The letters forming the words "Sir Roger Doughty Tichborne, Baronet" may be transposed without addition of omission into the sentence 'You horrid butcher Orton, biggest rascal [sic] here' Amador Weekly Ledger, Jackson California, 16 May 1874

The Wagga Wagga of 1865 was a small provincial town in the Riverina, with a population of approximately 1,000. Today, Wagga Wagga, with a population of over 57,000 is the largest inland city in N.S.W and the place of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people.

Nestled on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River, Wagga Wagga takes its name from the Wiradjuri word Waagan (crow) which, when repeated can be translated as "the place where crows assemble in large numbers".

However, it was one hundred and forty years ago that a single infamous episode brought Wagga to the world's attention. Tom Castro was a butcher plying his trade off Fitzmaurice Street, in Wagga's central business district. A stout, uncouth man, described by one customer as "loose and slommicking", Castro and his supporters set in motion one of the greatest cases of disputed identity in modern history.

In 1854, Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne, heir to the extensive Tichborne Estates in Hampshire, England vanished en route from Rio de Janeiro to New York. An inquest was held, and the ship Bella, her passenger and crew were officially declared lost at sea, bringing Roger's young life to a premature end. After the disappearance of Roger's ship, his mother Lady Tichborne refused to believe that her son was dead.

Eleven years later, in 1865, Lady Tichborne received a letter from Mr Cubitt's Missing Friends Office in Sydney. A Wagga based attorney, William Gibbes had written them a letter claiming that one of his clients, a man named Thomas Castro, was Tichborne living incognito.

The "Claimant" as he became known, and the question of his true identity, grew to be a cause célèbre in the English speaking world. Eventually leading to two court trials - one civil, and one for perjury - the trial lasted 291 days, involved 36,000 cross examination questions and defence council speeches that lasted months.

Even the sending of special commissions to Australia and Chile failed to prove to everyone's satisfaction whether the Tichborne Claimant was a butcher from Wapping, London (a man called Arthur Orton, using the Antipodean alias of Tom Castro) or truly the heir to the Hampshire Estates.

The Museum of the Riverina and the Wagga Wagga City Library both have small but significant collections which relate to this moment in history, during which Wagga featured on the world stage.

Souvenirs including figurines, glassware, pamphlets, postcards and the infamous Tichborne bonds were mass-manufactured for the duration of the trial. Souvenir figurines depicting key personalities of the trial were churned out for the well-off and working-class alike. Cheap figurines were manufactured using materials ranging from painted and unpainted plaster, earthenware and terracotta.

For the wealthier collector, china and porcelain statuettes were created. A Staffordshire figurine of Orton is reputedly kept at the Prime Ministers residence, Kirribilli House.

In 1984 Wagga Wagga City Council received a donation of a set of four Tichborne Trial figurines. The donor's wife was the great granddaughter of William Gibbes, the aforementioned lawyer with a practice in Wagga during the 19th century, and the Attorney for Tom Castro.

These particular figurines (originally a set of six) had been manufactured and sold in London at the time of the Trial to help defray the legal costs of the defendant. These figurines can be viewed as part of the permanent displays exhibited at the Museum of the Riverina