Early life William James Chidley was born in
Melbourne in about 1860 and was
abandoned by his birth mother as an infant. He was adopted by John James Chidley, a toy warehouse proprietor, and his first wife Maria (
née Carlin), who were living in Brunswick Street in
Fitzroy, Melbourne. The Chidleys had emigrated from England, and after a period in the Victorian goldfields, settled in Melbourne. William was one of five children adopted by the couple. The other adopted children were a boy named Stanley and three girls, Ada, Ellen and Jane. Ellen and Jane were sisters by blood, the children of alcoholic parents who had both died in May 1854. Upon their return the family moved itinerantly throughout Victoria, with Chidley's father operating a transportable photographic studio. At times Chidley remained in Melbourne as a school boarder. His final year of schooling was at St. Kilda College when he was aged thirteen. Chidley and Sadler were charged with "feloniously and wilfully killing and slaying" Maloney. They were tried in the Adelaide Supreme Court in December 1882 and both men were acquitted of the charges. After his acquittal Chidley joined the Byron Theatre Company, an Adelaide theatre group, where he met a young actress named Ada Grantleigh (
née Harris), who was married to Walter Thoms. He and Ada formed an intermittent
de facto relationship which lasted until Ada's death in 1908. The couple, both of whom suffered periods of alcoholism, lived at Adelaide until 1890, then in Sydney, New Zealand and Melbourne. Chidley and Ada Grantleigh never married but adopted a son (reputedly hers). During the period 1894-5 Chidley was employed as a black-and-white artist by
R. B. Orchard, a prominent Sydney jeweller, and A. H. Thompson, who owned a photographic business. During his early working years Chidley had supported himself by drawing for medical texts. This exposed him to various contemporary medical theories about human sexuality and he formed the conviction that "there was something profoundly wrong with the way in which modern people had sex". Chidley wrote his autobiography, although he did not intend it to be widely read until after his death. In 1899 he sent a duplicate of the manuscript to
Havelock Ellis, the English physician and writer on human sexuality, who used extracts in his
Studies in the Psychology of Sex.
The Answer In April 1911 the Australasian Authors' Agency, a Melbourne-based publisher established by
Henry Hyde Champion, released
The Answer by William J. Chidley. The book explained in detail the author's unconventional theories, including a call for dress reform and a diet of nuts and raw fruit. In regard to sex Chidley wrote: "The world will be saved by true lovers who consummate their marriage in the natural way described in this book". His writings called for a different mode of sexual intercourse, by which the flaccid or semi-erect penis was sucked into the vagina (rather than the "forcible entrance" of the erect penis, which he likened to a "crowbar"). Adelaide's
The Register newspaper commented that Chidley's "main theory and the arguments in support could be discussed in medical journals only, and these will not open their columns to him". To a quote from
The Answer – "The habit lovers now have of kissing with their clothes on is very injurious to health" – the review in
The Register added: "And the rest must – in newspaper columns – be silence". By June 1911 Chidley's
The Answer ("The solution of the Sex Question") was being advertised as being sold at Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne and Sydney and
Dymocks' bookstore in Sydney. In late September 1911 in Melbourne a police detective purchased two copies of
The Answer from Chidley. He then obtained search warrants and confiscated a further seven copies from Chidley and fifteen copies of the work from Cole's bookstore in Bourke Street. The detective also attended the offices of the publisher, Henry Hyde Champion, at Whitehall Chambers in Bank Place, and seized a further 262 copies of
The Answer. On 7 October a series of prosecutions was commenced before a bench of magistrates, the members of which declared the book to be obscene, having "decided that there were many parts of it which would tend to deprave and corrupt the morals of any person reading it". An order was made for the destruction of the impounded books after thirty days had elapsed. With
The Answer declared in Victoria to be an obscene publication, and copies subject to confiscation and destruction, Chidley moved to Sydney in early 1912 where the book had not been banned. In March 1912 Chidley was charged with "behaving in an offensive manner" in
the Domain, Sydney's '
speakers' corner', where he been addressing a large crowd, reading from his book and talking on a variety of subjects. He was brought before a magistrate who imposed a fine of five pounds, or alternatively two months' hard labour. In May 1912 Chidley was again charged with "behaving in an offensive manner" after he had been addressing a crowd of about eight hundred on a Sunday afternoon at the Domain. The magistrate imposed a fine of twenty shillings and ordered that two sureties of thirty pounds be entered into for Chidley to be of good behaviour for twelve months.
