This is just a work in progress post: I’ve taken the Beaumont family data recently posted here as comments by B Deveson and Samuel Z, and converted (most of) them into a single über-diagram.

Beaumont-Tree

Please let me know if this is wrong in any way!

40 thoughts on “The Somerton Man / Jim Beaumont connection…

  1. Nice work ^ that, ++ envy rating for an ordered mind Nick – where can I buy one?

  2. Pete: don’t get too envious, it’s as much a curse as a blessing. 😐

  3. flowchart fever

  4. B Deveson on December 5, 2013 at 1:50 pm said:

    I think an explanation is required of why a family connection between the two Beaumont families is important. It is generally accepted that the Beaumont children would not have been lead off by a stranger. It is also relevant that 90A Moseley Street is only 1,300 meters from where the Beaumont children were last see. It is also only 1,000 meters from 109 Harding Street, where the Beaumont family lived. Also relevant is the fact that Jim Beaumont was a taxi driver in the Glenelg/Somerton Park area at the time Prosper was also driving taxis. So it must be almost certain that Prosper was well known to Jim Beaumont.

    Glenelg electoral roll 1970:
    968 Grant Alfred Beaumont 109 Harding Street, Somerton Park Taxi driver

    I also note that “Jim’s” brother Maxwell Beaumont was a taxi driver in Adelaide in the later 1940s early 1950s.

  5. B Deveson: a family connection between the two cases is certainly unexpected, but I have to say I’m not yet convinced that it’s important. Two sets of people in 1940s/50s Adelaide, both with decent-sized families, both (largely) Presbyterian: what actually were the odds that they would be connected somehow? 1 in 50? 1 in 100? 1 in 1000?

  6. Helen Ensikat on December 6, 2013 at 8:10 am said:

    @nickpelling

    My stats are very rusty, but I’m going to hazard a guess that it would be in the region of one in a few thousand that any two randomly selected Presbyterians in Adelaide at the time would share a great-grandparent. However, that’s making a some huge assumptions (such as presuming that Presbyterians don’t tend to cluster and intermarry in smaller regional/church/social groups, nor marry outside of their own religion) and discounts the impacts of migration, population flows and so forth.

    For what it’s worth, I believe the total population of Adelaide and its suburbs was just under 400,000 at the time, and the mean percentage of Presbyterians in the Australian population was under 10 per cent (but significantly higher amongst farmers apparently, so it would be somewhat lower in capital cities). The Beaumont connection seems to be an interesting co-incidence, but hardly a staggeringly unlikely one.

  7. Not staggeringly unlikely… But very interesting…

    Very likely the two guys knew each other which connects the two cases. To what degree is still the question.

    I am uncomfortable speaking ill of people in such an “armchair expert” way as I truly know nothing… But… If PT is involved in the somerton mans demise then it blows everything open.

    Can someone hurry up and identify this bloke? Be so much easier working backwards 🙂

  8. Just thought of a 1940s era taxi cruising down the road and a chill went down my spine.

  9. B Deveson on December 6, 2013 at 1:50 pm said:

    William Grant Beaumont SERN 2837 Religion: Methodist
    Thomas Lawson Harkness SN V215970 Religion: C of E
    Prosper McTaggart Thomson VX67088 Relgion: did not give (atheist?) Buried in C of E
    William Newport Grant Beaumont Religion: Methodist/Rechabite
    I note that William’s nephew was the Reverend William Pennington-Bickford, rector of St Clement Dane’s church, London (ie C of E).
    From memory, I don’t think the Harkness family were Presbyterians. C of E and Catholic I think.

  10. B Deveson: some old notes of mine said that the Harknesses were (mostly) Presbyterian, but that may just have been yet another piece of Harkness-related non-information floating in the ether… sorry about that!

    Incidentally, the “Jessie Muir Thomson” from Somerton Park who you mentioned in a recent comment seems to have been someone else entirely (she died on 14/10/1994 aged 76, and was perhaps born in Williamstown, Victoria?). Here’s a link to her online cremation record:-
    http://www.centennialpark.org/deceased-search/deceased-search.html?view=site&PIDNO=216981&lname=thomson&fname=&year=&exact=false&maplinkid=&viewtype=detailed&limit=25&start=125 Hope that’s a help!

