_{By MICK ROBERTS ©}

PUBLICAN Roy Ferguson could be said to have been unlucky in love.

The wealthy hotelier had at least three failed relationships with women who would eventually betray him – one fatally.

Roy was no saint. In fact, he was far from it, a shady character, who dabbled in the black market, spent time behind bars for a violent assault and was known to carry a gun. However, his relationship with three unscrupulous women would lead to his undoing and ultimately his death.

The way Roy met his end – no matter what was thought of him – was nothing short of cruelly barbaric.

Ferguson, 39, was bashed with a claw hammer while asleep in his bed, after his cheating wife arranged for her lover to murder him, in 1953.

Ferguson and his younger brother, Jack, had been involved in pubs since childhood. Firstly helping in their mother’s hotels, and later building-up a portfolio of pubs of their own in the Newcastle and Tuncurry regions.

Born in 1914 to John and Alice Ann Ferguson in Hamilton, near Newcastle, Roy was introduced to pubs in 1935 when his 45-year-old mother, who had separated from her husband, took the license of the Rawson Hotel.

The Rawson Hotel was located at the corner of Hunter and Newcomen Streets, Newcastle, and closed for business on June 30, 1964. The landmark building was later demolished. It was at the Rawson where Roy and his brother, Jack, cut their teeth in the pub business.

Roy’s first pub was the Clarendon Hotel at Newcastle.

The 21-year-old had married Una Maude Vail in 1935, and the couple took control of the pub located at 347 Hunter Street that same year. They had a short stay at the Newcastle pub, and Roy and his wife Una followed Alice Ferguson to Darwin, where she had taken the license of the Don Hotel in August 1937.

On arrival in Darwin, Roy and Una Ferguson became hosts of one of the northern capital’s most famous hotels. Roy was granted the transfer of the license of the Victoria Hotel, Darwin from Christina Gordon in December 1937.

Roy fell victim to the hunger of the Territory’s ravenous white ants in 1938 while host of the Victoria Hotel. The 23-year-old publican had been at the helm of the Victoria Hotel for less than a year in 1938 when he lost 80 timber barrels, stored in a shed, containing 1,440 gallons of beer, to white ants. Newspaper reports of the day told of how the young publican discovered that the white ants had not only eaten the barrels, they had also consumed the contents! Ferguson lost the lot, and was out of pocket £420.

Why the publican had so many barrels in storage came about when a ‘slight mistake’ in calculation was made in his order. In April 1938 Ferguson had ordered 40 barrels of beer for his Top-End pub, affectionately known to all as ‘The Vic’. When his consignment arrived, he discovered, not 40, but 140 barrels!

But the white ants were the least of Roy’s problems.

While host of the Victoria Hotel, his wife Una had an extra-marital affair with a soldier, John Galwey, and as a consequence, the publican filed for – and was granted – a divorce.

Roy and his mother sold their hotel interests in Darwin and returned to the eastern states in December 1939.

Roy and his brother, Jack went to Young, NSW, where their mother Alice had received the license of the Royal Hotel in 1940.

Roy and Jack also bought the freehold of the Royal Hotel at Cardiff for £16,000 in April 1940. Roy, now 26, became host of the Royal at Cardiff when he received its license in April 1941. His mother retired as licensee at Young and joined her son at Cardiff to help run the hotel.

While host at Cardiff Roy’s shady side was exposed.

In 1942 Roy and his mother escaped conviction when they appeared in court on charges of “having knowingly had goods suspected of having been unlawfully obtained”. He denied that taxis had been engaged to take buyers to his hotel at Cardiff to buy shoes and stockings. Officers from the Government’s war-time rationing commission also found at Roy’s home and at the hotel quantities of men’s shoes, 10 motor car tyres and other “household goods”, all suspected of being “unlawfully obtained”. Roy explained to the court that “as a publican, I like to make presents”, and he and his mother were eventually discharged.

The same year as his mother, Alice died at the age of 56, Roy was fined a whopping £100 for possessing illicit spirits in 1944, and his pub was gaining a reputation where it was possible to pick-up a bargain for a variety of goods that “had fallen off the back of a truck”.

At the time, Roy, 30, was in a de-facto relationship with 32-year-old barmaid and twice divorcee, Edna Elizabeth Sykes. The following year, he was sentenced to three years jail (which was later reduced to two years on appeal) after he smashed a bottle over the head of Stanley Lonsdale in the bar of his hotel on May 11, 1945.