Committals On the evening of 24 July 1912 Chidley presented "an illustrated lecture" for "men only" at a hall in Phillip Street, Sydney, on the subject of "Degeneracy: The Cause and Cure". Chidley was intending to deliver a lecture to women on Saturday, 3 August 1912, but earlier on that same day he was arrested and admitted to the Reception House for the Insane at Darlinghurst "for medical observation", where he was examined by two doctors who determined he was insane. One of those, Dr. Chisholm Ross, later stated that he based his assessment solely upon the contents of Chidley's book,
The Answer. Dr. Ross told a reporter for
The Sun: "Any man who writes nonsense of the kind found in his book... would lead me to the conclusion that he is insane". Apparently speaking on behalf of the whole medical community, Ross said "if we think he is insane that is a matter for us", adding: "That is what we are there for". A letter from 'Fair Play', published in
The Sun, described Chidley as "an educated man, with a courteous manner, and a sound belief in fresh air... who has been subjected to ridicule and abuse, simply because he follows his open-air theory in dress and living". The writer added: "To anyone who has conversed with him or heard him speaking, it comes as a surprise... to learn he has been arrested for insanity!". On 7 August Chidley was brought before the Lunacy Court in Darlinghurst and committed to the
Callan Park Hospital for the Insane. A fund to obtain legal assistance for Chidley was established, with contributions to be forwarded to the office of
The Sun newspaper. A public meeting was held at
Sydney Town Hall on 19 August, to which "all lovers of fair play" were invited in order to "consider the case of W. J. Chidley". One of the convenors of the meeting was his previous employer R. B. Orchard. By the end of August the New South Wales Premier
James McGowen had agreed to appoint a board of independent medical experts to report upon Chidley's mental state. His case sparked a lot of public debate about the use of the law to imprison people in asylums and he won a lot of public support, people regarding him as a well meaning eccentric or crank deprived of his liberty and his right to speak freely. On 1 October 1912 Chidley was released from Callan Park under a statute which allowed the discharge of a mental hospital patient under the care of friends "who will guarantee the quietness of his conduct". The guarantors for Chidley's release were R. B. Orchard and A. H. Thompson, who had obtained an undertaking from Chidley "that he will not continue the expounding of his theories in public places, and will not walk through the streets in his 'simple-life' costume". In November 1912 three Sydney booksellers were summoned at the Central Court to answer charges that they had "sold an obscene publication", namely
The Answer by W. J. Chidley. From about August 1913 Chidley lived "in a respectable lodging-house" in Crown Street,
Woolloomooloo, near the Domain. On 26 December 1913 Chidley was arrested while addressing a crowd at the Domain. He was taken by police to Woolloomooloo police station and charged with lunacy, after which he was escorted to the Reception House at Darlinghurst. A meeting was held at the Domain two days later "at which speakers both men and women expressed indignation at the incarceration" of Chidley. By the close of the meeting a petition calling for his release had been "signed by over 1000 citizens". On the following day Chidley was brought before the Lunacy Court and "remanded for a week for observation". However two days later on Wednesday, 31 December, Chidley appeared before another magistrate and was released from custody. On Thursday evening, 16 April 1914, Chidley delivered a lecture "to a very small audience" in Hogan's Centennial Hall at
Cowra, in the
Central West region of New South Wales. The local newspaper attributed the small attendance to unfavourable weather conditions and "the lack of publicity given to the lecture". Chidley had earlier "caused a sensation when he appeared in the streets in his rather meagre attire". In July 1915 Chidley was charged with using indecent language and was brought before a magistrate at the Central Police Court. The police claimed that while addressing a crowd of about 400 men, women and children, the defendant had "used the words complained of when propounding a theory". In his defence Chidley denied using the words, and explained "he had been fined twice last month on being convicted on similar charges, and was careful that he did not give the police cause to complain". Witnesses called by Chidley also denied the words were used. Despite this the magistrate convicted the defendant of using indecent language and fined him five pounds, or in default two months' imprisonment, to which Chidley replied "that it was his intention to go to gaol". In four years that Chidley was living in Sydney, from early 1912 to early 1916, he was prosecuted eighteen times and on three occasions served short prison sentences. On 16 February the stipendiary magistrate, James McKensey, delivered his judgement that Chidley was insane and ordered his removal to the
