William James Chidley (c. 1860 – 21 December 1916) was an Australian sex reformer and eccentric who consistently advocated his unconventional theories on sex, diet and clothing. His book The Answer was first published in 1911 in Melbourne, explaining in detail the author's unconventional theories. After The Answer was declared an obscene publication in Victoria, Chidley moved to Sydney where he continued to address crowds and sell copies of his book, dressed in his characteristic knee-length tunic. In the following years he was the subject of frequent arrests for selling an obscene publication and using indecent language, and on several occasions declared to be insane and incarcerated in asylums. He died at the Callan Park asylum in December 1916.
Biography
Early life
William James Chidley was born in Melbourne in about 1860 and was abandoned by his birth mother as an infant. He was adopted by John James Chidley, a toy warehouse proprietor, and his first wife Maria (née Carlin), who were living in Brunswick Street in Fitzroy, Melbourne.Kevin Slattery (2004), pages 19-20. The Chidleys had emigrated from England, and after a period in the Victorian goldfields, settled in Melbourne. William was one of five children adopted by the couple. The other adopted children were a boy named Stanley and three girls, Ada, Ellen and Jane. Ellen and Jane were sisters by blood, the children of alcoholic parents who had both died in May 1854.Ciaran Conliffe (2022), 'William Chidley, Would-Be Sexual Reformer', HeadStuff website; accessed 22 October 2024. William's adoptive parents were vegetarians and followers of the teachings of the Swedish philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg.Frank Bongiorno (4 July 2012), 'William Chidley's answer to the sex problem', Inside Story website; accessed 16 March 2025.
Soon after William's adoption, John and Maria Chidley returned to England with their adopted children. John Chidley engaged as a bookseller in London, but the business was unsuccessful. By about 1865 the Chidleys and their family returned to Australia.Sally McInerney (1979), 'William James Chidley (c. 1860–1916)', Australian Dictionary of biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 17 October 2024. Upon their return the family moved itinerantly throughout Victoria, with Chidley's father operating a transportable photographic studio. At times Chidley remained in Melbourne as a school boarder. His final year of schooling was at St. Kilda College when he was aged thirteen.Ciaran Conliffe (2022), 'William Chidley, Would-Be Sexual Reformer', HeadStuff website; accessed 22 October 2024.
Working life
After leaving school Chidley assisted his adoptive father for a period in his photographic studio, where he learned photography and developed a talent for drawing. He worked for a solicitor and was later apprenticed to an architect for four years. Chidley was not suited to office work, finding it tedious, and began working as an itinerant crayon and watercolour artist, drawing portraits for up to £10 each. He also continued his education by reading in public libraries.Ciaran Conliffe (2022), 'William Chidley, Would-Be Sexual Reformer', HeadStuff website; accessed 22 October 2024.
In about 1880 Chidley moved to Adelaide where he worked as an artist. In October 1882 William J. Chidley and another man named Arthur Sadler, were arrested at Bridgewater, in the Adelaide Hills, for being involved in a quarrel in Waymouth Street in Adelaide, which resulted in the death of Thomas Maloney on October 10.Suspected Murder or Manslaughter, Evening Journal (Adelaide), 19 October 1882, page 2. Chidley and Sadler were charged with "feloniously and wilfully killing and slaying" Maloney. They were tried in the Adelaide Supreme Court in December 1882 and both men were acquitted of the charges.Manslaughter, Adelaide Observer, 9 December 1882, page 22.
After his acquittal Chidley joined the Byron Theatre Company, an Adelaide theatre group, where he met a young actress named Ada Grantleigh (née Harris), who was married to Walter Thoms. He and Ada formed an intermittent de facto relationship which lasted until Ada's death in 1908. The couple, both of whom suffered periods of alcoholism, lived at Adelaide until 1890, then in Sydney, New Zealand and Melbourne. Chidley and Ada Grantleigh never married but adopted a son (reputedly hers).Vivian Fleming (2008), 'William James Chidley - A Short Biography', William James Chidley website; accessed 22 October 2024.
Chidley's adoptive father died in February 1891 at his home at Port Fairy North.Deaths, The Age (Melbourne), 18 February 1891, page 1.Wills and Bequests, Table Talk (Melbourne), 6 March 1891, pages 7-8.
During the period 1894-5 Chidley was employed as a black-and-white artist by R. B. Orchard, a prominent Sydney jeweller, and A. H. Thompson, who owned a photographic business.Mark Finnane (1981), page 60.
During his early working years Chidley had supported himself by drawing for medical texts. This exposed him to various contemporary medical theories about human sexuality and he formed the conviction that "there was something profoundly wrong with the way in which modern people had sex". He believed he had made an important scientific discovery that the human race had been living in error.Nicole Cama (2016), 'William Chidley: an eccentric campaigner', Dictionary of Sydney website, State Library of New South Wales; accessed 17 October 2024.