  11. Hannah on December 7, 2013 at 3:43 pm said:

    It appears from the comments here and the facebook page that Rachel Egan and Derek Abbott are clearly familiar outside of this case. This seems an unlikely coincidence. What are your thoughts on this Nick?

  12. Hannah: my thoughts are the world is full of unlikely coincidences, few of which are of much consequence. For what it’s worth, I suspect that the big trick when studying history is working out which of the numerous unlikely coincidences randomly (and inevitably) connected to any given thing might actually have some meaning for (or importance to) it. 😉

  13. Its the only piece of Validated research that is significant. And people ignore it because they would rather remain in a fantasy. Get real everyone.

    A man has been murdered.
    And three innocent kids have been taken from their parents.

    Forget the assumptions. Ignore the fantasy.

    GET REAL!

  14. Isn’t cloning or tampering with DNA illegal?

    Derek cloned the Somerton Man using hair out of the bust!

  15. Celestine on December 24, 2013 at 2:29 am said:

    what….
    the…
    f…..?

  16. Kbnz on March 4, 2014 at 7:05 am said:

    Huh?

    Troll?

  17. Kagyfu on June 16, 2014 at 3:52 pm said:

    According to your diagram Maxwell Beaumont was born in 1930 and died in 1931 – so how could he be a taxi driver?
    The practice of naming children after their fathers and grandfathers was common, and if a child died, it could follow that the next male child was also given that name.
    So – did you find a birth document for another Maxwell Beaumont? Did he move interstate, and was he the uncle who got locked up in Canberra in 1975 over an incident with a toy gun?

  18. Kagyfu: according to my diagram, Maxwell Beaumont was born in 1930 or 1931. Hope that clears things up for you!

  19. lauren on November 5, 2014 at 1:37 pm said:

    I believe somehow the father is involved. Did anyone think that sometimes the closet character is the actual perpetrator and had accomplices.

  20. helen harringto on September 8, 2015 at 9:07 am said:

    Clarice Isabella Beaumont was Nancy’s cousin or sister. Prosper Thomas and Thomas Harkness both served in WW11.

  21. Helen – cousin or sister – makes a big difference. What makes you say/think this? Yes. Prosper and Thomas both served in WWII as did many others in this family. Is there a reason that you’ve pointed out only these two men?

  22. Does anyone have any idea what Nancy’s maiden name is? Why does this never appear in any article/document/forum discussion about this case?

  23. Has anyone else looked for a photograph of Prosper Thomson? I found one and it does resemble to PhotoKit of the stranger wanted for questioning in the Beaumont case. Also noted was his height ……about 6’2. I know there is a lot of suspicion that it was Mr Phipps, but everyone should be considered a suspect.

  24. Nancy’s maiden name was Ellis, according to the Author of The Satin Man.

  25. Tj68 – Thank you!

  26. John sanders on May 13, 2016 at 2:04 am said:

    Was Australia day observance as a public holiday in SA adhered to re government services ie. mail deliveries and public transport. Are we absolutely certain that the eye witnesses were referring to the Wednesday and not Tuesday when the kiddies also went to the beach…Could the perpetrator have been a school or Sunday school teacher off work for the annual break and not employed on that particular day as most others would have been…I’m sure SAPOL would have covered all these angles however their plainclothes resources in those days weren’t well developed.

  27. ayuverdica on May 14, 2016 at 12:52 pm said:

    The latest… Mr Beaumont was an SP bookie. The Police were tapping his phone. Someone knew Beaumont was going to be in Snowtown that day.

  28. Milongal on May 16, 2016 at 12:54 am said:

    @John Sanders:
    Also looks like the indentikit of the Adelaide Oval kidnapper:
    http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/police-appeal-for-help-on-1973-adelaide-oval-abductions-of-joanne-ratcliffe-and-kirste-gordon-before-8216it8217s-too-late8217/story-fni6uo1m-1226703821419

    Although he would have been 60+ by then, so it’s a long bow….

  29. B Deveson on May 22, 2016 at 10:05 pm said:

    Maxwell John Beaumont was the uncle of the Beaumont children. He also worked as a taxi driver in the Glenelg area.
    “Maxwell John Beaumont (13) summons, indecently assaulting Dorothy Jean Hayward aged 16 years & 8 months; custody and control of Children’s Welfare Dept. until 18 years of age. Consts. Mensforth and Northwood. J.C. Adelaide 7/8/45 (C11096).” South Australian Police Gazette. September 5th 1945 page 317.

