Postscriptum by †Seán Manchester

I have never thought for a moment, as claimed by Jamie, that his father "isn't even dead." Indeed, it took some convincing me that he was alive long before the Grim Reaper finally came to fetch him.

Neither do I subscribe to the notion, as some do, that he faked his own death. I have toyed with the possibility that "Della" did something with the remains that circumvented any record being found of the cremation (which so far seems to be the case), and thereby any death certificate also being located.

Records can be misleading. They are determined by whomever writes whatever it is on the form of registration. Either parent can register the birth, and this requires only one form of identification. Back in the 1960s, illegitimacy carried far more of a stigma than it does today. Things were put on forms that were not necessarily true. Divorces, too, were frequently arranged, and, despite either the father or mother not being a biological parent, children would often be attributed with a false legitimacy.

We find a record of David Robert Donovan Farrant being born in March [sic], it was actually January, 1946 in West Ham, Essex. Records have him siring twice, once with one wife and once with another.

Jamie is the only son he sired, and that was in November 1967. This was with his first wife, Mary.

"He sees fit to challenge the parentage of David’s youngest son (who looks just like him and whose birth certificate accurately records David and his first wife as parents)" — "Della" (31 May 2020)

Danny's birth certificate falsely records David Farrant as his father, while accurately recording Mary Farrant as his mother. As already stated, either parent can register a birth and whomever does it can attribute the parentage, to avoid illegitimacy of the child, how they wish. Few would be much bothered today by such things, but back then it was very different. There is another reason for Danny being Jamie's half-brother, and that is the fact that Mary Farrant conceived him with someone she had run off with some months after her marriage in 1967. I speak from personal knowledge of the situation. The man she ran off with worked, albeit part-time, at my photographic studio. I didn't know Mary, but had previously glimpsed her working as a barmaid in The Woodman, Highgate, before she turned up on my doorstep with newly born Jamie in her arms, accompanied by my soon-to-be ex-employee. This would be the only time I would ever come into contact with Jamie. What they basically wanted was to stay overnight before taking off for the West country. I felt I could not facilitate what was going on, and my girlfriend was certainly unsympathetic. Thus I refused. They went off with their tales between their legs. This did not stop them fulfilling their plan to live in Devon, which they did for quite a number of months. It was during this period that Mary became pregnant with Danny. When they all returned to London in the summer of 1968 for whatever reason,  possibly the money ran out, Mary and Jamie stayed briefly with David Farrant at the Highgate flat. She gave birth to Danny and settled, initially with her parents, in Southampton, Hampshire, remarrying again and becoming Mary Coster.

David Farrant was evicted from the flat, having been declared bankrupt, in August 1968. He had inherited some money and a small business from his father earlier that year. It was now all gone. The man who had cuckolded him and sired Danny with Mary in a remarkable turn of events offered Farrant his coal cellar as somewhere to live, and for the next twelve months that is where he resided.

My ex-employee never returned to work for me at the studio, and a schism between us over the Farrant affair left an icy distance between us that has never thawed. David Farrant, some years later in a private conversation, acknowledged my refusal to become complicit in his wife's behaviour, but did not feel it merited any gratitude. Curiously, his enmity toward the man who cuckolded him, the man who is the biological father of Danny, was scarcely evident. They remained on friendly terms for years to come. This relationship dimmed, however, and eventually flickered out, but there was no public evidence of any antipathy. In private? Who knows? I am now on speaking terms with my ex-employee, and there is a civilised, albeit infrequent, communication between us. He acknowledges that he is Danny's biological father, and can't see what all the fuss is about. I would have preferred a more civilised communication between Farrant and I developing, but things only got worse. There were moments in the 1970s when I felt the deterioration between him and I might have been reversed. I was proved wrong. Things merely went from bad to worse. I realise that my Christian beliefs were the stumbling block. There was an occasion when I was having a cup of tea in a café opposite Barnet Magistrates' Court in November 1972 when he and Victoria Jervis, who had just been found guilty of indecency in Monken Hadley churchyard, drifted in and joined me. It would be difficult and strange for people today to understand how that might be possible, as I had only minutes' prior challenged him on the court steps to a test of his alleged "powers" before independent witnesses for which a date would eventually be set, but he failed to appear. There was still a code of conduct that no longer exists. During our brief sit-down in that small café, he made clear how antipathetic he felt toward Christianity. We were otherwise courteous to each other. Only Victoria Jervis showed signs of anxiety and nervousness. She would later have a nervous breakdown due to the outcome of the trial. My spiritual allegiance was a bar to that trust required of friendship. Hence we never were friends. No such bar existed with my ex-employee who admired Aleister Crowley, and then became an atheist.

All this occurred a decade or more before Farrant met his second wife. "Della" was yet to be born.

I would posit that the other child with his second wife, Colette, is in all likelihood to be identified as the secretive "Della" who would have been the right age, looks the spitting image of Colette, and has many of her traits. Moreover, "Della" has been extremely careful to hide her face from public view.

Farrant's father, also called Robert Donovan, could have registered the birth of his son in West Ham, Essex. His father married again after the death of his first wife (when Farrant was thirteen), and this caused further complications. There is also a half-brother called Robert who was a pop-singer and performer. Farrant never met him, but acknowledged his existence. Robert featured in musical theatre productions, playing the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar in the same year his half-brother, David, was receiving maximum notoriety in the newspapers as a representative of Lucifer and the black arts.

"David does not have a half brother called Robert who once played the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar! Someone asked me about this today. The actor of that name is from a completely unrelated Farrant family who did happen to live in the Hornsey area in the 1970s. Bobby Shafto (stagename) is alive and well and not remotely connected to David Farrant. What next??? I’ll tell you what next. He’ll be saying I buried David in the back garden." — "Della" (31 May 2020)

The only possible way I can address the anomaly of there being no record of cremation and no birth certificate is that David Robert Donovan Farrant's death was registered in another name. When I first knew him half a century ago, he travelled using two passports, one in the name of David Robert Donovan Farrant, the other in the name of Allan Aden Ellson. He never explained why he felt the need to do so, but he did it nonetheless. He was no stranger to nom de plumes, and I very much suspect one was employed when his death certificate was signed, and when he was cremated last year.

This, at least, would go some way to unraveling the puzzle. The sulphurous trail of such enigmas seemed to bedevil the man throughout his entire life; now, too, his son and daughter in like manner.

"I've obviously got David's birth, marriage and death certificates, his old passports, all the info, ashes / plot reference number and all."  — "Della" (31 May 2020)

"David’s death was legally registered, and his body was legally cremated, under his legal name. Allegations have been made that both these processes were overseen by myself having used a fake name for David – which is pure nonsense." — "Della" (31 May 2020)