Wiltshire

1/ Devizes Murder, January 1840

A man named Freeme committed an atrocious murder near Devizes. He was employed by Mr.Bruges as a gardener and his victim was a young man by the name of Heritage. He was stabbed and died almost immediately. The murderer is in custody.

2/ Spye Park Lake Body, February 1904 (Spye Park is owned by the Enthoven family, who own the Nandos Chicken franchise. Bought in 2005 for £8million)

Thursday, February 25th, 1904. (The Inquest)

3/ Swindon Attempted Murder, June 1953 (Who was the lad?)

4/ Swindon, (Human Remains) October 1901

Some workmen employed by John Lay, a builder of Swindon, were digging in the back gardens of some old properties in Newport Street when they found an old bedstead, but beneath that were the remains of three or four adults. Swindon records showed that nowhere in the area was used for burials, so who or what they are doing there is a complete mystery. One of the skulls had a hole in the temple the size of a six-pence. Normal protocol would be to find out if they murdered but strangely they were put back where they were discovered. (Are they there now? Who were they?)

5/ Holt near Trowbridge, April 1908 (Murder/Suicide)

An inquest was held on the bodies of Mrs Meaden and Charles Kinall, a Royal Artillery pensioner from Portsmouth, who shot Meaden then killed himself. While her husband was away in India, doing his bit for Queen and Country, she had been shacked up with Kinall, but she recently left him and got back with her husband and two children. Mrs Meaden’s nine-year-old son told the coroner what happened and he said that his “mother was putting coal on the fire when the man pulled out a gun and shot her in the head. She screamed and he fired three more times. Then he knelt down next to her and put the gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger, falling across mother”.

6/ Fisherton Delamere, August 1888 (Double Suicide)

Albert Sparey from Warminster and Elizabeth Ann Yates from Wylye committed suicide together at Fisherton Delamere near Wylye. They were discovered in each other’s arms in the stream next to the mill, tied together with a pair of handkerchiefs and Yates’s belt. It was very methodical in its execution, as on the bank there were their hat’s and letters addressed their parents, saying that they both loved each other and wanted to die together as nothing could part them. Albert asked his mother to take care of his book- “Faithful and True”- and a note from Yates stated that they did it because of her sister and his brother. No light was shed on the matter afterwards and the two were questioned as to what she meant but they knew nothing of what she wrote. The verdict was one of “Felo de Se”.

7/ Limpley Stoke Fatalities, January 1885

8/ Amesbury, September 1905 (Father Kills His Six Children)

9/ Fisherton Asylum Suicide, May 1884

An inmate of the Fisherton House Asylum by the name of James Jukes, committed suicide in a most determined manner by throwing himself under a train at the Great Western railway, mid-way between Salisbury and Wilton. He had been at the asylum for four months, when one day he scaled two walls each about ten feet high, then got to the tracks which run parallel to the grounds and killed himself.

10/ Romsey near Salisbury, May 1884

To kill yourself a day after walking down the aisle is incomprehensible, but Fanny Ondman decided it was the best course of action. Her husband went to work one day, then on his return he tried the door, but it was locked. He saw the key was inside so he climbed through a window and kept calling his wife’s name all the while, but no answer was forthcoming, nor was she in any of the rooms. Then he took a peek in the pantry, and to his horror, she was hanging from a nail, with some cord wrapped around her neck. He cut her down but she was dead, but the body wasn’t cold, suggesting she hadn’t hung herself that long ago. The husband said she never talked about suicide, but her granny had killed herself, so it could be a family trait.

11/ Semley, Wiltshire, July 1895

12/ Bemerton Suicide, August 1836

Mr Targett, an elderly gentleman from Bemerton (Now part of Salisbury), started up a fire in his back garden, loaded a gun barrel, put the muzzle to his temple and the other end in the fire, then an explosion occurred and the barrel burst. A part of the contents passed through his skull and he was killed instantly. His suicide note was found under a brick saying that he was tired of life and wanted to die as Castlereagh had done. (Castlereagh was a British Foreign Secretary from 1812-1822, and due to his unpopularity and death of his father etc., he killed himself by cutting his throat with a pen-knife). He used to hand out half a crown to each poor family in the parish, so clearly had no money worries, but he leaves a widow behind.

