"Dr" Brian Charles Donelly is one of those enigmatic characters who makes a journalistic splash for a little while and then disappears from the record. His use of aliases could mean he appeared any number of times under different names, though the New Zealand police were not as easily fooled as they could be a few decades before, when the Police Gazette had physical descriptions but no photographs. Donnelly might have been a role-playing fantasist, never meaning any harm, but he was still a menace.
UNREGISTERED MEDICAL PRACTITIONER.
SUBSTANTIAL PENALTY.
(From Our Own Correspondent) NASEBY, February 14.
At the Magistrate's Court at Blacks yesterday Bryan Charles Donnelly, alias Robt. Preston, was charged under section 22 of "The Medical Act, 1908," with practising in the district as a medical practitioner without having the necessary qualifications. Detective Ward prosecuted, and defendant, for whom Mr Bodkin appeared, pleaded "Guilty."
Detective Ward stated that defendant held himself out as a doctor, and was generally recognised as such. He was recently engaged by Mr Wilson, of Lauder, as an agricultural labourer. When one of the employees met with an accident defendant signed the usual medical certificate. He also attended a resident of Becks, for whom he prescribed (prescription produced). The prescription was made up by Mr Wilkinson, chemist, Dunedin. At the end of last year he was relieving Dr Irwin, of Middlemarch, and on a former occasion assisted the late Dr Coughtrey, of Dunedin. Defendant called on the house surgeon at Dunedin Hospital, representing himself a« a medical practitioner, and was shown over the institution, also over St. Helens Hospital. Cards and notepaper were produced purporting to show that defendant was a duly qualified practitioner.
Cross-examined by Detective Ward, defendant gave his age as 31 years, and stated that he had been in the Dominion 10 years, and had passed all his medical examinations except the final in the Home Country. He could not remember if he had described himself at Napier as a clerk and a native of Warwickshire, England. He admitted representing himself to the officers of H.M.S. Pioneer as a stationholder and inviting them to visit him in his motor car for some deer shooting, but denied borrowing £l0 from the officers. Defendant stated that he made no charges for his services, and that there was no doctor within 30 miles.
The magistrate (Mr W. R. Haseldon) said it was difficult to imagine a case more directly contravening the provisions of the act, and inflicted a fine of £25.
At the request of Detective Ward, immediate distress was granted.
We are assured that the statements which were made in the Magistrate's Court at Blacks last week that the man Bryan Charles Donnelly, who was then fined for practising as a medical practitioner without having the necessary qualification, had at one time assisted the late Dr Coughtrey, and had relieved Dr Irwin at Middlemarch, are entirely without foundation. -Otago Witness, 21/2/1912.
"DOCTOR" DONNELLY
Swindles "Sassiety" Swells and Belles.
A Curious Kind of Cobber.
(From "Truth's" Dunedin Rep.)
Last Thursday week, before Mr. H. Y. Widdowson, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court, the latest bit of sensational humanity, lured to Dunedin by the fame of its beers and the beauty of its big bugs' wives, stepped into the dock with the grandiloquence of a "dook," and "haw-hawed" rather familiarly at his Worship. The S.M. was busy fishing for ink, and did not return the compliment.
The important person's name was Bryan Charles Donnelly, a sheepdipper by accident, and many other better things by inclination, as the following little aliases disclose: — The Hon. Robert Preston, "Lootenant" Donnelly, the Hon. Kinniard, the Dr. Donnelly, a friend of leisured, rich ladies. The "doctor," the "lootenant," or the sheep-dipper stood on his exposed pedestal to answer a charge of false pretences. He was not represented by counsel, and to facilitate the work of the S.M., he pleaded guilty.
Chief Detective Herbert: Your Worship, this is a rather peculiar stamp of a man, and it is not quite easy to make him out. Periodically, he finds his way into town, and, as a result, into gaol. Now and then he visits the country, and there certainly does a spell of work and endeavors to lead an honest life. He has, however, a partiality for certain professions, and, being thus inclined, he has managed, with extraordinary audacity, to pass himself off as "Doctor" Donnelly, securing thereby
A REAL GOOD TIME. He has been living in flash hotels and driving out with other men's wives, and visiting all round. These ladies are of a high social standing in town, but evidently accused's fictitious standing satisfied them. In the present case, the "doctor," or "lieutenant," or whatever he was at the time, went to Mr. Harry Divers, of the Otago Finance Co., on April 14, and obtained the sum of £2 by representing he had an interest in the Traquair Estate. He had previously met Mr. Divers in the train, and his company at the time (several wellknown ladies) and his grandiloquent manners impressed Mr. Divers that he was a person of some respectability. He just wanted a temporary loan as he had funds in the bank at Naseby. and he represented himself as staying at Wain's Hotel. He merely had his dinner at the latter place, the Naseby bank was innocent of any funds of his, and his interest in the Traquair Estate was merely imaginary. Accused is well known to the police for twelve or fourteen years, and I am inclined to think that he is not all right in the head. He must know that the bare-faced swindling he adopts leads to the courts. Under glaring false pretences he secured the entry into many families of repute, and enjoyed a real good time out driving and motoring with rich men's wives. I fancy he is not quite sane. Since 1902 he has been nine times before the court. He has been up seven times for false pretences. At Ophir, two years ago, he falsely represented himself as a medical practitioner, and was fined £25. He is always buying farms and carrying off very big projects.
