It was in 1937 that a packed Supreme Court of Brisbane heard about the actions of two brothers Frederick James Siddartha Affleck and Dalham Robert Affleck and Ernest Barker, inside Flat G at New Farm's Avalon Flats.

Australian cultural history expert professor Clive Moore outlined in his book Sunshine and Rainbows: The Development of Gay and Lesbian Culture in Queensland that the brothers and Mr Barker had lured a "blond 21-year-old shop assistant" back to the flat to 'see some eastern articles' when he was knocked unconscious and photographed in compromising sexual positions.

The brothers then blackmailed the young man, who after suffering a nervous collapse, consulted his doctor and notified the police.

The flat was raided and police found a camera concealed in the wardrobe, pointed towards the bed, along with negatives and photos of other young men in similar positions.

Queensland newspaper The Truth reported in 1937 the brothers were subsequently arrested, charged with blackmail and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.

Mr Barker received a suspended sentence of two years with hard labour.

"The arrest in September last of the Afflecks...by a squad of detectives...created quite a sensation as it was revealed...there the nucleus of a vice club where a certain type of businessman sought seclusion to indulge his perversion and seek divertissement from the cares of office, by indulging in revolting orgies in the nude," the paper stated.

"Apparently, the sponsors of the club had no difficulty in obtaining members, a deplorable fact that was illustrated by the discovery of a number of negatives of people in the nude — and very obviously sex maniacs — which had been taken in the flat.

"Some of these people have been identified, and the developed photographs explain the disappearance from Brisbane of at least three fairly well-known identities."

The sentence caused quite a stir after it was revealed the brothers were the sons of eighth baronet of Dalham Hall in the county of Suffolk, Sir Frederick Danby James Affleck.

The brothers were born into aristocracy in Wynnum in the early 1900s before they moved to Sydney and became involved in the criminal underworld.

They returned to Brisbane, likely due to the deteriorating health of their 83-year-old father.

In 1939, when Frederick James Siddartha Affleck was halfway through his term at Boggo Road Prison, his father died at Dunwich on Stradbroke Island, blind and poverty-stricken, a situation blamed on the "curse of Dalham Hall", wife of the eighth baronet and mother of the Affleck brothers Lady Elizabeth Annie Affleck told The Truth in 1941.

"The estate was defrauded in the vicinity of 400,000 pounds and when the late Sir Frederick succeeded to the Baronetcy he became head of a practically impoverished house," she said.

"I read an old legend that a curse had been placed on the house, and although I can't believe in such things, there does seem to be some kind of curse on the descendants of Dalham Hall."

It was understood at the time that the death of Sir Frederick Affleck caused the title of baronet to be handed down to his eldest son Frederick James Siddartha Affleck, which caused quite a scandal given it meant Queensland's main jail was housing a baronet.

However a recent State Library of Queensland investigation into various certificates, newspaper clippings and photographs provided a different story.

According to the Queensland Registry records, Elizabeth Annie Ross (later known as Lady Elizabeth Annie Affleck) married a steward named Lionel Lawrence Green in 1899.

She was legally separated when she had the two brothers in 1905 and 1906 and married Sir Frederick James Siddartha Affleck in 1918, under the impression her first husband had died, which she later learned was incorrect.

Mr Green had died sometime in the 1920s, which meant her second marriage was bigamous.

State Library of Queensland senior librarian Stephanie Ryan said when it became obvious the baronet was dying in 1939, the pair married legitimately in order to register their sons' births and therefore ensure their eldest son inherited the title.

"They registered the children's birth in 1939 after they married and then Sir Frederick died, he would have known he was on his last legs but it didn't save the title," she said.

"The legitimacy of the birth was accepted but it was decided for some reason that that was not enough."

Both brothers disappeared from view in 1941 and later died in 1975.

While the baronetcy of Dalham Hall is extinct, the Avalon Flats still stand.

Stay informed. Like Brisbane Times on Facebook