The Appearing Aidan de Brune
or, The Disappearing of Herbert Charles Cull
by Colin Choat
[Research by Terry Walker including the compilation of a chronology of
significant dates in the life of Cull/De Brune, and the unearthing of material
facts, is gratefully acknowledged.]
Aidan de Brune, it
seems, was born Herbert Charles Cull. He adopted the name “Aidan de Brune”
around the time he began his walk around Australia in September 1921.
Thereafter Cull, seems to have used the name Aidan de Brune exclusively and his
death, on 15 February 1946, was registered as the death of Aidan de Brune, with
no mention of his birth name.
The fact of Cull’s
assuming the alias de Brune was not commonly known until I, myself, did some
research. It all began when I happened upon an article at the Trove site[1]
which hosts page images of Australia’s old newspapers. On 25 October 1938, more
than 14 years after Aidan de Brune had completed his walk around Australia, the
following article appeared in the Labor
Daily under the heading Puzzle of
Missing Writer.[1]
Aidan de Brune, 65, writer of many mystery
thrillers, is himself the subject of a mystery puzzling the police of two
States. They cannot locate him, and he has been listed at the Missing Persons
Bureau.
His real name is Herbert Charles Cull, but
he is known all over Sydney and New South Wales by his professional
nom-de-plume. In September, the Western Australian police received a request
from the N.S.W. Agent-General in London to locate de Brune. His wife, of
Earlsthorpe Road, Sydenham, England, who last saw him in 1913, is inquiring for
him.
Constable Thompson, of the Sydney Missing
Persons Bureau, could not trace de Brune after 1929, when he worked for a
Sydney newspaper.
The Labor Daily yesterday ascertained
that:
A member of the Australian Journalists'
Association saw him in the city less than six months ago.
Mr. Alan Foley, literary agent, who handled
some of his yarns, saw him taking his dog for a walk in Centennial Park about
three months ago.
He was in the office of Napier and
Gardiner (literary agents) some time this year.
The Superintendent of Mails was confident
a letter to a G.P.O. box would find him.
The title of "Sydney's Edgar
Wallace" could appropriately be applied to Aidan de Brune. He has written
dozens or gripping thrillers based largely on life in the underworlds of
Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. De Brune could always provide an exciting and
ingenious ending to his yarns.
De Brune was certainly
known as Herbert Charles Cull, or a variation thereof, before he left Western
Australia at the end of 1921, to walk across the continent to Sydney. However,
that was sixteen years before the police were searching for him in 1938. Then,
too, Perth is a long way from Sydney and one wonders how many people in Sydney
would have known that he was Cull.
In the following day’s
edition of the newspaper,[2]
a follow-up article appeared under the heading Story Finds Lost Writer.
Aidan de Brune, mystery writer, has been
located, thanks to a story in yesterday's Labor Daily. His address, for the
time being, however, is not being disclosed.
The Labor Daily has been informed that de
Brune, whom the police have listed as missing for nine years, can be reached
via a G.P.O. box.
When confronted with these
articles, they begged the question of just how much of what is known about de
Brune, before he came to Australia, is factual.
We have a Funeral
notice in a newspaper[3]
and a death registration,[4]
However, for the rest, most of the information about him has been supplied by de
Brune himself, in his articles and in an interview which he gave to the Cairns Post on 29 April 1933,[5]
wherein he told of travelling the world and taking part in wars. He wrote many
words, though not many about himself. This was one of the few occasions when he
did, supposedly, write about himself.
In an article which
appeared in the Bunbury
Herald and Blackwood Express (WA) on 4 March 1921, reporting details of a walk by Herbert Cull during
December 1920 and January and February 1921, it was stated that
Those
who knew Mr Herbert Cull, or Culle de Broune, when in Bunbury, will be
interested in the following Sydney telegram of February 21. [6]
The article went on to provide details of de Brune’s walk from
Fremantle to Sydney.
This article provides
a vital link between the man who called himself Herbert Cull and the man who
later called himself Aidan de Brune and who died as Aidan de Brune.
The first article
written which actually refers to the man as “Aidan de Brune” seems to be an article
which appeared in the Muswellbrook
Chronicle of 20 September 1921, immediately before de Brune began his second
walk, a walk around Australia.[7]
If we are to believe
that he left a wife in England, how much of the rest of his story he told about
himself, of travelling the world and taking part in wars, can we believe. In
the interview he gave to the Cairns Post,
he told us that his family moved from Canada to Zululand when he was four years
old, and that later he was sent off to England to be a priest. He then said
that he went to America, as a newspaper correspondent, served in the Boer War
and went to China. Then he ended up in Australia and took part in World War I.
Whether his was actually
a different history to the one that he told to us, is probably not really relevant.
He did walk the walk, he was an interesting and engaging person
and he could certainly talk the talk.
Still, my curiosity was aroused and I decided to try to find out more about
this man, Herbert Charles Cull, or Aidan de Brune, or whatever his name really
was. So I turned to the wonders of the internet and the incredible search
facilities provided thereon.