Accused: I think I have got all my mental faculties. The detective is just making my case as bad as he can. There was really no necessity for such remarks.
The S.M. (to accused): Why do you do such things, in any case?
Accused:
I'M A BIT FOOLISH, I know, in doing them, but I am quite willing to give the man back his money. There is nothing wrong with my sanity.
Chief Detective: Just two years ago he represented himself as a doctor, and took a large party through the St. Helens hospital. He showed them right over and carried out the imposture successfully.
Accused: I say it is most unfair to make up these things.
Chief Detective: It may be in your interests, as I said before.
Accused: Well, I've been trying to go straight for some time, and succeeded. I have work to go to, and I am quite willing to pay all concerned now.
The S.M.: Does the accused drink?
The Chief Detective: He does, and it may be the contributing cause. He only has 15s 8d presently.
The S.M.: I must take into consideration the bad record of accused. He is sentenced to three months' imprisonment with hard labor. -NZ Truth 25/4/1914.
"DR" DONNELLY'S DENOUEMENT
VAPID VETERINARY VIVISETOR'S VICISSITUDES
AN OLD ROGUE IN A NEW ROLE
(From "Truth's" Christchurch Reporter)
Some time last year there descended upon Dunedin a top-hatted, frock-coated and altogether sartorially perfect coot, who styled himself as "Doctor" Donnelly. The swelldom of Scotsopolis judged Donnelly in much the same way as a sparrow chooses a cherry — by its outside appearance — which, being just about the dizzy limit of perfection in the self-tagged "Doctor," secured for him a free leg in that superfluity which is locally called the "social swim." Donnelly's credentials were not asked for and his bona fides were generally reckoned to be sufficiently square dinkum to assure him the confidence and respect of the most
PAWKY PORRIDGE PARTAKING POTENTATES in the dour metropolis. Thus it was that Donnelly lived in clover for a time. There was enough free beer for him to bathe in, if he felt that way. Odor cahs, ("motor cars") also, were placed at his disposal and so, to a limited extent, were quite a few of Dunedin's socially puffick ladies. Life, with the dear doctor, buzzed along on ball bearings, and it is quite on the cards that, if he had been allowed another couple of fathoms of hemp, he would have shied Mayor Shacklock out of office and planted his own well chiselled bosom in the vacant chair. But if Donnelly really had that intention packed away in the lumber-room of his upper story, it, together with kindred ambitions and inclinations, was summarily squelched last April, by the Dunedin Sleuth Department, which, on being put wise to Donnelly's dauntless doings, threw its paw across his cosmic horoscope and summarily cut his gas off at the meter.
So it came to pass that the socially scrumptious stumer was carted off to the same "clink" in which common or garden shikkers and hoboes occasionally reside, charged with having obtained a couple of ordinarily golden Jimmy o' goblins by means of a false pretence. It only needed a squint at "Doc," Donnelly's dial to revive the recollections of Dunedin Sleuthdom and inspire a search of that interesting volume,
"THE PINCHED PERSONS' PORTRAIT ALBUM," by which "Doctor" Donnelly was connected up with such a variety of personages as the Hon. Robert Preston, Lieutenant Donnelly, the Hon. Kiniard.
"Doctor" Bryan Charles Donnelly was duly paraded in the Dunedin S.M's Court, and the 'Tec Department handed out the information that Donnelly had been known to the Sherlocks for the brief space or 12 or 14 years, and it was quietly considered that he was a bit balmy on the crumpet, although he was artful enough with it to hoodwink the educated scions of society. Since 1902 he had been before the Court several times, seven of which appearances were in respect to false pretences. "Doctor" Donnelly admitted having squeezed a couple of quidlets out of a prominent Dunedinite by falsely representing that he was a gilt-edged money-bug. The S.M. mentioned that "Doc" Donnelly's record was up to mud, and the pseudo physician was sent to the "cooler" for three months.