Chidley wrote his autobiography, although he did not intend it to be widely read until after his death. In 1899 he sent a duplicate of the manuscript to Havelock Ellis, the English physician and writer on human sexuality, who used extracts in his Studies in the Psychology of Sex.
Ada Grantleigh (Thoms) died on 1 December 1908 at Melbourne Hospital, aged 48.Deaths, The Argus (Melbourne), 4 December 1908, page 1.
The Answer
In April 1911 the Australasian Authors' Agency, a Melbourne-based publisher established by Henry Hyde Champion, released The Answer by William J. Chidley. The book explained in detail the author's unconventional theories, including a call for dress reform and a diet of nuts and raw fruit.Setting the World Right, The Register (Adelaide), 8 April 1911, page 4. In regard to sex Chidley wrote: "The world will be saved by true lovers who consummate their marriage in the natural way described in this book". His writings called for a different mode of sexual intercourse, by which the flaccid or semi-erect penis was sucked into the vagina (rather than the "forcible entrance" of the erect penis, which he likened to a "crowbar").W. J. Chidley (1912), pages 7-15.John Barnes (2005), Socialist Champion: Portrait of the Gentleman as Crusader, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, pages 295-6. Adelaide's The Register newspaper commented that Chidley's "main theory and the arguments in support could be discussed in medical journals only, and these will not open their columns to him". To a quote from The Answer – "The habit lovers now have of kissing with their clothes on is very injurious to health" – the review in The Register added: "And the rest must – in newspaper columns – be silence".
In Sydney in May 1911 Chidley was arrested in George Street, charged with "having behaved in an offensive manner". He was dressed in what became his characteristic mode, a Grecian-style knee-length tunic, bare-headed and barefoot or wearing sandals, carrying his carpet-bag with 'The Answer' printed upon it (described as "like the regulation bathing costume, with legs and arms bare", with placards reading "The answer" attached to his chest and back). Chidley was brought before a magistrate of the Water Police Court where he claimed to be "the author of a book which was of supreme importance to the human race... published in the interests of humanity". When asked by the magistrate "Why do you parade yourself in such a style?", he answered: "Because it lets the sun and air to the skin", adding "if people adopted 'the simple life' they would live until they were 130 years of age". The magistrate concluded: "This is evidently the act of a faddist". He fined Chidley five shillings, or "six hours in the cells". The Simple Life, Truth (Sydney), 14 May 1911, pages 2, 7."Simple Life" Disciple, Barrier Miner (Broken Hill), 12 May 1911, page 4.McInerney (editor) in Chidley (1977), page xx.
By June 1911 Chidley's The Answer ("The solution of the Sex Question") was being advertised as being sold at Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne and Sydney and Dymocks' bookstore in Sydney.Read "The Answer", Truth (Sydney), 4 June 1911, page 2. In late September 1911 in Melbourne a police detective purchased two copies of The Answer from Chidley. He then obtained search warrants and confiscated a further seven copies from Chidley and fifteen copies of the work from Cole's bookstore in Bourke Street. The detective also attended the offices of the publisher, Henry Hyde Champion, at Whitehall Chambers in Bank Place, and seized a further 262 copies of The Answer. On 7 October a series of prosecutions was commenced before a bench of magistrates, the members of which declared the book to be obscene, having "decided that there were many parts of it which would tend to deprave and corrupt the morals of any person reading it". An order was made for the destruction of the impounded books after thirty days had elapsed."The Answer": Book Destroyed as Obscene, The Bendigo Independent, 10 October 1911, page 5; A Questionable Book, The Argus (Melbourne), 16 October 1911, page 9.
By January 1912 the second edition of The Answer was being advertised for sale, directly from an address in Mackenzie Street, Melbourne.Send 2s 6d, Port Fairy Gazette, 30 January 1912, page 3. With The Answer declared in Victoria to be an obscene publication, and copies subject to confiscation and destruction, Chidley moved to Sydney in early 1912 where the book had not been banned. In March 1912 Chidley was charged with "behaving in an offensive manner" in the Domain, Sydney's 'speakers' corner', where he been addressing a large crowd, reading from his book and talking on a variety of subjects. He was brought before a magistrate who imposed a fine of five pounds, or alternatively two months' hard labour.David T. Roth (2022), page 450."Not a Crank", The Sun (Sydney), 25 March 1912, page 1. In May 1912 Chidley was again charged with "behaving in an offensive manner" after he had been addressing a crowd of about eight hundred on a Sunday afternoon at the Domain. The magistrate imposed a fine of twenty shillings and ordered that two sureties of thirty pounds be entered into for Chidley to be of good behaviour for twelve months."All Miserable Sinners", The Sun (Sydney), 30 May 1912, page 7.
Committals
On the evening of 24 July 1912 Chidley presented "an illustrated lecture" for "men only" at a hall in Phillip Street, Sydney, on the subject of "Degeneracy: The Cause and Cure".Lectures, The Sun (Sydney), 21 July 1912, page 23.