A search for “Herbert
Charles Cull,” the person mentioned in the Labor
Daily article quoted above, took me to the Ancestry internet site where I found that one Herbert Charles Cull
was, from 1912 to 1919, shown to be living in Perth, Western Australia.[8]
As already noted, Herbert
Cull, otherwise known as Aiden de Brune Culle and Frank de Broun Culle, walked
from Fremantle to Sydney at the end of 1920. The first appearance of the name
“Aidan de Brune,” upon which he settled for the rest of his life, seems to have
been on 19 October 1921, after he had begun his next walk, a trek around
Australia.[9]
Before that, no information seems to be available regarding the name “Aidan de
Brune.”
A couple of other name
“transitions” appeared in newspapers:
• “Aiden de Brune, who is walking round Australia for the Sydney
"Daily Mail," is not unknown in West Australia. He once worked for
Colonial Secretary Sampson editing the "Bunbury Herald." In those
days his name was Culle. [10]
• Mr. Aiden de Brune Culle, formerly of Bunbury, is on a walking tour
around Australia for the Sydney 'Daily Mail.' Mr. de Brune Culle left Darwin on
August 19, and arrived at Wyndham last week, after travelling 672 miles in 51
days. He stated that his travels through the Territory and East Kimberley were
comparatively uneventful, the natives being friendly throughout. He is unarmed,
and walks, bareheaded, except for a few hours in the middle of the day. He left
Wyndham on Wednesday for Hall's Creek. [11]
• The Onslow [Western Australia] paper reports the arrival of Mr. Aiden
de Brune (known in Bunbury as Mr. F. de Broun Culle) in the course of his walk
around Australia. Everyone to his taste. The pedestrian lectured on his
experiences in the Mechanics' Institute "before a fair gathering."
After he had done lecturing, the gathering, probably stirred to energy by his
exploit, started dancing, and kept it up till midnight. Whether the wanderer's
toe likewise proved light and fantastic is not reported. [12]
• Those who knew Mr Herbert Cull, or Culle de Broune, when in Bunbury,
will be interested in the following Sydney telegram of February 21— A message
from Goulbourn says that a Canadian arrived yesterday, after walking from
Fremantle in 85 days. He undertook to walk from Fremantle to Sydney in 85 days
for a wager of £400 sterling. He arrived at Goulbourn yesterday, and announced
he had lost the wager, as he should have been in Sydney. The traveller was
footsore and emphasised that only for an attack of dysentery he would have won.
He expects to reach Sydney five days hence. A late message announced his
arrival in Sydney five days too late to win the alleged wager.[13]
At the Ancestry site already referred to, we
also find a personal family tree, “Culls From Dorset, England,” which includes the
name of Charles Herbert Cull. It must be acknowledged that such trees can
be very inaccurate at times. Having said that, the tree shows the mother of
Herbert Charles Cull to be Sarah Ann Eveleigh. It is assumed that “Eveleigh” is
the maiden name as there are two sisters of Herbert Charles Cull shown, who
have “Eveleigh” as a middle name, as a nod to the mother’s maiden name.
Turning to de Brune's death certificate, De Brune’s mother is
shown as “Mary Ann Everleigh.”[14]
Mary is not Sarah, as shown on Cull’s entry at Ancestry, and Everleigh has an “r” in it, whilst the Ancestry page has Eveleigh. Still, it was
further evidence that Cull and de Brune are the same person, if further
evidence is needed.
It is also worth noting that de Brune’s death certificate
indicates that he died at the “Little Sisters of the Poor Home, Randwick,” the
informant being the Superior of the Home, Sister Clotilde. One can only presume
that, some time before his death, de Brune himself provided the Superior with
the information which appears on the death certificate. It is conceivable that
de Brune was in error regarding his mother’s name, or that the Superior
recorded the information incorrectly into the Home’s records.
We now turn to some information which de Brune supplied, in the
article which he gave to the Cairns Post:[15]
The wander-lust
urged again and for quite a time I travelled most of the southern parts of the
continent. Then came the war and I joined, to my ability, in the Great
Adventure. Again back to Australia, with an earnest desire to see those parts
of it I had previously missed.
No record was found, at the National Archives of Australia[16],
of service in the First World War by Aidan de Brune or Herbert Charles Cull. It
is assumed that de Brune was in Australia as he refers to travelling “most of
the southern parts of the continent.” In fact, when one looks at it closely,
the entire article can seem somewhat glib. He states that “the wanderlust urged
again,” and at another point “a fight has always attracted me, and amid the wide
spread battleground of South Africa I found adventure sufficient for an
ordinary lifetime.” Then, too, he noted that his writing in the United States
was
…about fifty to sixty serials, under nom-de-plumes
in London and New York; some dozen of them only appearing in book form.
Here is a writer who took the time to donate material to the State
Library of New South Wales, glossing over his literary output, yet did not
mention the name of any of his serials.
Again, In the article by de Brune about himself, he stated that:
Eighteen months of neurasthenia; more than half
that time helpless on a bed. American doctors sent me to England. There the
fraternity declared me a hopeless case. Perhaps to get me off their hands with
the least trouble, they decided that my only hope was a voyage to Australia.