Kenmore Hospital for the Insane at
Goulburn. On 3 March 1916, at a meeting held in the I.O.O.F. Temple in Elizabeth Street, a defence committee was formed by Chidley's supporters in protest against his incarceration in an asylum. While at the Kenmore Hospital Chidley applied to be discharged under the provisions of section 99 of the Lunacy Act (1898). In June 1916, after a long hearing in the Lunacy Court Mr. Justice Harvey delivered his judgement that Chidley was "not of sound mind", describing him as "a typical paranoic – a man obsessed with one idea, and that idea a delusion". Justice Harvey recommended that Chidley be allowed to go free as long as some way could be found that protected the public from "the unreasonable propagation of his gospel" and restricting it to "those earnest persons of both sexes who regard Mr. Chidley as an acute thinker and reliable observer". The judge called upon "that body of sympathisers who have supported him in the past" to consider a plan by which Chidley's freedom "may be made compatible with the preservation of those standards of general public decency which the present conditions of society require". In August 1916 Chidley was released under condition proposed by the Chidley Defence Committee. The principal condition stipulated that Chidley did not deliver lectures or addresses "in the streets or public parks". He was permitted to address only adults in a public hall, for which he was required to give twenty-four hours' notice of his intention to hold such an event. Two members of the committee paid bonds of fifty pounds each, subject to Chidley observing these conditions for twelve months.
Death On 23 September 1916 Chidley was arrested at his home in Crown Street. The police claimed that he had broken the terms of his bond by delivering an address in the Domain a few days previously. Chidley attempted suicide on 12 October 1916 when, while being lodged at the Reception House in Darlinghurst, he poured
kerosene on himself and set fire to his clothes, as a result of which he received severe burns to his body. He was transferred to the
Callan Park insane asylum on October 17 and admitted to the hospital ward. After several months at the Callan Park asylum Chidley had recovered from his burns "and even showed certain mental improvement". At about midday on 21 December 1916 he was walking on the hospital verandah when he suddenly collapsed. In a state of unconsciousness Chidley was removed to the hospital ward where he died after ten minutes.
Aftermath After Chidley's death a group of his supporters banded together to form a "Chidleian Community" in a large old house at
Berry's Bay, on the north side of Sydney Harbour, led by John Shirlaw, a journalist and an admirer of Chidley. The group engaged in nude sunbathing and tending a vegetable garden, but were "continually bothered by sightseers". After a few years the community foundered. Public concerns about asylum policies in New South Wales increased after Chidley's death. In 1921 a state branch of the Lunacy Reform League was formed, which eventually led to pressure upon the government to hold a public inquiry. A Royal Commission to inquire into the administration of the lunacy laws in New South Wales held its first public sitting in January 1923. The report from the Royal Commission was published in August 1923. Its recommendations included solutions for overcrowding and calling for "scientific and humane" care and treatment of patients in accord with "modern and enlightened conceptions of the treatment of mental cases". In 1935 Havelock Ellis sent the manuscript of Chidley's autobiography to the
Mitchell Library, Sydney. Ellis remarked: "Not only is it a document of much psychological interest, but as a picture of the intimate aspects of Australian life in the nineteenth century it is of the highest interest, and that value will go on increasing as time passes". ==Cultural resonances==