In 1926, Nell Stead and her sister boarded a ship from Melbourne to Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka). Their father organized the trip after Nell and Erin had been nursing their ill mother in the final two years of her life and felt they needed a trip. On this trip Nell had a chance encounter with a handsome young naval officer by the hotel swimming pool in Colombo and this changed everything. This mystery man was more than a naval officer – he was Alexander George Francis Drogo Montagu, known as Mandy, the eldest son of the 9th Duke of Manchester, an heir to a nearly 500 year old dynasty.

An article featured in the Illustrated Australian News in November 1867, titled “A LADY SWINDLER”:

"It appears that for a length of time the lady has been in the habit of visiting lodging houses and inquiring for apartments. Having agreed to take the lodgings she proceeds to pay a deposit, when on feeling in her pocket, she cries, ‘I’ve lost my purse; they have stolen my purse,’ and forthwith commences to lament and bemoan her loss, exclaiming, ‘What shall I do; what will my husband say’. The lady is always accompanied by a little boy, dressed in Highland costume, whose tears mingled with sobs of his mother, are the secret of the facility with which she accomplishes her schemes."

The lady swindler was Mrs Alexandrina Askew. She didn’t ask for money, loans were offered in her time of crisis. As she collected more funds, her clothes became more ladylike.

An article featured in the Illustrated Australian News in November 1867, titled “A LADY SWINDLER”:

"It appears that for a length of time the lady has been in the habit of visiting lodging houses and inquiring for apartments. Having agreed to take the lodgings she proceeds to pay a deposit, when on feeling in her pocket, she cries, ‘I’ve lost my purse; they have stolen my purse,’ and forthwith commences to lament and bemoan her loss, exclaiming, ‘What shall I do; what will my husband say’. The lady is always accompanied by a little boy, dressed in Highland costume, whose tears mingled with sobs of his mother, are the secret of the facility with which she accomplishes her schemes."
The lady swindler was Mrs Alexandrina Askew. She didn’t ask for money, loans were offered in her time of crisis. As she collected more funds, her clothes became more ladylike.