Before Mr. Justice McCardie in the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice went one of those periodic scandals that causes the various strata of British society to experience the gamut of emotions.
The dramatis personae of the trial:
Lieutenant Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun, defendant.
Dorothy Muriel Dennistoun, plaintiff, divorced wife of the above.
Almina, Dowager Countess of Carnarvon, second wife of Colonel Dennistoun.
The late General Sir John Cowans, Quartermaster General of the British Expeditionary Force during the War, held to be "the best quartermaster since Moses."
Sir Ellis Hume Williams, counsel for the plaintiff.
Sir Edward Marshall Hall, counsel for the defendant.
The story, as revealed during the trial, showed that Mrs. Dennistoun lived as the mistress of Sir John Cowans with her husband's consent (denied by defendant, but supported by evidence) and, as Sir Ellis Hume Williams puts it, enabled her husband to live on her immoral earnings. It was alleged by plaintiff, denied by defendant, that several important Army positions had been secured by Mrs. Dennistoun for her husband through the General.
In May, 1921, the Dennistouns were divorced and an arrangement was agreed upon whereby Colonel Dennistoun would support the divorcée when he 'was in a financial position to do so, provided that she would not press for a court order for alimony. In 1923, a few months after the death of the fifth Earl of Carnarvon of Tutankhamen fame, Colonel Dennistoun married Almina, the Dowager Countess.
Mrs. Dennistoun, however, brought suit to recover £952, which she declared she had at various times lent Colonel Dennistoun. She charged that, in 1923, Dennistoun was living in a luxurious flat in Sackville Street and could afford to pay her. Counsel for defense denied that Colonel Dennistoun had any money from which plaintiff could collect, called the case attempted blackmail of Lady Carnarvon, said that defense had been entered because Mrs. Dennistoun would have continued to demand money if her claim had been paid.
The case, which was expected to cost $100,000, was continuing.