Roy’s partner, Edna had repeatedly told Lonsdale to stop singing in the bar before ordering the barman to cut-off his beer. An argument developed before Roy lost his temper and smashed the bottle over Lonsdale’s head. The Newcastle Sun reported on August 23, 1945:

Sentencing Ferguson, Judge Nield said that a very serious offence had been committed and it called for a substantial penalty. A punishment must be inflicted which would also act as a deterrent to others who might be tempted to act in a similar fashion. The Judge said that he was prepared to accept the contention that Ferguson’s action had not been premeditated. Nevertheless, a bottle had been used in complete and broken form to inflict injury. There was nothing to suggest extenuating circumstances in any degree caused by provocation by the injured man.

Roy went to prison on August 28, 1945, spending time in Maitland, Long Bay and Goulburn jails, before his release in November 1946. Edna left their Swansea home two months before Roy was due to be released from prison, ending her relationship with him, and taking all her belongings, before returning to Sydney.

While in jail, Edna Sykes was charged by police in September 1946 for stealing a safe from the Swansea house where the pair had been living prior to his imprisonment. The safe, belonging to Roy’s brother John, contained more than £2000. The Sydney Truth reported on February 9, 1947:

Sykes, who was smartly dressed in a pale blue frocks and who had her blonde hair tied tightly back, was charged with having on a day in September, 1946, stolen a safe, £2240 in money, a war bond and certificate, and 93 American dollars, the property of John Worrell Ferguson. Ferguson, described as a master butcher, said his premises at 112 Bowman Street, Swansea, consisted of two flats. He and his wife occupied the front flat and another person had the rear portion. Edna Sykes, he said, had access to his flat, as she had lived there for some time as the de facto wife of his brother, Roy, who at the time of the robbery, was in gaol…

Sykes told the court that she had lived as Roy’s partner for three years, during which time she had managed the Fergusons’ hotel at Cardiff for five months. After Roy went to jail, the couple split ways, Sykes telling the court that “he was driving her mad”. Sykes told the court that she had removed her belongings from the Swansea house. However, she denied taking the safe. Sykes was eventually acquitted of the charges in February 1947. However, what wasn’t revealed in the court case was that Roy was presumably seeing another woman during his time living with Sykes.

While in a de-facto relationship with Sykes – who he introduced to one and all as “Mrs Ferguson” – Roy was having an affair with another attractive young divorcee – Sylvia Mitchell. His seemingly pendent for young divorcees would be Roy’s undoing and would eventually lead to his murder.

Sylvia Mitchell was born Sylvia Lumby in 1917 to parents Percy and Rita at Luskintyre, a small rural hamlet in the Hunter region of NSW, near Lochinvar.

The year Sylvia was born a shocking tragedy occurred in the family home when her grandfather Thomas Andrew Thorley, 45, murdered his wife, Mary Clara May Thorley, 44, with a revolver and then committed suicide by shooting himself. The Scone Advocate reported on March 30 1917:

Awful Maitland Tragedy

DIVORCE PROCEEDINGS INFLAME MAN

An inquest was held at West Maitland on Wednesday concerning the terrible tragedy at Luskintyre on Tuesday, resulting in the death of Thomas Andrew Thorley, which occurred at the residence of Mr. P. Lumby, of Luskintyre. Thorley shot his wife dead with a revolver and then committed suicide by shooting himself. Three bullets were discovered in the wife’s dead body. Thorley, it was found, had shot himself in the centre of the forehead. Death in both cases must have been instantaneous. The evidence showed that Thorley had his home at Wee Waa, and was generally addicted to drink. He went out to Luskintyre in a motor car to the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Percival Lumby, where his wife had been residing since March 18. He told his daughter that he had been served with a writ from the Divorce Court, asking her to persuade Mrs. Thorley to withdraw it Mrs. Lumby stated he was mad with drink at that time. She heard her father say to his wife, ‘Well, do you mean to go on with the case? ‘ She replied, ‘It’s not in my hands now; it’s in the lawyer’s hands.’ He followed his wife into the bedroom. Mrs. Thorley tried to escape, but Thorley caught’ her, and while holding her, fired three shots, one taking effect above the lower rib on the left side, another in the back of the neck, and the third in the back of the head. He then walked out to the verandah, reloaded the revolver, returned to the house, and shot himself in the forehead, his body falling across that of his wife. He also took some poison. Mrs. Lumby stated that within the past 12 months she had heard her father threaten, to shoot her mother… Strained relations existed between husband and wife for some time. There were seven children living, one being dead. 

At the age of 18, Sylvia, married Laurence Albert Hicks in 1935, and within five years the couple had divorced. After the divorce in 1939, Sylvia, now 25, married John Francis Mitchell in 1942. That marriage was also not to last and a year after they had married the couple separated after Sylvia admitted to infidelity. They eventually divorced in 1948. However, Sylvia Mitchell had met Roy Ferguson was before her divorce in 1948. While still serving his time for assault, Roy wrote the following letter to Sylvia Mitchell from Goulburn Jail on November 23, 1946:

Dear Sylvia,

I received your most welcome letter on Thursday morning. I can only write on Saturdays; that is why I could not answer it immediately. I want you to know that I do appreciate you writing to me especially just at the present time when I am feeling a very lonely person in this world indeed.

