#Oscar wilde gay pioneer trial#

Her mother died shortly after the birth (and death) of her younger sister. So, if Beatrice did influence her husband’s bail decision, it could just have conceivably been in a much more direct way.īeatrice Rosamond Pennington was born in 1850, the second child of Charles Plumer Pennington and Rosamond de Roll Lomax. And what seems to have escaped notice until now is that, although Headlam and Wilde had apparently had little to do with one another before the fateful events of May 1895, their wives had been moving in the same circles for at least five years. Beatrice continued to live in London and pursue an agenda just as progressive as her husband’s, making headlines of her own. She is another DNB ghost and the over-riding impression one is left with from the tiny amount written about her is that when her marriage collapsed, she vanished. His wife, from whom he had separated at least ten years earlier, was also gay and it was this that made him particularly empathetic to Wilde’s plight.īeing Stewart Headlam’s gay wife has been pretty much Beatrice Pennington’s only claim to fame up until now. However, later another theory emerged for why Headlam endured these brickbats for a man he had met just twice. The Reverend Stewart Headlam, BA painted in 1907 by Daisy Radclife Clague, V&A Museum He founded the Church and Stage Guild in 1879 to break down prejudice against those working in the Victorian entertainment industries and was an early member of the Fabian Society.

Undeterred, and shored up by a private income, Headlam continued to pursue his own agenda. His views became more and more difficult for his bosses to cope with and in 1878 he was sacked. He even compared the grace of Christ with the grace of a music-hall ballerina. He had no truck with high brow / low brow delineations: an operatic aria and a music-hall ditty had equal value. That might have been enough to ruffle a few cassocks but what really riled leaders in the Anglican Church was Headlam’s fervent belief that art was for all and all art was equal. In 1877 he set up his own group, the Guild of St Matthew, to further the cause of Christian socialism.

Maurice and Charles Kingsley, champion of the poor and castigator of the rich, in 1873, aged 26, he became a curate in the impoverished parish of Bethnal Green. Stewart Headlam (1847-1924) was ‘the most bohemian priest in the history of the Church of England’ according to his biographer, John Orens, and no stranger to controversy. Bosie), put up just over half of that and the man who stepped in with the remaining £1,225 was a 48-year old vicar, the Reverend Stewart Duckworth Headlam. Percy Douglas, brother of Wilde lover, Lord Alfred (a.k.a. In the interim, bail was set at £5,000, of which £2,500 required a third-party guarantee.

#Oscar wilde gay pioneer trial#

The first jury was unable to reach a verdict, the trial collapsed in early May 1895 and a second trial was immediately ordered. But what is often forgotten is that Oscar Wilde stood trial twice. Wilde was soon in the dock himself on charges of gross indecency and then in jail. In 1895, Oscar Wilde sued his lover’s father, the Marquess of Queensberry, for criminal libel after he left Wilde a note at his club accusing him of being a “somdomite” (sic). The story where she currently has a walk-on role is the tale of “Oscar Wilde’s Surprising Benefactor”. It has written her out of a story where her role is significant and written her into a different one where, if she played a part at all, it was probably not for the reason given. History has played a remarkable trick on Beatrice Pennington Headlam.