After negotiating the three months compulsory relaxation from practice, "Doctor" Donnelly turned his helm northwards and, after calling in at several wayside ports, either for ballast or to replenish his tanks, dropped anchor at Leeston, a rural spot, half a dozen pubs south of Christchurch. In the hayseed-clothed village the double-dyed Donnelly subsided in Leeston's most comfortable armchair and decided to open up as
A VETERINARY SURGEON. No sooner decided than acted upon, out went "Vet" Donnelly's shingle and in came the "cases." Donnelly was himself once more, and, besides having; become well aware of the difference between "greasy heel" and "strangles," was beginning to get a look in with the Leeston "heads" when the crash came. As a consequence. Mr Charles Donnelly, "M.R.C.V.S." was, last week, hailed before the court for the tenth time. Two Jays Pay occupied the bench, and Donnelly was charged, on the information of the S.P.C.A., with cruelly ill-treating Farmer Barnett's Clydesdale mare, Jewel of Green Meadow, on December 16.
Lawyer Gresson prosecuted on behalf of the Society, and "Doc." Donnelly, who had apparently lost none of his "dash," played off his own bat. Throughout the proceedings he maintained a characteristic "Percy off the yacht" attitude, and occasionally chipped in with a slab of
HONEYED VERNACULAR AND GUSH similar to that which earned him his Dunedin beano of three months' gaol.
Lawyer Gresson explained that the Jewel of Green Meadow was a valuable draught brood mare, which was due to increase her family about the middle of last December. The "Jewels" prematernal ailments had been attended to by Mr. Machattie, M.R.C.V.S., until he left the district to go to Egypt, in charge of the. Expeditionary Forces gee-gees. Then "Doc." Donnelly was engaged to look after the mare. G. H. Barnett, the owner of the mare, was himself an experienced man in veterinary cases, but, on account of the Jewel of Green Meadow being a particularly valuable bit of horseflesh, he preferred to take the extra precaution of employing a qualified veterinary surgeon. On the morning of December 16, Barnett saw, the "Jewel's" foal was due and he immediately sent for "Doctor" Donnelly and a neighboring farmer named Chambers, who knew a good deal about horses. Barnett and Chambers examined the mare, and found a normal presentation, except that the foal's head was very slightly turned to one side. When "Doc" Donnelly arrived on the scene, he ordered an
EMPLOYMENT OF TRACTION, which proved of no avail. Barnett then made another examination and found that the foal was dead. He placed the head in the correct position, and the foal, though dead, was delivered without any further trouble. As the result of the treatment ordered by "Doctor" Donnelly, the Jewel of Green Meadow passed in her checks shortly afterwards. Barnett had sued Donnelly for the value of the mare, and he confessed judgment, which was practically an admission of negligence. It would be shown that Donnelly had been guilty of cruelty as well as negligence. "Doctor" Donnelly, it was stated, had held himself up in Leeston to be a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.
Donnelly: Err haw haw, might I ask what that has to do with this case?
Lawyer Gresson: The question of qualifications has an important bearing on the case. It is only right for the Court to know what degree of skill the defendant was able to use in treating the mare.
The two Jays Pay chewed the "Doctor's" objection for some time, and then unanimously resolved not to go into the point at the present.
G. H. Barnett, owner of the now defunct draught mare, bore out his counsel's statement, and added that before Donnelly's arrival, Barnett and Chambers had ascertained that the foal was alive. He did not approve of the treatment, but bowed to the
"SUPERIOR" KNOWLEDGE OF "DOC." DONNELLY as a qualified "vet." Barnett stated, in conclusion, that when he engaged "Doc." Donnelly, he quite understood that he was a fully qualified veterinary surgeon.
Lawyer Gresson explained that any person, whether qualified or not, could set up in New Zealand as a veterinary. He handed the bench a copy of the certificate given, by "Doc." Donnelly, and setting out the cause of the mare's death as "septic."
Cross-examined by the defendant, Barnett said he was sure his mare didn't have "thorochpin."
Alexander Adair Johnson, F.R.C.V.S., stated that, under no circumstances would there be any justification for applying traction to remove the foal without first ascertaining its position. It would be gross incompetence and cruelty. Witness reckoned he had had a good deal of experience in similar cases, the New Zealand farmers as a rule, being
SO SKILLED IN VETERINARY WORK, that qualified men, were called in only for unusual cases. Witness could remember only two cases in Canterbury wherein traction had been wrongly employed by farmers. Questioned as to the cause of the mare's death, witness said that the employment of force had undoubtedly caused her demise, which resulted from the consequent shock. Death could not have been caused by septicaemia, which Donnelly's certificate indicated. Invariably that disease took several hours to develop.
