Dr. Warder: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Woodcut, Public Domain

Poison was considered one of the simplest ways to commit a murder and this became an epidemic in Victorian times as the life insurance industry meant that doing away with an insured relative could be lucrative. It was only later, in the 1900s, that technology to prevent death by poison made poisoning more difficult. From the beginning of the 1800s onwards, arsenic was often used, although cyanide gained popularity towards the middle of the century,

On 11 June 1866 at Bedford Square, Helen Warder, aged 36, was murdered by her husband. Dr. Alfred Warder, aged 43, administered to his wife over a period of one month, quantities of aconite, which is also known as wolf's bane.  A report of Helen's death appeared in the Brighton Herald dated 11 July 1866, headed "Suspicious Death of a Physician's Wife in Brighton".  Read more...

Hard Times for a Victorian Pauper

Many of the hearings listed under the police courts involved crimes such as stealing items as diverse as a fork and spoon, watches or clothing, being drunk and disorderly, using bad or foul language, or the more alarming such as ill-treatment of a child or an animal, for example, an ass, a donkey, a horse, a goat or a cock. Frequently, very stiff sentences were handed down for pathetically petty crimes committed by the deprived or hungry
, or even by children as young as nine or ten. At other times, there seemed to be a high level of tolerance towards parents who abandoned or cruelly treated their children.

Motive for Murder - the Killer who Wrote the Story First

Dover at Dusk, Photo by Janet Cameron

On 3 January, 1941, the Dover Express reported a charge of attempted murder against Charles Arthur Tilbury, aged nineteen, of 10 Coombe Close, Dover. His victim was a fair-haired girl of sixteen and a half, Primrose Edwards, who worked as an usherette at the Royal Hippodrome, Dover, and the incident which could so easily have proven fatal, took place on Saturday 7 December the previous year.

Tilbury, was an unemployed merchant seaman of above-average intelligence and with a talent for writing.

Charles Tilbury's talent was an item in the evidence against him, since when he was arrested, a short story with sinister undertones was discovered in his pocket.

Tilbury's Story of Murderous Rages

The story began: "He was a quiet, inoffensive young fellow who, even in his schooldays, seemed to be burdened with troubles one usually comes into contact with in later years." The story described how the fictional Charlie became one of the rough, bad lads of the area to avoid looking like a "pansy" among his associates. His parents were dead, and he'd turned to petty stealing. By the age of eighteen, Charlie was put on probation and, eventually, sent to borstal among "the scrapings of the East End gutter."

The fictional Charlie was born under the sign of Cancer the crab, and although he could be a good friend, he was prone to murderous rages when thwarted. On meeting a young girl, Charlie fell in love at first sight, but when she rejected him some time later, he almost committed "the first murder Dover had known for years" but curbed his instinct to retaliate.

Eventually he met another girl and the two of them became close, even looking forward to setting up their first home together. When war broke out, a steward from a destroyer in Dover Harbour described as "tall and smirky" wrecked everything for Charlie. The story-book Charlie tried everything to get his girl back, including reason, entreaties, threats and blackmail. He tried, without success, "to forget her and then a cold anger overtook him."

Primrose Spurns Charlie

The real-life Charlie met Primrose at 8 Saxon Street, Dover in June 1939. In the summer of that year, Primrose and Charlie had been out and when he returned her to her home at 11.20pm, she told him she could not see him any more as she had "got into trouble". Tilbury was distraught and refused to leave her alone. On Thursday 5 December, when Primrose was working as an usherette at the Royal Hippodrome, Tilbury went to see her, to tell her he had come to say goodbye. He had received calling-up papers for the Merchant Navy, but first he wanted to ask her to return to him. Primrose repeated she did not wish to see him any more.

The Stabbing at the Hippodrome

On Saturday 7 December, Primrose saw Charlie in the gallery of the Hippodrome at 6.20pm and the two of them spoke together. At 7.30pm her new boyfriend, Mr. Douglas James Heyman arrived on the scene. Douglas was twenty-one-years old and a labourer and he lived at 141 Folkestone Road. The two young people had known each other for about ten weeks.

Primrose left them alone while she went to collect her pay from downstairs. Meanwhile, Charles asked Douglas to speak to Primrose on his behalf, and rather surprisingly, the other young man agreed. However, Primrose was still uninterested in her ex-boyfriend. When she returned to the gallery, she put her chocolate tray on the floor and sat down on a back bench.

Both young men were standing behind her, Tilbury a little to the left, and, as the lights dimmed, Primrose cried out as she felt a sharp blow in her back. Tilbury had plunged a knife into her left shoulder. Douglas heard the scuffle and saw Charlie Tilbury pulling the knife out and attempting to stab her again.

Primrose cried, "He has stabbed me in the back."

Douglas Heyman tried to grab Charlie Tilbury, but he escaped and fled, pursued by some soldiers. Primrose collapsed into Douglas' arms.

P.C. Metcalfe of the war reserve was on duty in Snargate Street at the time, and at 9.00pm was called to the Royal Hippodrome. Primrose was still sitting ont he floor and needed first aid to stem the bleeding. The injured girl was taken to Dover Casualty Hospital at 9.40pm, and, according to Dr. W.G. Sutcliffe, the acting medical superintendent, "She had two wounds in her back, one behind the right shoulder near the joint and the other behind the left blade bone."  The doctor said the right wound was the most severe as the knife narrowly missed cutting an artery and could easily have been fatal.