Hospital attendants carried me on board ship, but at Port Said I walked ashore
to see the sights. By the time I reached Fremantle I had decided there was
still room in this world for me. I looked at that western capital and decided
that the country was good; also that doctors were darned bad guessers.
Then, as quoted above, in 1938, police were searching for him as “his wife, of Earlsthorpe Road, Sydenham, England, who
last saw him in 1913, is inquiring for him.”
We may never know all the details the circumstances of Cull’s coming to
Australia, or details of his life before he came to Australia. However, it is
quite a coincidence that he wrote about a man who deserted his wife in England,
whether or not Cull actually deserted his
wife.
What is more, Terry Walker noted, in researching “de Broune/de
Brune/Cull/Culle's sojourn in Bunbury, that two serials, dating from 1920 and
attributed to "Frank de Broune", were published in the Bunbury
Herald. One, a 12-part serial, linked
short stories detailing the affairs of Mr Pell, a Perth gentleman. The second,
"The Mystery of the Nine Stars", started on 28 May 1920, and ended
abruptly, unfinished, in the 5 November issue. It is unmistakably a de Brune
serial to the core. My guess is there were at least five or six instalments to
go. De Brune, or de Broune as he then was, left Fremantle on Nov 24 1920 on his
transcontinental walk. Neither serial can be found in any other paper.” Some
event seemed to have caused de Brune to leave Bunbury abruptly.
De Brune brings his mystery thrillers to a rapid close, where the
loose ends seem to be tied up and where the solution is presented as an
inevitable outcome of the clues and other information which have been dispensed
throughout the book. We cannot tie up the loose ends here, but it seems certain
that Herbert Charles Cull and Aidan de Brune were names for the same person,
who was born as Cull and died as de Brune.
*
I wrote the above essay as I was piecing together the growing
evidence that Aidan de Brune and Herbert Charles Cull were the same person. It
didn’t happen in a moment. It was a matter of looking for more evidence to
settle the matter, or at least firm up my belief.
I had noticed on the Ancestry family tree, “Culls From Dorset,
England,”[17]
that a person had provided a contact email, so I decided to contact her to see
if she had further information. She passed on my email to someone else, who
turned out to live in Australia and was a great-granddaughter of Herbert
Charles Cull. It was a great surprise to me as I was just looking to find a bit
more information about Cull’s life. It was also a great surprise to the
great-granddaughter. The family had given up finding out what happened to Cull,
after he came to Australia.
THE END
Notes
[1] Puzzle
of Missing Writer (1938, October 25). The Labor Daily (Sydney, NSW : 1924 -
1938), p. 5. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236416852
[2] Story Finds Lost Writer (1938, October 26). The Labor
Daily (Sydney, NSW : 1924 - 1938), p. 6. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article236417088
[3] Family
Notices (1946, February 18). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954),
p. 12. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17970940
[4] Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages, New South
Wales. Death Registration No. 5486/1946 Retrieved September 21, 2017, from https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/deaths?2
[5] A
Gallery of Australian Authors, (1933, April 29). Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 -
1954), p. 5. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41201380
[6]
Weary Walker. (1921, March 4). The Bunbury Herald and Blackwood Express (WA
: 1919 - 1929), p. 1. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87052918
[7] Local and General, (1921, September 20). The
Muswellbrook Chronicle (NSW : 1898 - 1955), p. 2. Retrieved September 21,
2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107661069.
[8] Ancestry Search—“Culls From Dorset, England,” personal
Family Tree, Ancestry internet site, Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://preview.tinyurl.com/yaxfm3l8
[9] Items
of News. (1921, October 19). Kalgoorlie Miner (WA : 1895 - 1950), p. 4.
Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article93249317
[10]
No heading, (1922, October 22). Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954),
p. 12. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58035327.
[11]
Mainly About People (1922, October 20). The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 -
1950), p. 8 (THIRD EDITION). Retrieved October 6, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83154711
[12]
NEWS IN BRIEF. (1923, March 23). The Bunbury Herald and Blackwood Express (WA :
1919 - 1929), p. 4.
Retrieved October 6, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87062233
[13] Weary
Walker. (1921, March 4). The Bunbury Herald and Blackwood Express (WA : 1919
- 1929), p. 1. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article87052918
[14] Registry
of Births Deaths and Marriages, New South Wales. Death Registration No.
5486/1946 Retrieved September 21, 2017, from https://familyhistory.bdm.nsw.gov.au/lifelink/familyhistory/search/deaths?2
[15] A
Gallery of Australian Authors, (1933, April 29). Cairns Post (Qld. : 1909 -
1954), p. 5. Retrieved September 21, 2017, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article41201380
[16]
National Archives of Australia, Your Story, Our History Retrieved 21 September
2017, from https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/SearchScreens/NameSearch.aspx
[17] Ancestry Search—“Culls
From Dorset, England,” personal Family Tree, Ancestry internet site, Retrieved
September 21, 2017, from http://preview.tinyurl.com/yaxfm3l8
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