Riches to hard labour

Falling From Grace

It was the scandal which rocked Dublin at the close of the 19th century. A family which had, over a period of 150 years, build up a reputation for honesty and integrity was destroyed by one man who singularly failed to live up to the family motto of ‘Sans Tache’ (Without Stain).

He was Frank DuBédat (pictured, right) who, by 1889, was head of the family and of the successful Dublin stockbrokers and bankers, William George DuBédat and Sons, of Foster Place.

That year marked the pinnacle of his perceived success as he began work on ‘Frankfort’, a magnificent house and estate at the top of George’s Avenue and Glenalua Road, Killiney.

It, like Frank, was aimed at reflecting a public image of success, respectability and substance.

In October 1890 he became President of the Dublin Stock Exchange. He was an imposing figure, five feet nine or ten and weighing in at over 20 stone. He was influential, charming and respected - he was also a rogue.

He had fraudulently taken money from clients and, through extravagant living and failed investments, had lost it all. He had also developed a liking for the theatrical world and travelled regularly to Paris where he kept rooms.

Even as he was sworn in he knew that exposure could only be a matter of time but, ever an optimist, he held on until the last possible moment.

On Christmas Eve 1890 he wrote letters to his wife, Rosie, from London and promptly disappeared. Within days the family firm had collapsed with debts of over £100,000 and he was struck off the list of members of the Dublin Stock Exchange.

Six months later he was arrested in Capetown, South Africa, and sent back to Dublin where, after a one-day trial he was sentenced to 12 months hard labour and seven years penal servitude.

The judge remarked: “You chose to make a rush for riches and the race for greed as so often happens has ended in ruin for yourself, bitter memories to others and benefit to none.”

That’s the story as commonly told but now, after nearly 30 years of research, Maria Wooton, Howth, has managed to complete the story of Frank DuBédat.

Her book ‘The DuBédat Story: Killiney To Kommetji’ continues the tale of Frank DuBédat, from early release in 1896, to his later fraudulent escapades in South Africa, imprisonment again and unconditional discharge, marriage to an actress almost half his age, and his final years as a recluse in the South African wilderness where he passed himself off as a defender of Dreyfuss who had been forced to flee France when Dreyfuss was sentenced for treason.

Maria’s interest in Frank Edward DuBédat began in 1970 when she first visited the home of her future parents-in law in Killiney. Living in the house from 1973 she picked up some of the story from local people and over the years, with a little detective work, met with some of the descendants. “Initially I encountered what seemed like a conspiracy of silence,” she writes. “Such was the unease of the family at the prospect of old ashes being raked over, that it was only on my insistence of anonymity that these vital sources of information were secured.”

In 1990 Maria had enough information to produce a booklet on the DuBédats and it was produced to mark the restoration of the Huguenot Cemetery in Merrion Row.

More information came to light and, in 1994, Maria travelled to South Africa to visit relatives and see if any information was available there on Frank’s life there. It was and, surprisingly, so was an elderly lady who had known Frank.

And there, for the moment, the story lies. “I felt it was now time to tell the tale - the puzzle would never be complete, it could only be an outline,” she writes. “Too many people, especially relatives, embarrassed by their association with Frank had long since swept that period of their lives under the carpet. Frank was single-handedly responsible for their demise but the DuBédats did exist and deserve to be remembered.”

“The DuBédat Story: Killiney to Kommetjie”, by Elizabeth Wooton, is available from Collins Newsagents, Main Street, Howth, priced £10. It is also available by post for £12 from Tram Cottage Productions, Grays Lane, Howth, Co. Dublin.(June 1999). This article was originally published as a book review in the Southside People.