In 1921 two bishops of
the Liberal Catholic Church (Wedgwood and King) and two priests (Farrar and
Clark) were wanted by the UK police for accusations of pederasty.
Preliminary explanatory note from the
editor of
OE Library Critic magazine
« There has come into my possession, without
restrictions as to its use, a copy of a letter written to Mrs. Besant, May 20,
1921, by Mr. T.H. Martyn, former General Secretary of the Australian Section,
Theosophical Society, former Corresponding Secretary of the Australian Esoteric
Section, a member of thirty years’ standing, who has done more than any other
one person to build up the Society in Australia.
This is one of the most important and significant documents which has
yet appeared, bearing on the present crisis in the Theosophical Society Copies
of this letter can be obtained from this office by properly accredited
Theosophical Society members.
It appears, among other things, that Mr. Wedgwood, the Presiding Bishop
of the Liberal Catholic Church, is wanted by the police on charges of
pederasty, and that his colleagues, Bishop King and Frs. Farrar and Clark, of
the same church, They are wanted on similar charges. And that Farrar and Clark
had to flee England to escape arrest. »
(O.E. Library Critic, vol, 11, No. 10, December 21,
1921, p.4)
Excerpt from T. H. Martyn's letter to Annie
Besant
« A week before you sent for me and gave me your
message in October 1919 I called on Mrs. St. John. She was in great trouble
because the police were taking action (so she told me) against four Liberal
Catholic Church priests. Wedgwood, King, Farrar and Clark.
She wanted to warn Wedgwood in Australia and did not know how to without
incriminating herself by compounding a felony. Farrar she told me she had got
out of the country and she was sure the police would not find him. King had
decided to remain in London and see it out as Farrar was out of the way etc.
Mrs. St. John told me that though Wedgwood seemed to be compromised she herself
did not believe him to be guilty of the charges.
Of course
while in London I heard about charges of sodomy with boys being made against
Wedgwood (by Major Adams and others) and reports about him had also reached me
from Sydney, but what Mrs. St. John told me came as a complete surprise.
A week later
Graham Pole sent ms word to say you wished to see me urgently and I called. You
then told me that you wished to communicate with Wedgwood in Sydney but by so
doing directly you would be compounding a felony and you gave me the message
for Raja that Wedgwood must leave the Esoteric Section and the Theosophical
Society. You explained that he had seriously compromised himself and you felt
it your duty to protect the good name of the Society.
I happened
to think of an Esoteric Section talk you had given on a previous Sunday about
black magic and sexual excess and asked you if you were referring to Wedgwood’s
case in that talk and you said yes, that Krishna, who was very intuitive at
times had in a comment suggested the explanation.
Now you will
see that this went much further than implying that Wedgwood had compromised
himself — a good man may do that and be innocent of evil. It meant to me that
on your own evidence and that of Krishna, Wedgwood was guilty of sex depravity.
Then there cropped up the matter of Wedgwood’s initiation. You told me he was
not an initiate. I could not be surprised at that, naturally, if the other was
true how could he be?
The
statement prompted me to wonder to what extent you confirmed or otherwise all
the many other declarations of Leadbeater about various other people being
disciples, initiates etc. My notes (written down immediately after I left you)
remind me that I asked you what I was to do with regard to them and of your
reply.
. . .
In America
after leaving you certain people came to me and told me they had heard that the
truth about Wedgwood was coming out at last and explained that he had in London
admitted his trouble to one of them (or both I am not sure); that great efforts
were made to help him overcome it; that things went on well for a time, but
that later on he dropped back again into his evil ways. I can give you names if
you want them. »
(OE
Library Critic, vol. 11, No. 11, January 4, 1922, p.4-8)
Outcome
Annie Besant
had already intended to expel Wedgwood from the Theosophical Society, but when
she heard that Leadbeater had declared Wedgwood to be an initiate, she
completely changed her mind and attacked Mr. Martyn, whereupon he replied:
« Under date March 4th. 1922. Mrs.
Besant wrote a circular letter addressed to all members of the Theosophical
Society (T.S.). As references are made in places to myself. I take this
opportunity, at the invitation of the Editor of Dawn, to partially reply to it.
. . .
In October 1919, as I was leaving
London to return to Sydney, Mrs. Besant sent for me, and asked me to take a
message from her to Mr. Jinarajadasa. She told me that the usual methods of
communication were closed to her, and would involve her in the possible
consequences of compounding a felony.
The message itself was, that Mr.
Jinarajadasa, then in Sydney, was to tell Mr. Wedgwood that he must resign from
the Theosophical Society and the Esoteric Section (E.S.T.). Incidentally, Mrs. Besant told me:
- That she had to take this action because of gross immorality, not suspected merely, but confirmed.
- That in a previous talk to an E.S. meeting on the subject of “Black Magic and Sex Perversion,” she referred to this particular case.
- That Mr. Wedgwood was not an initiate.
. . .
To return
now to Mrs. Besant’s circular, she makes the following statement:
"The published letter of Mr. Martyn contains a number of infamous
accusations, none of which I believe, against a number of persons whom I know
to be incapable of the conduct charged. I do not discuss them; no decent person would
mention them except in a court of justice, or in preparation for legal action,
or possibly if in need of help, and if the circulators of this filth have any
justification for making such accusations, they should at once place their
information in the hands of the police.”
Mrs. Besant ignores the fact that
she herself made the “infamous accusations,” as they related to Mr. Wedgwood;
but passing over that lapse on her part, I may explain that, in my own letter
to Mrs. Besant, I tell her that I called on a certain lady in London a week
before she herself sent for me, and that this lady told me the police were
threatening proceedings against two L.C.C. bishops [for their pedophile
activities] (Mr. Wedgwood was one) and some priests. That she had got one of
the latter, whose evidence was most feared, out of the country, etc., etc.
I suppose these are the infamous
accusations that the President refers to. Of course, I did not make them; I
merely informed Mrs. Besant of what the lady in London told me.
It will be noted that Mrs. Besant
boldly states that she knows the persons named to be incapable of the conduct
charged. Here, unhappily, Mrs. Besant is again in trouble, for on February 28th
of this year, just four days before the date on her circular letter, one of the
priests named made a written confession, a certified copy of which is now in my
possession. In this confession he states:
“The imputation against myself, as well as against Wedgwood, _____ and
_____, in Mr. Martyn’s letter, is but too true.”
As one result of this confession,
Mr. Wedgwood has resigned from the L.C.C. and the T.S. So down tumbles this
house of cards to the utter confusion of the “occultists,” [Leadbeater and
Besant] who vouch for a sex-pervert [Wedgwood] as an initiate, and the chosen
agent of the Great Lodge, to act as their channel for passing the Divine Grace
of the Apostolic Succession and a new priest system on to the Theosophical
Society. »
(This
text was first published in Dawn magazine, and later in the EO Library Critic
magazine of July 19, 1922, Vol. 11, No. 25, p.5-8)
