Vivian Messiter had led a most interesting life. Born on 1 September 1871 in Wincanton, he had been educated at Trent College, near Nottingham. His ambition was to enter the field of medicine and for that reason he enrolled at Edinburgh University in 1889. He hadn’t been there very long, however, before he realised that becoming a doctor wasn’t for him after all. He dropped out and began to travel.
Messiter’s first port of call was Mexico. From there he travelled to Denver where, in 1897, he married Sarah Eleanor Culley. She gave birth to a daughter in 1899 but Vivian and Sarah separated in 1905 and he moved on to New York. Tragically, the daughter would be killed in a car crash in the early 1920s.
In the early part of the twentieth century, Messiter could see the dark clouds of war looming over Europe and decided that he wished to serve the country of his birth. He returned to England before 1914 and, on 30 August 1915, enlisted in the 17th Service Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers as a 2nd Lieutenant. On 18 May 1916, Messiter was promoted to Lieutenant and, almost exactly a year later, on 1 May 1917, reached the rank of Captain. That was the rank he still held at the end of the war when Messiter was discharged for medical reasons. He had been wounded and would, for the rest of his life, walk with a limp.
Once hostilities were at an end, Messiter joined Vickers at Enfield as an engineer, but soon he returned to New York where he met Mrs Mary Nevin. They came back to England together in July 1928 and lived as man and wife at 51 Ebury Street, London. The relationship didn’t last and even though they remained on good terms, Mrs Nevin returned to New York soon afterwards. Messiter was now at a loose end. He needed some new position to occupy his mind. It was with some excitement that, on 10 September 1928, he found himself appointed sales manager for the Wolf’s Head Oil Company.
The duties were simple enough. Wolf’s Head was an American oil company and they wished to break into the British market, starting in the south of England. Messiter was given a float of £100 to finance the set-up of a sales force and was told to draw £10 per week for himself as a salary. A regional office, which was really little more than an old garage to be used as a depot for storage, was rented at 42 Grove Street, Southampton, and Messiter moved to that city at the end of September, taking lodgings with Alva and Gertrude Parrott at 3 Carlton Road.
Messiter threw himself into his work, placing a total of six advertisements in the Southern Daily Echo, seeking people who wished to work as agents on commission. He had a number of replies and did take on a few applicants. Everything seemed to be going well. The first delivery of oil to the depot in Grove Street was made, a few orders came in and were duly filled but then, on Tuesday 30 October 1928, Vivian Messiter simply disappeared.
One thing that could be said about Vivian Messiter was that he was a creature of habit. He left his lodgings at the same time every day. He would break for lunch at the same time. He returned home at the same time every evening, and was certainly not the type of man to leave without any explanation. Besides, none of his belongings had been removed from his lodgings. Mr Parrott was growing rather concerned and since he was an ex-policeman, he was not about to let the matter drop.
Alva Sidney Havergill Parrott went to the office at Grove Street but the place was securely locked and there was no sign of life. By 1 November, there had still been no sign of Messiter so Mr Parrott telephoned the police station at Bargate and reported him as a missing person. The local police showed little interest in the matter and made no real efforts to discover what might have happened. After all, Messiter had a history of travel and it was assumed that he had simply moved on yet again.