A family conversation which took place in 1940 but that has remained secret until now has revealed a fascinating 133-year-old death mystery. Chris Ferguson delves into the archives to investigate the curious death of Leon Declerk.
What prompted a young French immigrant to Dundee, who had arrived home in high spirits, to hang himself from his bedpost just hours after playing with his children? Who was the mysterious soldier who befriended him in the hours leading up to his death and who took the 18 shillings that remained of the pound the dead man had just borrowed?
These are some of the questions that led Brisbane man Rob McNaughton to contact us to ask for help to try to settle a family mystery once and for all.
Each year we receive hundreds of requests from online readers around the world requesting assistance with family history research. We cannot conduct individual searches but we do offer all readers information on where to begin their research.
The email from Mr McNaughton was no different, apart from its timing. It arrived at 8.02am on December 29 in the middle of the bitterly cold spell. It was -6C outside, making the thought of heading down to our archives — which are stored in an unheated strongroom below the building — less than appealing.
But Rob told us that his mother Betty Clark Malcom had recently told him that in 1940 her Aunt Victoria — who was three at the time of her father Leon’s death — confided that the death may not have been all it seemed. Rob also provided the crucial detail to the story — the exact date of his relative’s death, February 21, 1877 — and I thought it worth taking a look for any mention in our archives of Leon’s death. To my surprise, the Dundee Advertiser of February 22 did report the death in detail that would astonish modern journalists.An immigrant seeking workLeon Declerk and his family lived at 36 Pennycook Lane. The Dundee Directory of that year does not list the family so it is likely the property was a tenement block and Leon rented a flat or sub-let a room or rooms.
According to the Advertiser, Leon, aged 41 or 42, was a Frenchman from Lille near the Belgian border and he had been living in Dundee for only a few years. French unemployment at that time was at crisis levels which might explain his migration to Dundee, one of the world’s great manufacturing centres.
He had been working at Baltic Works, Annfield Street, very close to Pennycook Lane but was discharged and gained employment as a mill oiler at another factory.
On Tuesday afternoon, February 20, the newspaper reported, “Leon had arrived home in good spirits, having taken liquor, and began to make fun with his younger children”. He fell asleep and was put to bed at 5pm by his wife. Between 3am and 4am, he woke his wife and asked for water, which she gave him. Leon then sent his wife back to bed. At 5am the chapper came round and Mrs Declerk woke her eldest son, Jules, to tell him to go to work. At that point, Jules stumbled over his father’s body.
He had hanged himself on the bedpost. The bed was only four feet high so he had tucked his knees up, the Dundee Advertiser reported. He left his widow, four sons and a daughter.Shadowy figureOn March, 8, 1877, 15 days after the hanging, the casebook was closed on Declerk’s death. The Procurator Fiscal at Dundee had decided he died by his own hand. But it is the presence of a shadowy figure in the family house that raises suspicions that Leon’s death may not have been the simple suicide history has recorded.
The day before, he had borrowed £1 from a money lender, came home and wrote a letter to a friend in France. Leon went out to post it and, while he was away, he met a soldier who returned with him to the family home. At midnight, Mrs Declerk asked the soldier to leave.
The solider did leave but later crept back into the house while the family were asleep. Leon noticed him at 5am and, according to the Advertiser, the soldier left without a word.
Leon headed out to work and discovered that more than 18 shillings of the one pound was missing. He was upset and contacted the police. We have no information about any police inquiry into the theft. By contrast, it is almost certain that his death was investigated, given the length of time between his demise and its recording as suicide.
Although they concluded he had died by his own hand, some questions do remain — principally, why did the family always doubt the official version of events?
Is it possible that the soldier, who had previously been found in the house in the early hours, had returned? Had Leon packed his wife off to bed so he could deal with an intruder? Was he strangled and then tied to the bed post?Nagging doubtsAccording to Rob, the family were never entirely satisfied with the findings of the inquiry and these nagging doubts have continued for more than 130 years. Rob said, “The family memory is that it was a brutal hanging and Leon’s own daughter was of the view that it may not have been suicide.”
Rob believes Leon may have been killed at the hands or request of a money lender to send out a message to loan defaulters.
“We know that Leon was a good, hard worker but had a lot of problems with money and the family. My mum, Betty — Leon’s grand-daughter — when she was very young in 1937 bumped into someone around 80 who knew old Leo.
“He had been down in the docks with him. He worked on the Scandinavian ships which used to come into Dundee docks in the old days. He said he was a good hard worker but spoke of his money difficulties. We have no idea if he gambled, although everybody in the family played cards. We know he was always short of money, as the kids were very poor.
“We also know he borrowed money from a money lender and clearly would have had difficulty paying it back. The issue was that he had just borrowed it and that some people knew he had borrowed it.”
Rob believes money lending may be the key is Leon’s death and the family are convinced he was murdered.