THE DUSTBIN CASE

An Account of  Dennistoun verses Dennistoun

By William Cross, FSA Scot

Author Of

The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon 

NEW BOOK FROM 1 APRIL 2012

Described by Punch magazine as The Dustbin Case ( and elsewhere as The Sale Wife case ), Dennistoun verses Dennistoun was heard before “the bachelor judge”, Mr Justice Henry McCardie, and a Special Jury on 3 March, 1925. The proceedings, in the Kings Bench Division of the High Court, in London, lasted almost a month.

According to Time magazine it was “ one of those periodic scandals that causes the various strata of British society to experience the gamut of emotions.” McCardie, the Judge, called it “the most bitterly conducted litigation he had ever known.”
 

It is the story of the marital affairs of Lt. Colonel Ian Onslow Dennistoun and his first wife Dorothy, nee Webster. For four years Dorothy was “The Sale Wife”, the mistress of the Great War general, Sir John Cowans, “ the greatest Quartermaster since Moses” . In effect, Ian sold Dorothy to Cowans in order to gain preferment for himself in the British Army. It is a remarkable yarn of love, envy, hate and revenge.
 

The full details of the lurid tale are revealed in this compilation by William Cross, author of The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon. Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon was Lt. Colonel Ian Dennistoun’s second wife.
 

ISBN 10 1-905914-04-0
ISBN 13 978-1-905914-04-3
 

For further details contact the author William Cross, by e-mail.

williecross@aol.com