"Doc" Donnelly was short and sweet in his evidence, he denounced the charge as being an utterly absurd one to be brought against him, above all people. He was a lover of animals and, as a matter of fact, had been a member of the Society for the Preventlon of Cruelty to Animals for two years in Otago. In treating the "Jewel of Green Meadows" he had employed the most humane methods possible. And m order to prevent the equine from suffering, he had actually injected four grains of morphine, so that it was clear, she could feel nothing while the "Doc" was operating.
Lawyer Gresson, in cross-examining Donnelly, pumped in a series of technical terms, mostly relative to equine anatomy. The "doctor's"
REPLIES CAUSED MORE AMUSEMENT than has been provided in the Leeston Court for a day or two. The Inspector for the S.P.C.A. gave evidence regarding a somewhat similar case in which "Doc" Donnelly was fined £1 and costs.
The Bench retired to consider its "points" and returned an hour later with a verdict of guilty. "Doc" Donnelly was mulcted in £l and costs, the Bench holding that be had not wilfully ill-treated the mare, but that having caused her unnecessary suffering through unskilful treatment, he had committed an offence according to law. -NZ Truth, 6/3/1915.
A BOGUS VET.
GETS THREE MONTHS' GAOL.
A man named Brian Charles Donnelly was sentenced to three months' imprisonment by Mr T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., at Rangiora yesterday. The charge made against him was that he was a rogue and a vagabond, in that he endeavoured to impose on individuals by falsely representing himself, both verbally and in writing, with a view to obtaining an advantage.
The man, who was arrested by Detective Gibson, appeared to have acted with brazen impudence. He advertised in the newspapers that he had commenced business in Rangiora as a veterinary surgeon, and he also circulated a business card. Some enquiries were made concerning him by Detective Gibson, and they ended in the arrest of the imposter.
The course from liberty and fraud to the confinement and hard labour was short. The court at Rangiora was sitting, and Donnelly was brought at once before Mr Bailey. He pleaded guilty to the charge, and the sentence of three months' hard labour followed. -Sun, 30/7/1915
"DOC." DONNELLY
Roped in at Rangiora
His Vagaries as a "Vet"
Earn Him Three Months' Gaol
(From "Truth's" Christchurch Rep,)
It is many years since "Truth" first began to recount the peregrinations of Brian Charles Donnelly, a flash fraud, who managed, despite police prosecutions and hefty fines, to push his face into the best of New Zealand society and procure for himself a substantial whack of "social slobber" and the "sugar" which certain limbs of the local aristocracy are always ready to dish out to any old nobody who wears flash "clobber" and "kids" that his "blud" is "bloo." Donnelly, It will be recollected, posed in different parts of the North Island, and, later still, in the South, as a doctor. As such, he pulled hard and lucratively at the leg of pawky porridge punching potentates In Scotsopolis. Then he got lumbered by the unsympathetic "sleuths" and duly descended to earning a crust by the gentle art of sheep dipping, after which he set his helm towards the north and was duly pinched at Leeston, for cruelty to a champion Clydesdale mare on which he had been engaged to operate, because he represented himself as a qualified veterinary surgeon.
Now comes further news of the pseudo "doc."
After unscientifically exploring the innards of the Clydesdale mare and paying the penalty for his enterprise, Donnelly was quiet for a while. Lately however, he hit Rangiora, a harmless hamlet in North Canterbury. There he hung out his shingle as a veterinary surgeon and extensively advertised his business in the "papers." Doubtless he would have knocked a decent sliced cheque out of. Rangiora. -NZ Truth, 7/8/1915.
Bryan Charles Donnelly appeared charged with the theft of 691b of wool, valued at £3 17s 6d, at Dromore. Mr W. H. Woods appeared for Donnelly, who pleaded guilty. The Senior-Sergeant said Donnelly had been employed at Dromore as a woolclasser, and some fleece wool was found in some dags belonging to accused, who had sold quantities of wool to a local buyer. The Senior-Sergeant submitted a. list of convictions previously entered against accused. Mr Woods drew the attention of the Bench to the fact that it was 11 years since accused’s last conviction. Donnelly had apparently yielded to a sudden impulse, and had assisted the police in tracing the wool. Accused was married, with a family of six, and counsel asked that accused should be leniently dealt with.
His Worship admitted Donnelly to probation for 12 months. -Ashburton Guardian, 18/12/1925.
Bryan (or Brian) Donnelly died in 1938 and is buried in Ashburton Cemetery.
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