As Mr. Pascoe went to step in the front door Theodore struck him with a blow to the side of the head, sending Mr. Pascoe back against the verandah wall.

About a month later on June 11^th Mr. Pascoe again came face to face with Theodore.

This time in Port Adelaide Police Court, where Theodore was up in front of Mr. G.W. Halcombe, Stipendiary Magistrate, for assault.

Based on the information of both Mr. Pascoe and Mr. Aldersey, for the electricity company, Theodore was charged for having violently assaulted Francis J. Pascoe at Semaphore on May 5^th.  Theodore pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Theodore was representing himself, and when cross-examining Mr. Pascoe, he proceeded to comment after every reply.  Starting with “Lie One” and eventually getting to “Lie Seven”, when the Magistrate’s warnings to Theodore sank in and he stopped with the acrimonious comments.  He then requested to cross-examine the Electricity Company’s counsel, Mr. A.M. Moulden, but at this the Magistrate was firm. He could not!!

Both Mr. Pascoe and Mr. Aldersey gave evidence, and it was clear that Theodore had indeed hit Mr. Pascoe, and that he had hit him so hard that Mr. Pascoe was initially deaf afterwards, and had ringing in his ear for the next 2 days.  Theodore also used abusive language towards Mr. Pascoe, telling him to “Get to ------ out of this” as Mr. Pascoe staggered on the verandah.

Theodore called his wife as a witness, and she stated that it was a lie for Mr. Pascoe to say a blow was struck.  Theodore then claimed that in fact Mr. Pascoe had pushed him as he tried to enter the house, and that Theodore had simply put him out on the verandah.

The Magistrate said that judging by the demeanor of Theodore in the Court room it was obvious he was a quick-tempered, violent man, with little control over himself, and that he did not believe the either Theodore or his wife.

He dually fined Theodore with assault and ordered him to pay a fine of £3 with an additional £3 2/ costs.

The Register – June 11, 1927 – COLLECTOR ASSAULTED

The Advertiser – June 11, 1927 – A COLLECTOR ASSAULTED

Naturalization - 1941

At the beginning of 1941 Theodore decided to become a naturalized Australian.  To do this he had to lodge a notice in the local newspaper stating his intentions to become a citizen.

In the January 14^th edition of the Adelaide Advertiser there appeared in Public Notices section the following:-

I, THEODORE WILHELM VETTER, of German Nationality, born near Magdeburg, Germany and resident 55 years in Australia, and residing at Eden West, near Adelaide, intend to apply for naturalisation under the Nationality Act 1920-1930.

Unfortunately Theodore had forgotten one little thing – Australia was at war with Germany and as he was still a German citizen by birth, he was an enemy alien and required at the beginning of the war to register as such.

In the second week of February a summons was issued for his arrest under the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations – a fine of £5, with 10 shillings costs.

As with most fines issued against him Theodore ignored this and lodged his application for Naturalization on March 12^th.  He had to provide two references and have a Justice of the Peace witness the document.  The references were from Albert Henry Kruss, who had known Theodore for 40 years, and Garnet Leslie Goldsworthy, who had known him for approximately 8 years.  John Henry Bell was the Justice of Peace who witnessed Theodore declaration.

On the form Theodore had claimed that he was a carpenter/gardener residing at Eden West, that he had come to Australia in December 1886 on board the North German liner “Preussen”.  He had resided in Victoria for 10 years, then moving to South Australia for 3 years, then Western Australia for 6, before settling in Adelaide for the last 35 years. 

He was the son of Louis Vetter & Mathilde Peters, and that he was born on the 23^rd of April 1866 at Magdeburg, in the Province of Saxony.  He was 5 ft, 7 inches, with grey hair and blue eyes.  He was a widower, with three children, the eldest two, he had no idea of their whereabouts.  The youngest, Joan Margaret, was residing with a Mrs Press, in Woodville Road, Adelaide, and working at John Martins in Rundle Street.

But like most of Theodore’s dealings with the Law, they caught up with him.  On April 1 at the Adelaide Police Court, Theodore found himself facing Justice Muirhead and Police Prosecutor Crafter.  Inspector Crafter advised the court that “Vetter had come to Australia with his parents in 1886.  He had registered his name on January 15.”  But despite the fact he had eventually registered as an alien, it was too late, Justice Muirhead fined Theodore £10, with 10 shillings costs.  He was allowed to pay the fine in instalments, but if he had of paid it back in February when 1^st summonsed he would have received a reduced fine of only £2 10 shillings.   However if he didn’t pay the fine at all he would end up with a month in gaol.  Theodore paid the fine.

As part of the Naturalization process a Police check is done on the applicant.  Sergeant Trezona of the Police Special Branch in Adelaide reported that Theodore had had 6 Police records against him, 2 for breaches of the Master & Servants Act in 1931, 1 for passing a valueless cheque in 1932, one in 1936 for Larceny, but this had been dismissed.  In 1937 he also had an unregistered gun, and then of course the “fail to register as an alien” in April 1941.

Sergeant Trezona also stated that Theodore “is reported to be addicted to drink and is not a good citizen.  Said to have made the following statement in Adelaide streets, “We want our colonies back, we were robbed by the British bastards.  Hitler will rule this country better than the British.”  (He) Is regarded as irresponsible.”

In June of 1941, S.G. Eyles of the Investigation Branch for National Security, interviewed Theodore about his application.  Theodore confirmed everything he had stated on the application, as well as confirming what Sergeant Trezona had reported.  When Mr Eyles asked Theodore    why he was now applying for naturalization after being in Australia for nearly 55 years, Theodore stated it was so he could get the old-age pension.

When asked about his first marriage, the details of which he had left off his application, Theodore stated that he believed his 1^st wife was in a Mental Hospital, and that of three children of that marriage, one had died and the other two were living somewhere in Western Australia.

Theodore also confirmed that he had been the President of the German Club in Adelaide prior to World War One, and that he had not come under any notice or interned during that period.

Theodore was asked his opinion of the current war, “he stated that 7 years ago he was of the opinion that Hitler was a wonderful man.  He considered Hitler a social reformer, but in 1935 when Hitler annexed the Saar Valley, he thought that he was too ambitious.  He now thinks Hitler has overstepped the mark and says that he is a “Landgrabber.”  He thinks that the Versailles Treaty was a mistake and that before this war started, England should have given a few colonies back to Germany.”

On August 8^th the Investigation Branch sent Theodore’s application to the Department of the Interior in Canberra.  They had previously contacted Military Intelligence, who had advised that they did not consider Theodore “a proper person” for naturalization.  But Mr. S.G. Eyles, who had interviewed Theodore had the closing argument against his application, “My opinion of this man is that he is a cunning rascal and is not a fit applicant for naturalization.”

On the 26^th of August, 1941 Theodore received the following letter:-

            Dear Sir,

With reference to your application for naturalization I desire to inform you that this matter has received careful consideration, but it is regretted that the issue of a certificate of naturalization in your favour has not been approved.

                                                            Yours faithfully.

                                                                       

We do not know Theodore’s thoughts on receiving this letter, but I can surmise that if Mr Eyles thought Theodore was a Cunning Rascal, Theodore thought Mr Eyles was a lot worse!

You can view a copy of Theodore’s application at the National Archives website under the following reference:-

Series number
A659 Control symbol
1941/1/4019 Contents date range
1941 - 1941 Access status
OpenLocation
Canberra

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