Dosia

A letter from Louise addressed to Dosia, whose full name was Theodosia Lady Bagot. From the contents of the letter it would have been written in July 1920. Lady Bagot’s son, Alan Desmond had recently died in Nice from double pneumonia aged 24. Interestingly the ‘stuff’ Aseplene was a concoction marketed by Aseplene Ltd and John Garibaldi Sparkhall. As can be seen from the advertisement it was a cure-all but in 1924 the courts determined it was no more than a formalin solution and fined both the company and Sparkhall £50 plus 10 guineas costs. The defence had argued that ‘titled people’ had been cured by Aseplene. It would appear Louise was not one of them as she suffered for many years after with painful limbs.

In recommending the concoction she uses one of her names Mrs Campbell. She obviously had a supply. Did she purchase as Louise or Mrs Campbell?