Trial for Attempted Murder

Meanwhile, Charles Tilbury had run to PC Hodgson at the Prince of Wales Pier. "I have stabbed a girl at the Hippodrome," he yelled. PC Hodgson quickly relieved him of his knife. Another policeman, PC Langley, helped arrest Tilbury, who asked how Primrose was and insisted he didn't intend to do it, but she kept ignoring him. Then his story, Motive for Murder, was found in the pocket of his bloodstained raincoat.  He told the officers that he had written it in the library that morning, but he kept insisting he hadn't meant to kill her at all - only to scare her. Primrose was in hospital for four to five days.

Primrose's mother, Rose, said that Tilbury has expressed a wish to marry her daughter on her birthday which was on 20 July, but Rose felt Primrose was far too young and banished Tilbury from the house. Tilbury told her that if he saw Primrose with any other man, he would "do them both in". The case presented a dilemma for the magistrate, who discussed the necessity of deciding whether he had intended to kill Primrose or just to teach her a lesson. It was decided Tilbury should be tried at Maidstone for attempted murder.

Mitigating Circumstances and a History of Insanity

At his trial on 28 February, 1941, Tilbury was described as "one of the best boys who had passed through an approved school."  A medical report claimed that there was nothing wrong with him, but there had been "a rather terrible history of insanity in the family." Detective inspector Datlen explained that Tilbury's mother had died when he was two years old and that he was raised by his grandparents in Dover. At fifteen he was sent to an approved school for housebreaking and he had been employed on ships until March 1940. On his return to Dover he worked for Government contractors and his trade was that of an electrician. Tilbury claimed he once opened a shop in Dover with another young man, although it was bombed and he was rendered unconscious.

The charge of attempted murder was dropped for that of grievous bodily harm, and Tilbury was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment.

Source:
Janet Cameron, Dover - Murder and Crime, Tempus Publishing, 2006.

Released from the Jaws of Death

A gruesome account describes the suffering experienced by those who are hanged.  John Smith was hanged at Tyburn on 25 December 1705, but he did not die, and after fifteen minutes the crowd shouted for him to be cut down. He was taken to a house of safety where he shortly recovered, and he was able to describe everything.  This is what he said, and no doubt others have endured the same, although few survive to tell the tale.

His language, taken from an old newspaper, sounds a little strange to our modern ears, but I think you will get the picture!

"When I was turned off I was, for some time, sensible of a very great pain occasioned by the weight of my body and felt my spirits in strange commotion, violently pressing upwards. Having forced their way to my head, I saw a great blaze of glaring light that seemed to go out of my eyes in a flash, and then I lost all sense of pain. After I was cut down, I began to come to myself and the blood and spirits forcing themselves into their former channels put me by a prickling or shooting into such intolerable pain that I could have wished those hanged who had cut me down."

Cameron, Janet, Murder and Crime in Medway, Tempus Publishing, 2008.

Bloody Murder on a Barge

River Medway from Strood, Photo by Janet Cameron

Albert Baker, aged twenty-eight, was the skipper of a barge called the East Anglia, which was owned by the London and Rochester Trading Co. Walter "Ginger" Smith, a little older at thirty-three, was his mate and they were old friends, having shared a school and similar childhood in Strood. Their first trip as barge-mates was in October, 1937, but tragically, this voyage was not to be repeated. Their friendship seemed to be a case of "opposites attract", Albert being a cheerful soul and Walter Smith rather reticent and often depressed.

The Rat Catcher

Picture: Wikipedia, Public Domain


In Victorian times, not all rat-catchers were forced to exterminate their quarry immediately. On the contrary, if they put them into a sack alive and took them to the local inn to be thrown to the dogs in the rat pit, the sport would entertain the riotous crowd and the dirty work could be done for a generous reward.

Mr. J. Watson, a resident of Princes Street in Dover, attended Dover Local Board of Health Managing Committee in 1850, presided over by the mayor of Dover and Councillors Back, Dickeson, Walter, Rutter, Stockwell, Clark and Terry.

Hermit Blewbeard and Dover Castle

Sir Thomas Cheyne was a noble with his eye on the main chance - and that was Dover Castle. The defence of the Channel coast was under fierce scrutiny at the end of January 1450. This was due to an incident on Saturday 24 January when plans for a rebellion were hatched in the villages between Dover and Sandwich.

The perpetrator of these meetings was Sir Thomas Cheyne. He had a two-pronged plan - to take Dover Castle, and to behead a number of his enemies, among them, the Bishop of Salisbury, the Abbott of Gloucester and the Duke of Christchurch, Canterbury. Many of the rebels adopted names to hide their identities, including "King of the Fairies," Queen of the Fairies," and "Robin Hood," while Cheyne himself was "The Hermit Blewbeard." (sic).

The following Monday, 26 January 200 rebels met at Eastry and by the end of the week, thousands more had joined them. Cheyne was gathering a hardy band of volunteers to help him in his attack on Dover Caste. But the rebellion only got as far as Canterbury, where St. Radigund's Abbey Hospice, located outside the city, was attacked.

Thomas Cheyne was arrested on 31 January and later hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, while Dover Castle remained unviolated. Cheyne's head was sent to London, and his quarters shared between London, Norwich and two of the ports.

No one else was executed as a result of the rebellion.

Sources:

Cameron, Janet, Murder & Crime, Dover, Tempus Publishing, 2006.

The Anti-Hero of Medway

Thirty-three year old police constable Alan George Baxter was murdered by his namesake, twenty-year-old Alan Derek Poole in June, 1951 for no good reason except Alan Poole fancied himself an anti-hero. 

            Alan Poole had been known as a ‘bad lot’ with a long history of offending.  The first recorded offence was in 1946 for office-breaking, after which he was sent to an approved school.  After absconding, he broke into a Chatham sports pavilion which resulted in three years Borstal training.  Again, Poole escaped but was arrested and sent back to Borstal.