Deductions involved elementary elocution , Dr Watson .
With the aid of a magnifying glass similar to the one used by the famous fictional detective, Little Darwin has been investigating the discovery of two corpses - obviously previously well- loved books - in a pile at a North Queensland tip shop .
They are the above battered , old volumes: A Practical Handbook On Elocution, by Rose. I. Patry, George Allen and Unwin , London, 1925 , reprint of the l899 first edition and For The Actress-Fifty Speeches from Well-Known Plays, by E.Guy Pertwee ,Samuel French , London .
Ernest Guy Pertwee ,born l883, described as a vocalist who turned to elocution, wrote several books, was Professor of Elocution at the City of London School. He was also related to the famous British actor John Pertwee , who played many parts, including one of the Dr Whos .
Seems John Pertwee lisped when he was a lad , elocution may have helped him .
Both books bear the handwritten name of Winifred Whittle in the Adelaide suburb of Netherby . There is extensive underlining of text in the elocution book plus a card to Win and family with the blessings of a holy Christmas season
There is another name , W.M. Edwards, of Marion Road , Marion , South Australia, with Elocution inked in underneath .
The actress book contains fragments of notepaper bearing the name Les Sampson of the Adelaide Refinery , long closed , used as markers for particular speeches , in this case Mrs Danvers from Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier . Another slip is for Lady Bracknell in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest .
Examining all these clues with the magnifying glass, Little Darwin made several deductions : Winifred was apparently interested in elocution and was probably an actress .
Forensic evidence backed up this theory when we dug up the fact in the Adelaide Advertiser of June 20,l953 that Winifred Whittle ,in the Manthorpe Memorial Church Hall , Unley, had given a recital of The White Cliffs of Dover, in aid of the Home for Incurables .She was assisted by Alan Whittle , a bass baritone, and accompanied by Phil Yeatman .
This put Winifred in the company of American Glenn Miller and his band, Australia's own soprano Gladys Moncrieff and Britain's blitz performer Vera Lynn , who all performed renditions of the White Cliffs of Dover .
Further probing revealed she had been born Winifred Lorraine Buick,at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, in l916, married Leo Clarence Whittle on November 27,l934, died in 1991.
