British Pathe

Unissued / unused footage - dates and locations may be unknown / unclear.

Australian newsreel titles: 'Sydney - Mrs Livesey Speaks - The Story That Has Not Been Told'. (Disclaimer follows explaining that in democratic faith the newsreel has made space for Mrs Ethel Livesey to tell her own story,...

Unissued / unused footage - dates and locations may be unknown / unclear.

Australian newsreel titles: 'Sydney - Mrs Livesey Speaks - The Story That Has Not Been Told'. (Disclaimer follows explaining that in democratic faith the newsreel has made space for Mrs Ethel Livesey to tell her own story, exactly as she recorded it.)

Sydney, Australia.

Mrs Ethel Livesey sits at a desk, opening letters. She says she has chosen to speak to us through this medium because what she has to say cannot be turned maliciously against her or distorted.

She speaks of the severe suffering she has undergone over the past weeks due to the publicity she has not sought. Adversity brought her sincere and new friends. She thanks the people who have written to her offering support and a place to live. She talks of living through the Blitz and the Battle of Britain.

She wonders if those that have turned against her would have shown her a little more kindness during her trial if they had seen some of the suffering that she had during the war. She says she is not ashamed of anything she has done and she can look everybody in the face.

Note: cannot find any more information about Mrs Livesey, except that her trial concerned a 'secret wedding'.

Amenment September 2011:

A user has written with some very useful information as follows. "She (Ethel Livesey) was a serial fraud working in Australia in the 194os. The wedding referred to was a huge society affair for 500 complete with doves and a Molyneux gown, but never proceeded as the groom was informed half an hour before the ceremony that she was wanted for obtaining goods on false pretences. She disappeared and was arrested about two weeks later, turning up again and again in court over the next few years charged with fraud and obtaining goods by false pretences again and again."

Miss Ethel Liveley was due to get married but collapsed half an hour before ceremony and couldn't be found. The wedding was subsequently cancelled and police were on her tail. A woman said by the police to be identical with Mrs. Ethel Livesey (48), 20-stone bride-to be, was arrested on a provision warrant under the name Florence Elizabeth Gardiner. Florence, her real name, was arrested for not attending Adelaide Criminal Sessions on Dec. 7, 1933, to answer a charge of having obtained goods by false
pretences.