Annie Bags - The Lady in Rags

Annie Ferdinand is believed to have been born into a noble family in Prussia in 1851. Her mother died when she was very young, a loss that affected both her and her father significantly. She travelled to London, England with him to support him while he sought to regain control of his estates after the Franco-Prussian war. Annie was devoted to her father but yearned for the company of someone who would love her and care for her as her father had loved and cherished the memory of her mother. While in London she met and fell in love with a well-bred Englishman, James Pottingley, but her happiness was short-lived for events conspired to separate them and Annie found herself alone once more. She refused to believe that James had broken her heart intentionally and was a charlatan who had courted her for his own purposes, preferring to think that his disappearance from her life was not his doing. When she learned that he had been sent to the Colonies she set out to find him, knowing that her very existence depended upon looking into his eyes and seeing his love for her reflected in them. Her search took her throughout the goldfields, uncovering small clues to his whereabouts that raised her hopes briefly and then dashed them again just as quickly. She wavered between optimism and despair, fighting her own personal demons as she faced the physical and mental hardships that she encountered along the way. This is the story of her search, its awful conclusion and the cause of her becoming known throughout Northern Queensland as the legendary Annie Bags: The Lady who dressed in Rags.