Aliases, Adultery and a Family Secret in 1890s Sydney
This post is part of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge (#AtoZChallenge), where I’m
exploring historical newspaper clippings—one story at a time—through my series
“Behind the Newsprint.”
The Clipping
It began with a short paragraph buried in the Evening
News of 24 November 1890:
“Kahn v. Kahn (Cazneau
co-respondent). — This was a suit by the husband for a dissolution of his
marriage with his wife, Jane Kahn. This was the second suit he had brought
against his wife, the previous one having failed. … The co-respondent in this
suit was a private detective, who was employed by him to watch his wife and
gain information for the first suit. … Several witnesses were called to show
that the respondent and co-respondent had represented themselves as man and
wife, and had rented houses together in various suburbs. … The decree nisi was
granted, the petitioner to have the custody of the children.”[i]
A private detective, hired to spy on an unfaithful wife, had
instead become her lover and co-respondent. His surname was Cazneau. It was
the kind of scandal the late-Victorian press loved, but it was also a clue that
would unravel a decades-long web of hidden identities.
What It Suggests
On the surface, this is straightforward: a broken marriage,
a wife caught twice over, and a detective who betrayed his client. Bernard
Kahn, a hairdresser and tobacconist, finally won his divorce after a failed
first attempt in 1889.[ii]
That earlier case had named a different co-respondent, a man
called James Willoughby, but the petition was dismissed for lack of proof. Kahn
then hired Cazneau to gather evidence. Cazneau instead formed a relationship
with Jane, and it was this second betrayal that gave Kahn his decree. [iii]
At first glance, the story seems to end there. Presumably, Jane and the detective later married and faded into respectable obscurity. The
name Cazneau is uncommon enough to trace, so one might look for a later
marriage or a death notice and leave it at that. But when I did, the cracks
began to show.
Looking Closer
The first surprise was that the private detective had more
than one name. The divorce file itself identifies him as Leslie Hugo
Cazneau. Yet when I found his death certificate decades later, he was
called Charles Matthew Cazneaux[iv] (the
spelling sometimes varied).
The certificate, dated 23 June 1932, describes him as a
retired civil engineer, born in California, and states that he married Jane
Levy in Sydney at about age thirty. That would place the marriage around
1885, when Jane was still legally married to Bernard Kahn.
Either the marriage never happened, or it was bigamous. The
informant, his son Claude Leslie Cazneau, gave his address as 34 Dent Street,
Botany—the same address listed in electoral rolls for the early 1930s.
Electoral rolls confirm the household clearly: in 1930[v] and 1931,[vi] Charles (canvasser), Jane (home
duties), Claude Leslie (engineer), and his wife Queenie Carlton were all living
at that Botany address. By 1933[vii] Charles disappears from the
roll—because he had died the previous year.[viii]
A funeral notice in the Daily Telegraph on
24 June 1932 addresses
“Mrs. J. Cazneaux and Family …
her late beloved husband, their father and grandfather, Charles.”[ix]
So Charles and Jane had lived as husband and wife for over
forty years, apparently without a legal marriage.
Another Twist
The earlier co-respondent, named in the newspaper as “John
Willoughby,” was in fact James Willoughby—the press had garbled his
first name. He was not merely a passing figure: he was the biological father of
Jane’s son, Claude.[x]
A railway employment record reveals that Claude’s full
identity was:
Walter Todman, also known as
Claude Leslie Cazneau.[xi]
Claude knew the truth.
He used the surname Cazneau in everyday life and named
Charles as his father on the death certificate, but in official railway records,
he disclosed his biological identity. Willoughby himself had adopted the alias
Walter Todman, a fact also documented in the divorce proceedings.
Both men in Jane’s life had shifted identities like actors
changing costumes.
The Paper Trail of Truth
Charles’s 1924 naturalisation declaration was, legally
speaking, accurate: he stated that he had never been married and had no
children.[xii]
But it was also strategic.
By presenting himself as a single, childless man, living at
a different address in Alexandria, he avoided scrutiny that might have affected
his eligibility for the old-age pension. The separation between legal identity
and lived reality is starkly visible in this document.
The file also records his physical description: five feet
three inches, white hair, dark grey eyes, and a “face somewhat scarred.” His
stated reason for naturalisation:
“For the purpose of obtaining
the Old Age Pension.”
That same label—“Old Age Pensioner”—appears on his death
certificate.
What Lies Behind It
At the centre of all this stands Jane Levy.
She married Bernard Kahn in London’s Great Synagogue in 1874
before emigrating to Sydney. Their marriage deteriorated amid debt,
imprisonment, and hardship. By the late 1880s, she had left the relationship
emotionally, if not legally.
She then formed a relationship with James Willoughby (alias
Walter Todman), with whom she had a son, Walter Todman, later known as Claude
Leslie Cazneau.
