Oddlet: The Tichborne Claimant · 1 min read
Oct 9, 2026
Sir Roger Had Gotten So Stout
A slim, asthmatic, French-speaking heir to a Hampshire baronetcy was lost off Rio in 1854; twelve years later a butcher from Wagga Wagga arrived at Tilbury weighing eighteen stone, unable to speak one word of French, and the family's old valet accepted him.
Roger Tichborne was the slim, asthmatic, French-speaking heir to a Hampshire baronetcy. On his left forearm was a schoolboy tattoo: a heart, a cross, an anchor, inked at Stonyhurst by a classmate. He was lost at sea off Rio in 1854.
Twelve years later a butcher from Wagga Wagga answered the Dowager Lady Tichborne's newspaper advertisements and sailed for England.
He landed at Tilbury weighing eighteen stone. He had fair wavy hair, no tattoos, and could not speak one word of French. Andrew Bogle, the family's old valet, examined him and accepted him on the reasoning that Sir Roger had gotten so stout. A Hampshire blacksmith looked longer and said, "If you are Sir Roger, you've changed from a racehorse to a carthorse." How a racehorse becomes a carthorse over a decade is a question the Tichborne circle largely declined to ask. The Dowager received him at the Hôtel de Lille in Paris on 11 January 1867. The suite was darkened. She was ill in bed. He was brought in. She looked at his face and said yes. She lodged the declaration at the British Embassy that same afternoon.
She died fourteen months later, still convinced.
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- Wikipedia — Tichborne case — Comprehensive account of the whole affair: Roger Tichborne's biography, the Bella's loss, the Dowager's advertisements, the Paris meeting at the Hôtel de Lille, the two trials with judges and counsel, Lord Bellew's tattoo evidence, Tichborne Bonds and the Magna Charta Association, Kenealy's disbarment, and the Claimant's release and death.
- Wikipedia — Arthur Orton — Biographical article: birth 20 March 1834 in Wapping, father a butcher, voyage to Tasmania on the Middleton (1852–53), work in Hobart and Gippsland, alias 'Thomas Castro' in Wagga Wagga, 14-year sentence, release 1884, People confession 1895, death 1 April 1898 in Marylebone, pauper burial at Paddington Cemetery, coffin plate 'Sir Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne'.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Regina v. Castro — Entry on the criminal trial (1873–74) presided over by Sir Alexander Cockburn, Lord Chief Justice; confirms verdict, perjury conviction and 14-year sentence.
- Brighton & Hove Museums — 'The Tichborne Case: A Case of Identity Fraud?' — Museum account containing physical comparison (Roger under 9 stone vs Claimant over 24 stone), the Dowager's description of her son ('delicate constitution, rather tall, with very light brown hair and blue eyes'), her 'confuses everything as in a dream' remark, and the blacksmith's 'racehorse to a carthorse' quote.
- Christopher Bellew — 'The Tichborne Tattoo'
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