Mrs.Violet Fortnum-Barnes, whose roots go back to Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, and William Fortnum, who established Fortnum and Mason in 1707, has been found guilty of defrauding the Australian Government.
Living in Melbourne, with her nine-year-old Himalayan cat, Henry, she had, she admitted, for 14 years drawn two unemployment and pension benefits worth more than $1,000 a fortnight, while she worked at a book-keeping job. ‘I have,’ she said after receiving a two-year suspended sentence, ‘been left with just 80 cents. The Commonwealth Government has taken away my life savings of $35,000 from my bank. I have brought shame on the family.’
Mrs. Fortnum-Barnes, who is 73, was ordered by Judge Peter Gebhardt in the County Court, to pay the money back at a rate of $51.10 a fortnight. She pays rent for her home in suburban Murrumbeena of $550 a month and says she could not move to a cheaper flat because of Henry.
While she collected the pensions she took 15 trips overseas - ‘but not to London to shop at Fortnum and Mason. ‘London has become far too noisy,’ she told me, as she made a cup of tea, ‘I can’t stand the traffic. Years ago, when I was a little girl, our groceries were delivered every week by Fortnum’s; but you know, William Fortnum wasn’t all that popular with the family when he opened the store. It wasn’t the thing in the 1700s to engage in trade.’
The last time she was in England she went back to the family home, Delrow House, at St. Albans and churchgoers gave her a morning tea in the church annexe. She had her mink coat with her and though she doesn’t use it a lot in Melbourne, sees no point in trying to sell it. ‘It’s eight years old and I wouldn’t get much for it. I had a broken wrist at the time I bought it, and it was reduced. I thought: "Why not?"’
It was while her husband, ex-Royal Navy officer, John Neale, was still alive that she started getting the pension. She said she believed that because he did not earn much money, she was entitled to a wife’s pension as well as an old-age pension. Mr. Neale died in 1991.
A heavy smoker, Mrs. Fortnum-Barnes, was described in court as "lonely and isolated". She had spent much of the pension money on alcohol. ‘Lonely and eccentric you may be and have been,’ said Judge Gebhardt, ‘you knew perfectly well what you were doing when you embarked upon your double-dipping. You have exploited over a long period a welfare system designed to help those in need.’
After her court experience Mrs. Fortnum-Barnes told me she wanted to make it clear that her ancestor, William Fortnum, was not - as some reports had stated - a footman to Queen Anne. ‘No way known!’ she laughed.
‘I know, because I learned the family history from my mother, who was a bit of a tale-spinner, in those long winter evenings before TV.’ Her mother had been too delicate to go to school so governesses came to Delrow House to educate her.
Her own life has not been uneventful. Originally it was planned for her to study history and literature at Oxford. But saying she was two years older than she was, she instead joined the RAF as a radar officer. A heart condition took her out of the service and she became a film technician, becoming associated with Laurence Olivier and Noel Coward. ‘I worked with Noel Coward in 1943 on the film ‘In Which We Serve’. He was an absolute pig of a man, so rude to everyone; so abrupt with everyone that people refused to work with him.’
‘Larry’ Olivier was, on the other hand, ‘a beautiful, charming man.’ Her job at Pinewood Studios was to operate the projection system so rushes of the scenes shot that day could be inspected. She and Olivier together watched the rushes of him making the Crispin’s Day speech from ‘Henry V.’ It was so magnificent, she remembered, that she burst into tears. ‘Larry picked me up in his arms and said: "We’ll print that."’
Ten years ago thieves took her lifetime collection of jewellery worth $50,000. ‘If I had that lot back, I’d be laughing.’ She said she had always paid her taxes and had applied for a wife’s pension under her married name. ‘When they take their $51.10 a fortnight from my pension I will be left with $355.20 to live on. Rent adds up to about $275 a fortnight, so I have been left in a very bad position. The simple equation is: it just won’t keep me.’
