Who is Wallace? the Enigma of the World's Oldest Prisoner by Gideon Haigh
[Melbourne]: Archives Liberation Front, 2025 ISBN 9780646726922
What a fascinating book! While Gideon Haigh is best known as a cricket writer, he is at heart a journalist, is obviously a man who is interested in much more than cricket, and who not only has a sharp analytical mind, but also a fine investigative sense.
Who is Wallace? grew from a question asked of Haigh by his daughter - "who was the oldest ever prisoner?" Haigh was surprised to find that not only was it an Australian, but that he was incarcerated at Ararat - the infamous J Ward - a mere two hundred kilometres from Haigh's hometown of Melbourne.
As well as the story of Wallace's life, Haigh tells the story of Australia's attitude to those suffering mental illness, and how that changed over the 107 years that William Wallace spent on this earth. Of Wallace's life before Ararat, Haigh writes of his service in the Boer War (he came to be the last surviving Australian soldier from that conflict), success as a selector, his querulous relationship with the Dorrigo council in New South Wales (a precursor of what was to come?), and his time institutionalized in Gladesville and Kenmore when he thought that "the influence" were trying to hypnotize him to get his money.
On release, he disappeared from view until, in September 1925 he had an altercation over smoking in a King Street café in Melbourne, which became a brawl during which Wallace shot dead one of his attackers.
He was deemed unfit to stand trial after refusing to co-operate with the police, was detained at His Majesty's pleasure and sent to J Ward, eventually moving to Aradale in the 1970s, but never set foot outside the institution until his death in 1989. He was not a violent inmate, but was generally taciturn apart from complaining about perceived slights. He wrote letters to the head of the department which Haigh quotes at length, which give insight into his illness, weaving small events into his conspiracy narrative.
When Wallace was originally sent to Ararat, diagnoses of mental illness was in its infancy, but as psychological medicine advanced, he was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. His delusion, that there was a conspiracy against him, seemed to remain remarkably stable over the years, although those behind the conspiracy changed from "the influence" to "the Jews" as he got older.
When Wallace arrived at Ararat in the 1920s, mental institutions were literally just holding pens for the insane - no clinical assistance was provided for inmates, and conditions, particularly in J Ward, were extremely poor. Inmates were literally kept in cells, as the Ward was previously the Ararat Jail.
Aradale was slightly better, but was still not adequately equipped to really help those who were ill. There was never enough money for improvements despite multiple inquiries into the provision of mental health services in Victoria. The long battle between those who were invested in the idea of asylums (which included the City of Ararat, the workers and unions, and those who managed the institution) and those of a more progressive bent who were trying to improve treatment by de-institutionalizing provision of services was eventually won by the latter party. These changes were billowing around Wallace during the latter part of his life - he was oblivious to them, and by that time he was completely institutionalized and had no desire to leave Aradale.
Who is Wallace? is a fascinating insight into a strange story, full of interesting facts and insights into a part of our history that mostly goes unrecorded.
Haigh has published this book under his own imprint, which he uses when he has a story to tell that is too un-commercial for trade publishers. It's well-presented, with good illustrations, a useful bibliography but unfortunately no index.
No comments:
Post a Comment