Page 177 - Bulletin 7 2003

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and retiring and never seen to leave the house. The story went that he had been
involved in the Dreyfus case in Paris and had fled the country together with other

Dreyfus defenders.”

There is a most interesting sequel to this particular story. A book has been published by

Maria Wooten, an Irish writer living in Dublin. I have brought along my copy signed
by the writer and its title is “The Du Bedat Story, Killiney to Kommetjie”. Frank Du

Bedat, by 1889, was head of a family of successful Dublin stockbrokers and bankers. In
October 1890 he became president of the Dublin Stock Exchange and is described as

being influential, charming, and respected but also a rogue. In a scandal, which rocked
Dublin, he had fraudulently taken money from clients and, through extravagant living

and failed investments, had lost it all. On Christmas Eve 1890 he wrote letters to his

wife Rosie from London and promptly disappeared. Within days the family firm had
collapsed and he was struck off the list of members of the Dublin Stock Exchange. Six

months later he was arrested in Cape Town and sent back to Dublin where, after a one-

day trial, he was sentenced to 12 months hard labour and 7 years penal servitude. Maria
Wooton’s book continues the story of Frank Du Bedat’s early release in 1896, to his

later fraudulent escapades in South Africa, marriage to an actress 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.

Maria Wooton tracked down his grave in the cemetery at Glencairn.

Back to Ann’s own story, where she refers to “……the worst storm in my memory

which occurred in May 1984. For one-and-a-half days the north-wester blew at more
than gale force and created a great deal of havoc. The sea was so high that it washed

right over the car park at the Kom, piling up mountains of kelp and wet sand. 17 of the
boats at Fisherman’s Bay were wrecked and general damage was considerable.

Sections of roofs, fences and gates were ripped off and most of the houses sustained

bad leaks.”