They argued about how and where he invented it. Some of them seemed to want to “claim” it

The full story can be read in three parts, starting here lostlives.substack.com/p/the-matter...

And yet after numerous appearances in court and the hunting down of every trace of evidence, the case went nowhere. The result? No body. No yacht. No Miss Vining. No answers. Only evidence of a man who was secretly in trouble and disappeared rather than face the consequences

The only two people to keep looking? The old friend (who happened to be the executor of his will) and his abandoned fiancee. Those two alone kept the faith. Lidderdale's family barely showed any interest in finding him or concern about his fate

But the story faded from memory… until 15 years later an old friend of Lidderdale began an ultimately fruitless attempt to have him declared dead so that his will — which after insurance policies had been claimed would be worth over £3,000 — could be proved.

Meanwhile, away from the newspaper frenzy, it emerged that Lidderdale was over £900 overdrawn and owed several people money, including his own sister who went to court around a month after his disappearance to reclaim the money he owed her. That was not the only oddity.

Solicitors became involved. There were press appeals to Miss Vining and enquiries set in motion to trace the people who Lidderdale had gone to meet. But no trace of him could be found after the day he arrived in London.

Wild theories began to circulate. Miss Vining had kidnapped Lidderdale; he had willingly chosen her over his fiancee; he was genuinely dead… Or perhaps Miss Vining didn't exist at all and he had fabricated the whole episode.

Was this a confession? A goodbye? A red herring? The answer was never discovered, but someone wanted the world to think Lidderdale was dead.