The pages of the Salford City Reporter of June 1916 told this amusing tale: a Canadian sailor charged with illegally wearing a Royal Navy uniform with the hope that ladies would swoon at his feet.
Police Sergeant Davison was on patrol in the streets of Manchester city centre when he spotted Arthur Sylvester Dillabrough dressed in the Captain’s uniform.
His curiousity was aroused and he decided to question the man, who told him that he was indeed a Captain of a naval auxilllary force vessel.
To add credibility to his story, Dillabrough added that his old ship had been torpedoed and that he was staying at the Khaki Club in Manchester for a short while until he got another posting.
Khaki Club, 1916 © Manchester YMCA
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The Khaki Club was founded in 1916 by volunteeers to help shell shocked soldiers and seamen, at the club the men could be fed, and befriended by the volunteers who would take them to hospital and basically make them as comfortable as possible.
It was located at the Portland Street end of Piccadilly Gardens, on the site where the red-brick Piccadilly One office block is now.
Not happy with this explanation, Police Sergeant Davison made further enquiries at the Khaki Club at to the mystery Naval Captain, who by then had fled the scene.
Two days later the bogus officer was arrested in Salford at the shipping federation offices on Trafford Road.
He was wearing civilian clothing and was attempting to register to board a ship, explaining that his old ship had been torpedoed off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and that he was keen to get back into the fray.
Police searched his lodgings on Elizabeth Street in Salford and turned up a Royal Navy Captain’s uniform in his wardrobe.
His explanation as to how it got there it quite plausible, for a change.
Dillabrough said that the garment was hanging up in the bedroom when he moved in and he decided to wear it.
The Stipendary Magistrate suggested that Arthur Sylvester Dillabrough’s object in wearing the uniform “had been to please the opposite sex”.
To this, the gallant ‘Captain’ smugly agreed.
However the smile was wiped off his face when he was sentenced to 14 days imprisonment for the offence.
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Main image: An example of a Royal Navy Captain’s Uniform in 1916 – Captain Barry Domvile is on the left, and Paymaster Lieutenant Commander Ricci (“Bartimeus”) on the right © IWM (Q 18296)
