Slander among builders

A private detective's testimony led to a slander case in the 1920s: but who was telling the truth?

Much of the work of Sheffield detective Ernest Elston revolved around finding evidence for divorce cases, but in one of his commissions, it led not to divorce but to a slander suit.

Herbert James was a Rotherham builder. He seems to have suspected his wife, Evelyn, of committing adultery, and so in 1922, he commissioned Ernest Elston to shadow her. From 25 April to 3 May, Elson followed her every day, but, unusually, he said he came to the conclusion that she was "a good, honest woman."

A woman in the early 1920s: in 1922, Evelyn James was shadowed by detective Ernest Elston

Herbert's suspicions had centred on a local quantity surveyor he knew, named Alfred Bradburn. He asked Elston to get in touch with him, and so Elston, using the fake name of Ernest Smith, got into conversation with Bradburn one night at the High House Hotel, hoping to get him to admit something. He would later tell court that he asked Bradburn if he knew Evelyn James, to which Bradburn responded:

"Yes, I see her two or three times a week - she is one of the best bits of sport in Rotherham."

He then put his thumbs up, and added, "EVERY time."

Later, 'Smith' manufactured another meeting with Bradburn at the Wheatsheaf Hotel. He told the latter that Mrs James "will not let me have immoral relations with her". This time, Bradburn apparently responded,

"Rather, every time, but I am not going to give the good lady away."

As a result of these conversations, Elston believed he had "not done his work right before" and that he had been mistaken in thinking that Evelyn was innocent. He reported back to her husband, who asked Elston to again watch Evelyn. Elston was commissioned to do so for another two weeks, from 4 May to 16 May, and at the end of this, was strengthened in his view that she had done nothing wrong.

As part of his shadowing, Elston even followed Evelyn into a Sheffield cinema, and tried to get into conversation with her. She refused to have anything to do with him, and after being pestered by the private detective, raised her hand so that he would see she was wearing a wedding ring, and eventually got up and walked out.

Poor Evelyn. Followed round Sheffield and Rotherham for a month in total, and then accosted by a middle-aged man in a cinema who wouldn't take no for an answer. It says something that Elston assumed she must be innocent by her refusal to respond to his overtures, and not that she was cross with being disturbed when she just wanted some peace watching a film.

Elston reported back to his employer, Herbert James, who appears to have then told Evelyn what Alfred Bradburn had allegedly said about her. Evelyn now showed her mettle by, in early 1923, suing Bradburn for slander. It was stated that the case had been brought:

'To protect a wife's honour, and to punish the traducer of her honour.'

Herbert James was friends with Alfred Bradburn, and made it clear that as a quantity surveyor, Bradburn knew all the local builders, and so it was important that those builders - including James - should be in good standing with him. Their work could depend on it. Therefore if Bradburn was making accusations about Herbert's wife, it could have an impact, but so too could suing him for slander. The case had repercussions for the two men's careers as well as for Evelyn's reputation.

However, Alfred Bradburn won the case: it was found that he had not made any claims about Evelyn. Ernest Elston had been a witness in the case, repeating his allegations about what Bradburn had said. Yet it seems, from the verdict, that he had made up the comments, wanting to keep his employer happy by making clear that his wife was innocent, and that Bradburn was making sexual comments that were fiction. His reporting of these comments to Herbert James had led to a further two weeks' paid watching of his wife, so he had money to make from creating trouble for Bradburn.

What effect could all of this have had for the builder and the quantity surveyor? It must have impacted on their friendship and their professional relationship. But for Ernest Elston, it was just one more job.