Then came the detective.
Hired to expose her, Leslie Hugo Cazneau instead fell in
love with her. The 1890 divorce was granted on evidence that they had been
“representing themselves as man and wife.” They continued to do so for the next
forty-two years.
Why the aliases?
Willoughby/Todman may have been escaping a past. Caznea, who
reportedly had lived in Japan and Hong Kong, may have had his own reasons for
shifting identities.
The change from Leslie Hugo to Charles Matthew suggests
reinvention: a move from private detective to respectable householder.
Even the surname fluctuated—Cazneau, Cazneaux—perhaps by
accident, perhaps by design.
Jane never legally married Charles. The 1885 “marriage”
recorded on his death certificate appears to have been fiction—either social
convenience or a story repeated until it became accepted truth.
Claude grew up between two fathers: the man who raised him
and the man whose identity he quietly preserved in official records.
Reflection
Newspapers caught the public scandal—the unfaithful wife,
the double-crossing detective, the cuckolded husband—but they missed the
private reality. The court reports never mention aliases, never ask why a
private detective would betray his client, and never record that the child at
the centre of this domestic triangle would carry the names of both his mother’s
lovers in different ways.
Only by cross-referencing the press accounts with divorce
files, electoral rolls, death certificates, naturalisation applications, and
employment records could the full story emerge. The newspapers gave me the
starting point: a single paragraph with a strange surname. The archives gave me
the truth—messier, sadder, and far more human. This is the lesson: a clipping
is a doorway, not a destination. Behind it, Jane Levy’s life waited, guarded by
two men who, between them, used at least five names, and a son who knew exactly
who he was.
For those
interested in learning more about James Lincoln Temple Willoughby aka Walter Todman,
Walter
Todman aka Claude Leslie Cazneau & Jane
Cazneaux nee Levy aka Kahn see their profiles on WikiTree.
Sources:
[i] Divorce
Court. (1890, November 24). Evening News (Sydney, NSW : 1869 - 1931),
p. 5. Retrieved April 27, 2026, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article113744805
[ii] Divorce
papers: Bernard Kahn v. Jane Kahn (with reference to James Willoughby), 5
August 1887 – 5 August 1889; NRS 13495, item [13/14304], no. 424/1888; Divorce
and matrimonial cause case papers; Western Sydney Records Centre, New South
Wales State Archives. [accessed Divorce papers: Bernard Kahn v. Jane Kahn (with
reference to James Willoughby), 5 August 1887 – 5 August 1889; NRS 13495, item
[13/14304], no. 424/1888; Divorce and matrimonial cause case papers;
Western Sydney Records Centre, New South Wales State Archives. [accessed https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ebnd1l/ADLIB_RNSW111420998
: 27 April 2026]
[iii] Divorce
papers: Bernard Kahn v. Jane Kahn (with reference to Leslie Hugo Cazneau),
10 July 1890 – 7 July 1891; NRS 13495, item [13/12397A], file 582; Divorce
and matrimonial cause case papers; Western Sydney Records Centre, New South
Wales State Archives. [accessed https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ebnd1l/ADLIB_RNSW111420998
: 27 April 2026]
[iv] Death
Certificate of Charles Mathew Cazneaux
aged 77, on 23 June 1932 at 34 Dent Street, Botany, New South Wales son
of Thomas Cazneaux & Phoebe Jane Mathews buried on 24 June 1932 Church of
England in Botany, New South Wales Government. Registry of Births, Deaths and
Marriages; Registration Place Redfern Registration: 5797/1932
[v] Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1930, Subdistrict: Botany, page 13
[vi] Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1931, Subdistrict: Botany, page 14
[vii] Australia,
Electoral Rolls, 1933, Subdistrict: Botany, page 14
[viii]
Death Certificate of Claude
Cazneaux, died 23rd June 1932; 23 Dent Street, Municipality of Botany
[ix] Family
Notices (1932, June 24). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 -
1954), p. 6. Retrieved April 27, 2026, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246331524
[x] Birth
Certificate for Walter Todman, son of Walter Todman & Jane Levey NSW, born
1890 Newtown, New South Wales, Australia; NSW, Australia Registry of Births
Deaths and Marriages, Registration# 26005/1890
[xi] Todman,
Walter (also known as Claude Leslie Cazneau), Railway Personal History Card, born
25 October 1890; NRS 12922, item [11/16579], card no. 433; Western Sydney
Records Centre, New South Wales State Archives [accessed https://search.records.nsw.gov.au/permalink/f/1ebnd1l/ADLIB_RNSW113713193
: 27 April 2026]
[xii] National
Archives of Australia, Cazneaux, C – Naturalisation; Series A1, control symbol
1924/14641; item barcode 1616903. (NAA: A1, 1924/14641) [accessed https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1616903
: 27 April 2026]