  30. John sanders on May 23, 2016 at 4:46 am said:

    If anyone has access to commonwealth police Gazettes circa. 1973-75 you will see the identikit for the Adelaide oval snatcher Also there is a photo of a wanted man (possibly cheque offences) . This fellow has a remarkable semblance to the oval perpetrater and after checking him out he was found to be a travelling fairground worker with form for molestation but without conviction. The information was passed on to sapol who passed your informant on to retired Sgt. Stan Swaine who expressed interest. Needless to say there was no reply to this young interstate detective’s information. Its maybe worth looking at again if just for the sake of closure.

  31. john sanders on November 22, 2017 at 5:11 am said:

    Can some knowledgeable please try to explain how a young man 14 years old at most could have been issued a WW2 regular AIF service number, which would in effect have enabled the Australian military to utilize him for overseas war service. The young man was of course young Maxwell Beaumont SX500603 of S.A. and for some unknown reason we are only given 1930/31 for a year of birth. There is no online service record for him although we have it that his NOK is his father Grant so we may assume that he and Jim, who was then in Borneo were brothers. Whilst there is no record of actual war service, this may have been consistent with a policy of not puting sibling family members in the firing line at any one time. We know that Max had various occupations during his troubled life such as taxi driver, truckie and private investigator working with Stan Sleane (Det. Sgt. Sapol), though it also seems that there are many things about him that we the public have no need to know for some reason. Without infringing on the rights to privacy of the remaining Beaumonts, I can’t see any reason for us not to examine certain lines of evidence that may have relevance to our SM inquiries so long as we can somehow discourage certain pointless fanatical elements to become involved. What do you say Byron?

  32. jenke8 on May 15, 2018 at 8:48 am said:

    Mr Grant Beaumont did not have a phone on until after the bc disappearance so maybe another beaumont was the sp bookie

  33. Ayuvirdica: Don’t mean nuthin’ whether Grant (Jim) was a starting price bookie or not; anyone with a spare quid in his sky rocket after payday in ’66 had a sneaky flutter on the nags of a Saturday arvo ; The caper was institutional, with no need for cockatoos, cause the fuz were in on the lurk. If Jim ‘laid the odds and kept a tote’ more power to him; what’s that got to do with the price of bum nuts. More’s to the point; you didn’t need a phone to run a book in them days; business was done at the local or else a vacant block nearby. The local wallopers would be either off duty or out at the local Morphetville track, checking for shorteners and reporting back betting flucktuations to the talent on the police radio. That’s how things went down in the good old days and more’s the pity that the gov’t had to get in on the deal with their rip off TAB, right about that time. If the cops were tapping phones, it was only see who was on the drum for an outsider,or who might be laying off on a dead cert.

  34. Byron: Jim Beaumont‘s dad, the fancy Methodist, was known to all as Grant, not William or Samuel as one might reasonably expect; they being his given names and all. Jim was also a Grant, and an Alfred to boot, ala Alf Boxall aka Alec & Alf Herbert aka Xavier. So where does the Jim come from prey tell and how did he end up being C of E as attested in his AIF inlistment papers of 1943…Have you taken time to peruse Jim’s recently posted AA WW2 record which is odd, as we have not heard anything of his passing. As far as we know, he is living at his Glenelg apartment and likely still a member of the local BCOF association and a keen amateur ham? radio enthusiast. We have always known that he received a gunshot wound to his wrist/elbow at Moratai in 1945 and at war‘s end, forwent offered demobilization for favour of further service in Japan. Something quite inexplicable, by way of over the top punishment, even by military standards, occurred during Jim‘s time in the BCOF before his eventual RTA and discharge in 1947. I’m refering of course to an award of 28 days incarceration for a rather petty leave overstay of less than four hours. (unheard of). This turned out to be critical in that Jim‘s dad died just weeks before his homecoming; due to 28 days of non effective service no doubt..Care to comment on the likely effects of all this upon his immediate subsequent return to civilian life, say from 47 to 1950 thereabouts.

  35. DaveDewie on June 14, 2019 at 10:24 am said:

    Does anyone have the birthdate of Nancy Beaumont nee Ellis and where she was born?

