Waterbury Democrat., 1902-11-17
LED A DOUBLE LIFE.
Col Plants Sudden Death Reveals
Strange Doings.
known as s'Edmund HaIl'' in Quiet
English Village Where He
Reared a Family Two
Plates on His Coffin.


A London cable to the New York
Sun says that from the west of Eng
land there comes strange story OF
the double life lived by man without
suspicion for more than 10 years, his
neighbors, and even his own son, be-
ing ignorant of it till his sudden death
revealed the truth.
Nineteen years ago there came to
live in house called the Old Grange,
in the small Dorsetshire village OF
Oborne, Edmund Hall, an accountant
by profession. lived at Oborne
with his wife an 1aily for 10 years,
during which pc / they gained the
respect of the wnoIe neighborhood.
Mr.. Hall was a great bee fancier. On
Monday, September 1, he drove with
his little son to neighboring farm IN
the village of Templecombe, where he
took some hives of bees. Afterward
he went to a farmhouse, and while
taking tea with the wife of the farm
er he suddenly fell dead of heart dis
ease No suspicious were aroused,
although some surprise was ex-
pressed at the news that Mr.. Hall
would be buried on the following Sat-
!. churchyard, where a son, 17h years
of age, who died in 1901, and son
16 days old, who died in 1902, lie
buried.
On Wednesday the Bristol newspa-
pers announced the sudden death of
heart disease on the previous Monday
ut a small village near Templecombe
of one of the most distinguished, best
known and respected inhabitants OF
Bristol, Col. Edmund Carter Plant, c..
B., who would be buried on Saturday
in Bristol with full military honors.
Some residents of Sherbourne, where
Hall was well known, on seeing this.
noticed the strange condolences OF
the date and the manner and cause
OF the two mems deaths. But the
editor of the Sherbourne Post sus-
pected something more. He made in
quiries which convinced him as to the
identity of Hall and Plant, but he was
unable to prove his case. However,
he did not lose sight of the body, which
on Friday evening was taken to the
station attended by large number
of sorroWing villagers, and was placed
in the guards van. The coffin plate
Hall. Died September 9, 1902, aged
60 years"
The Bristol undertaken entered the
van with the coffin, but at the juno
ton where the van was detached
and coupled to another train this
man changed to an ordinary car
rage and when the train had arrived
at Bristol the coffin plate was seen to
be inscribed:
edmund Carter Plant, c. B., Colonel
Bristol Engineers, died September 8,
1902, aged CO."
On Saturday the streets of Bristol
were thronged with thousands of peo-
pie anxious to see the funeral, which
was the finest military spectacle the
poDulace had seen since the late Queen
Victoria visited the place in 1897.
Eight colonies acted as pallbearers.
Thus this distinguished resident OF
Bristol was laid in the cemetery of the
town beside his wife, who died in 1900,
and to whom he was married in 1865.
Plants career, from his boyhood,
with the exception of the 10 years he
lived at Oborne as Hall, is we'll known.
He had lived at Bristol since 1861. Ac-
cording to Who's Who, he was lieu
tenant colonel and colonel command
ing of the Second Gloster volunteers,
r. e. (the Bristol engineers). He
passed through all the grades from
sapper to colonel commanding.
Not until his death was the identity
of their father revealed to their chif-
dren at Oborne. MRS. Hall'' knew,
and but for the clumsy work of his
legal advisers when they notified the
newspapers of the colonel's death, the
secret would never have been revealed.
The mention of Templecombe gave
the clew, however, and resulted in the
exposure The coloneIs absence at
Bristol or Oborne, "on business"
never aroused the slightest suspicion.