I have been feeling very miserable lately on account of thinking that I was not wanted by anyone so you can readily see what a rare thing it was to me to receive a few lines from someone who is still interested in me. It sort of gives me a new lease of life and when I leave here, which is in a few weeks’ time, I will not forget to show you in more ways than one how much it means to me to know that at least there is one in this world who has tender thoughts for me.

It gives me such a wonderful lift to know that when I get out I don’t have to start from the bottom of the ladder altogether. Your little letter has found a very warm and receptive heart, I can assure you. I really can’t find words nice enough to express my heartfelt appreciation.

You can take it from me that when I say I hope our correspondence will mature into much deeper affection, that I really mean it. My only regret is that you didn’t write to me a few months back. I would not then have been through the tortures of hell that it has been my unlucky lot to have experienced.

Anyway, I suppose it is all part of my punishment and now, of course, I can see some little ray of sunshine and that is at least one comfort. I have indeed a lot to be thankful for when one considers. I leave here three weeks on Wednesday and, as an independent man, I don’t have to worry like most of the poor fellows here about finding a job. Some also have wives and children to look after. I have neither of their worries and I have the means to buy any worldly goods I desire (not that I haven’t already got everything a person wants).

But what is the good of having all these things if a man is lonely and hasn’t got a true mate? I mean one who loves and appreciates him, one who is true and faithful. They are hard to find I know. I have been let down several times. But what is that they say: ‘While there’s life there’s hope.’ So here’s hoping that I come good on that little beam of sunshine you have thrown me.

– Roy

The letter, published in Rockhampton Morning Bulletin on November 4, 1953, was produced as evidence during Sylvia’s murder trial, and proves Roy was likely seeing Sylvia Mitchell while living with Edna Sykes in a de-facto relationship at Swansea in 1945.

After Roy Ferguson was released from jail in late November 1946, Roy entered into a de-facto relationship with Sylvia Mitchell, and – like Edna Sykes before her – became known as “Mrs Ferguson”. Roy and his brother, John continued growing their pub portfolio, and by 1950 the pair had at least five hotels, the Royal at Cardiff, Metropolitan at Forbes, Globe at Forbes, Rhondda at Teralba and Bellevue at Tuncurry.

Roy leased one of his pubs to Sylvia’s brother Noel Percival Lumby. Lumby was a returned serviceman, who had married a Jewish Holocaust survivor in Prague at the end of the war. The Townsville Daily Bulletin reported on September 18 1945:

Corporal Noel Percival Lumby, of Newcastle (NSW), and dark, petite Pola Brafman, 23, of Bedzin, Poland, were married in Prague. Pola still wears as a souvenir on her coat the yellow bar and red triangle of a Jewish political prisoner, and her brown eyes still reflect some of the horror of the Osbersdorf concentration camp in Sudetenland. But Pola is happy now, and on her way to Australia.

Noel Lumby leased Fergusons’ Bellevue Hotel at Tuncurry from January 1951 to 1953 when Roy sold the freehold to Reg Fletcher on March 16, 1953 for £54,000.

Roy and Sylvia moved to Tuncurry in 1951 to oversee the redevelopment of the Bellevue Hotel, which included the addition of a dance floor, theatre and other tourist attractions, like a fully stocked fish pond.

After leaving the Bellevue in 1953, Lumby went on to host a number of pubs in the region, including the Royal at Tuncurry and the Royal at Manilla. The Bellevue Hotel at Tuncurry was completely destroyed by fire after an electrical fault in 1954 and was replaced with a single story brick pub, which continues to trade from the site today.

Roy and his brother John entered a new business venture in 1951 when they formed the Hunter Valley Brewery Company. Roy Allan Ferguson held one share, Tom York another, and John Worell Ferguson the three remaining shares. However, Roy’s criminal record prevented him from becoming an official shareholder of the company. Police said he was unfit to hold a license under the Liquor Act, and he was forced to withdraw his name as a director.

The magistrate was not satisfied on the evidence that Roy had relinquished association with the Hunter Valley Brewing Company, and the application for the brewer’s license was refused.

The brothers decided to take their brewery application interstate and headed to Brisbane, Queensland to establish the Brisbane Brewing Company.

After the Fergusons sold the Bellevue Hotel at Tuncurry in 1953, Roy and Sylvia relocated to Brisbane to establish the brewery. His brother, John, remained in Newcastle to pursue the Hunter Valley Brewery venture and continue managing his butchering business.

After years of living together as man and wife, Roy Allan Ferguson and Sylvia Joyce Clare Mitchell were officially married at St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Brisbane, on June 27, 1953.