  36. john sanders on June 3, 2020 at 11:47 pm said:

    Was anyone aware that Nancy Helen Beaumont nee Ellis bn. Adelaide 1927, had in late 1947 married a certain Bronte Mourilyan Snoswell bn. 1921 Crafers S.A., who recently discharged from the RAAF and who in 1966 may have been living with his family in Chapel St. Glenelg. Off Jetty road, it appears to offer a logical shortcut via High, Partridge and Pier Sts. to Diagonal Rd., thence on to Harding St…Bronte’s dad Cleveland Frank was an invalided 50th Btn. WW1, formally a farmer and his wife, it seems was a Curry who by turn connected with the Pattersons and folks might recall that the postman witness to the kids’ home? journey was a Curry Patterson which might be a link worth considerstion.

  37. john sanders on June 7, 2020 at 5:47 am said:

    It isn’t actually clear on whether Bronte Snoswell and Nancy Ellis were married as S.A. gene. advises, for trove merely records an engagement of the courting couple on 10th December, 1947 (year of Jim’s discharge). I have reported elswhere on Bronte’s other three marriages to Louise, Joan and Helen which seems nothing out of the ordinary with some offshoot christian sects.

  38. john sanders on June 8, 2020 at 6:31 am said:

    I can’t find anything on Bronte’s life and times apart from what I’ve posted which seems of itself to beg more questions than answers, not only about the man but also in context of others within the Snoswell family circle. Being of a rather puritanical non conformist Chtistian sect gives rise to belief, that as an outsider and a strong willed woman, Nancy’s advances might thus be viewed as an evil enticement for the heir apparent to ‘play the harlot’. Hence Nancy being not only ousted from the fold, but also considered a likely target for retribution.

    The Snoswell family had been amongst the first settlers in S.A. (1838) and were farmers who eventually settled in Crafers Nth of Adelaide in the 1870s where Bronte’s dad Cleveland grew to manhood and trained as a clerk before going off to war with the 50th Btn. Coming home an invalid of sorts he seems to have worked on the farm for a time, then married and moved to the big sprawling home on the corner of Jetty Rd and Chappel street. Apart from his two overseas trips to New Zealand in retirement, nothing else crops up until his death in an Adelaide aged care home in the 1980s

    First born was Bronte bn. 1921 followed in turn by Jean and then John in 1928 and that’s about all we can discern about specifics, accept our man’s service in WW2 which we are not at liberty to read unless we pay, nothing at all on sister Jean who may not have survived childhood. John’s life is also blank apart from him having died at Keith in 2014 leaving wife Dot and three children, likely two daughters and a son, one of whom married in 1975. He seems to have been well regarded and loved by all according to the nice Billion dollar graves photo at Keith Cemetery.

    There is a nice photo of Cleveland on line, in his uniform and having just been officially welcomed home from the war by a townsfolk at Crafers. He looks a good style of a fellow, tall with fair hair a fair complexion and athletic. From the very clear picture, his movie star he-man good are well defined, along with a nonchalant air of confidence that stands out. What his son’s looked like is anyones guess, though if one considers the more selective breeding as applied in those times, much alike would be a fair guess.

  39. john sanders on June 11, 2020 at 5:06 am said:

    Should it be of interest, whilst our Mac. Sands directory lists the Snoswells at 6 Chapel St. in 1950, the current Glenelg grid map lists only a number 4 main dwelling at cnr of Milton St. on the way up to High Street. I note that the Uniting Church, once run by the Congregationalists as were the Snoswells, was but a hop step and a jump for Glory across the road from their domain. Perhaps Cleveland officiated on Sundays and his children taught Sunday school to local kids, perhaps even our two missing Beaumont girls.

  40. john sanders on June 12, 2020 at 5:42 am said:

    It sure is late in the day, but nothing seems to be doing since Helen’s passing last year. Im wondering whether anyone knows where the weird names Nartare and Arrna derive as they seem not consistant with names of close family on either side, or anywhere else. I dId a little digging around her dad’s war records, both 1 (LH Gallipoli) and 2 (Trg), but apart from his being pre service labourer, Bapist and WIA/2 his service including 53 days down with Cairo sniffle seemed not unusual, living to near eighty in Adelaide God bless’im.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Post navigation