Strange tales of missing British lords

 

The blended image (centre) was said by the Claimant's supporters to prove that Roger Tichborne (left, in 1853) and the Claimant (right, in 1874) were one and the same person

Throughout history, the sudden disappearance of aristocrats has spawned endless rumours, international searches, and bizarre cases of mistaken identity.

The Lord Lucan rumour in New Zealand

Decades after his infamous disappearance on 8 November 1974, rumors surfaced that Lord Lucan had been found living in the North Island town of Marton, sleeping in a vehicle alongside a pet possum. Newspapers such as The Dominion Post reported that a television crew and Sidney Ball, a former Scotland Yard detective, were actively investigating the claims.

The man at the center of the story was Roger Woodgate, a local English photographer and former Ministry of Defence worker. Neighbors who were involved in a local dispute claimed Woodgate resembled the fugitive peer and possessed an upper-class English accent. However, the resolution was swift. Woodgate quickly dismissed the rumors, pointing out that he was five inches shorter than Lucan, a decade younger, and had a visible gap in his teeth that the missing lord lacked. Detective Ball confirmed almost immediately that Mr. Woodgate was not Lord Lucan, putting the false lead to rest.

The Tichborne claimant and the butcher from Wagga Wagga

In an even more elaborate historical case, a butcher living under the alias Thomas Castro in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, stepped forward in the 1860s. He claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne, the missing heir to a massive family fortune and an English baronetcy. Sir Roger had vanished at sea off the coast of South America in 1854 and was widely presumed dead.

However, Roger’s grieving mother refused to believe he was gone and placed advertisements around the world seeking information. Orton answered the call and traveled to England, where he was remarkably accepted by Lady Tichborne as her long-lost son.

The rest of the family flatly rejected his claims, leading to one of the longest and most famous legal battles in British history. The claimant was ultimately exposed as Arthur Orton, a butcher's son from Wapping, London, who had emigrated to Australia. On 28 February 1874, he was convicted of perjury and sentenced to 14 years of penal servitude.

Anatomical analysis

The header image is the "Tichborne Tryptich," created for the famous 19th-century Tichborne trial to compare the missing heir Roger Tichborne (left) with the imposter who claimed his identity, Arthur Orton (right). While the middle composite uses grid lines to align their pupils and mouths, an anatomical breakdown reveals they are two distinct individuals:

• Ears: The most definitive difference is the earlobes. The man on the right has prominent, detached earlobes. The man on the left has attached earlobes, a structural difference that was a critical piece of forensic evidence in the actual court case.
• Nose: The middle composite exposes that their noses do not map onto one another. The width of the nostrils and the underlying cartilage structure of the nasal bridge differ significantly.
• Eyes and brows: The left portrait features rounder, wider eyes with a different brow bone and eyebrow arch. The right portrait has heavier, narrower, and more hooded eyelids.
• Mouth and jaw: The shape of the lips differs, with the left subject having a distinctly fuller mouth. Even accounting for age, weight gain, and facial hair, the underlying bone structure of the jawline does not match.
• Facial geometry: To create the middle image, the portraits had to be artificially scaled to force the eyes to align on the grid. Despite this manipulation, the overlapping "ghosting" effect clearly shows mismatched cheekbones, cranial shapes, and overall facial proportions.

The sudden vanishing of Benjamin Bathurst

Another baffling case involves Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat and aristocrat who completely disappeared on 25 November 1809 in Prussia. While traveling under an alias during the Napoleonic Wars, Bathurst stopped at an inn in the town of Perleberg. According to accounts, he walked around to the front of his carriage to examine the horses and simply vanished into thin air. His sudden disappearance sparked numerous theories, and the story even became a popular subject for science fiction writers who suggested supernatural causes. However, modern research indicates that he was almost certainly murdered for his valuables, as his expensive fur coat was later discovered hidden nearby.