Roy bought a stately home for the newly married couple in the affluent riverside suburb of Hamilton in Brisbane’s north-east for the exorbitant price of £9,450.

Located on the corner of Grays Road and what was then Hamilton Road (now Kingsford Smith Drive), the home has sweeping views across the Brisbane River, and survives to this day, with the house name, ‘Onedin’. Interestingly, the meaning of ‘Onedin’ is believed to serve as a colloquial term referring to ambitious individuals.

It was in Onedin that Sylvia arranged for her lover Eric Murphy and his friend William Hamilton to murder her husband. Sylvia left the front door of their luxury home open and the two men entered the house to carry out their horrific crime on August 21, 1953.

The two men reportedly went to the bedroom to find Roy asleep in the matrimonial bed, where they struck the wealthy businessman with a claw hammer. The two men then left the house and Sylvia returned to the bedroom to find her husband still alive.

A doctor was called, police notified and Roy was taken to Turrawan Private Hospital at Clayfield where he died from his injuries the following day. Stories of an intruder were disregarded by police and suspicions soon focused on Sylvia.

Sylvia Ferguson, Eric Murphy and William Hamilton were charged with murder. The trial caused a sensation around the country, with Sylvia attending court dressed in black and wearing silver fox furs. She was quickly dubbed the black widow.

The prosecution never established who struck the fatal blow to Roy however all three were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Newcastle Morning Herald and reported on Monday, November 16, 1953:

BRISBANE Sunday – Mrs. Sylvia Joyce Ferguson, her lover and another man have been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a brewery director, Roy Allen Ferguson. A Supreme Court jury returned its verdict of guilty after an hour and 47 minutes’ deliberation. Ferguson, 39 was found at 1.30 a.m. on August 20, in bed in his home at Hamilton with his head badly injured. He died in a private hospital the same day. The Crown alleged that Mrs. Ferguson and her lover, Albert Eric Murphy, 35, labourer, plotted to kill Ferguson and then run away. The Crown claimed that the pair had hired William Ernest Hamilton, 37, a truck driver, to commit the murder and he accepted their offer of £2500 in cash and a hotel. When the jury announced its verdict, Murphy said he wanted to make a statement. Speaking from the dock he stated: “I would like to repeat just what I said in the lower Court. I am innocent of this charge. My conscience is clear. The police have told lies. I am not guilty. “If it constitutes a crime to have loved Mrs. Ferguson, yes, I am guilty of that crime, but I am not guilty of killing Roy Ferguson.” Mrs. Ferguson did not reply when asked if she had anything to say, but Hamilton said: “I am pleading as I did before, that I am not guilty of wilful murder. I don’t blame you or the jury. The evidence brought forward on my case was very damning. I am leaving this Court with a clear conscience and I hope that Donovan. Rhead and Murdoch – three police witnesses – have got a conscience, because it is not clear. All I have to say is that in my case the evidence did look very damning, but I am not guilty of wilful murder. I am guilty of a crime of going out there to rob Ferguson, but in that crime there was nothing, no suggestion, of killing Ferguson. That’s all I have to say, your Honor.”

Sylvia was taken to Boggo Road Jail where she was “confined to bed with slight nervous shock”. Within a year behind bars, 36-year-old Sylvia was taken to Brisbane General Hospital after campaigning of chest pains. The murderess was diagnosed as having “slight nervous dyspepsia” and returned to Boggo Road Jail. However, the ‘Black-Widow’ was in the headlines again in 1961 when, at the age of 43, she appeared in the Brisbane Coroners Court to testify in a coronial court hearing into the death of a fellow inmate, Selma Reithmuller.

Reithmuller, and mother of three, was sentenced to a week’s gaol on a shoplifting charge and died two days later in the Brisbane Prison after suffering an asthma attack. Sylvia’s appearance in court caused a media frenzy. The Canberra Times reported on July 20, 1961:

Police took unusual precautions to prevent press photographers taking pictures of Mrs. Ferguson before and after she had given evidence. After she had given evidence she was shepherded into the office of the Coroner and kept there while photographers waited on the court verandah. Later with two policemen as a shield she was led from the Coroner’s office through two courtrooms to a police car waiting outside the watch house to take her back to gaol. A scrimmage occurred between police and photographers as they attempted to take pictures.

Sylvia Joyce Clare Ferguson was released from prison in the 1960s and a few years after Murphy and Hamilton were also freed.

The black widow, Sylvia Ferguson died in Charleville, Queensland, aged 85, in 2002.

Roy Ferguson had no children from his three failed relationships. His cremation at the Beresfield Crematorium on August 24 1953 was largely attended.

 _{© Copyright 2024 Mick Roberts}

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