13/ Bradford-on-Avon, (Boating Deaths) September 1856

A terrible accident took place at Bradford-on-Avon, last Saturday. A Bradford ironmonger, named Tanner, had made an engine that could propel a boat and had been using his steamer as a pleasure boat on the Avon. He decided to take the wife and daughter out for for a boat trip to Staverton, just down the river. They made it OK, but on the return journey, near the Wood, about three-quarters of a mile from home, Mrs Tanner fell overboard. Mr Tanner tried to grab hold of her, and after a lot of toing and froing, the boat capsized throwing them all into the water. A young shepherd boy saw the whole incident but was too young to be of any assistance, and all he could do was watch as all three drowned. They screamed for help before they went under, and a shooting party nearby rushed to help them. Again, they were too late to provide any assistance. The bodies were fished out and brought back to their home. Mr Tanner was only about thirty years of age and had another little one, about four months old. What was worse was that his friends had told him to take swimming lessons before he went out on his pleasure trips.

14/ Salisbury Murder, September 1886

A domestic servant, Margaret Furnell, only nineteen-years-old, was shot in broad daylight on a public road by a twenty-year-old painter named House, who had travelled from Warminster to commit the deed. The two used to be an item when she lived in Warminster, but she dumped him and then he promised revenge and to do her injury. There was no other fella in her life, but House thought otherwise. Furnell left her master’s house at 6-10, to go to church and as soon as she got around the corner House stood there and fired a revolver at her. A butcher, Mr Lywood, heard the gunshot, and ran out to help, and found Furnell lying on the pavement. Lywood ran towards House, but he just stared at the girl and fired the gun again at her. He tried to make a dash for it but Lywood grabbed hold of him and the gun wrenched from his grasp. While Lywood had hold of him, several bystanders asked “Why did you do it?”, but he told them that he wouldn’t answer any questions. One said “you ought to be shot too” and he replied, “I should have done it, only you were too quick on me”. One bullet was lodged in her side, the other in her arm, so his idea of killing her also faded into oblivion and she is expected to recover. (Did she?)

15/ Trowbridge/London, (Workhouse) March 1885

16/ New Swindon Parish Churchyard Suicide, January 1881

Frederick Day who was around fifty-years-old committed suicide in the churchyard at New Swindon. He used to live in Swindon where he kept a beer-house, but his missus died and he sold up the business and moved out of town. He wrote to a friend saying that he was coming to Swindon for Christmas but no-one saw him there. It was one Saturday morning when the gravedigger was due to begin work when he spotted a body lying across a grave. On closer inspection, he had half his head blown off and a pistol in his hand. Day had committed self-destruction on his wife’s grave. A letter found on the body leaves no doubt that he planned all this and his identity was confirmed:-

“New Swindon- I am tired of life and seek rest. My poor old girl died here last April. I cannot live without her and I thought of being a little nearer to her by doing this. I am quite aware that my head is not quite so clear as it might be; at the same time, I should like to be buried in the same grave as she is.”- He then went on to say that his life was insured and gave the name of the man holding the policy and that he’d pay the funeral bill- ” which may not be much. I may as well be buried as you find me. I don’t want a lot of women to mess me about. The sexton can identify me. Relations, I have none that I acknowledge. Friends are scarce, very scarce. Now don’t make a great bother about this little affair. I shan’t-FRED DAY “.

17/ Bradford-on-Avon/Westwood, November 23rd, 1885

18/ Bradford-on-Avon/Westwood (Double Murder) November 25th, 1885

19/ Ramsbury, October 1897

20/ Colerne Suicide, December 1859

Esther Smart was a nineteen-year-old, living and Colerne and from a poor background. It was this poverty that she was forced to steal, plus she was about to be locked up for the night, so she tried to strangle herself. The police officer, in an act of huge kindness for her welfare, took her home with him and stayed up all night keeping an eye on her. During this period she attempted to strangle herself again and failed again. The next morning he gave her some breakfast and before going to the magistrates at Chippenham, she asked if she could go home (which was opposite the officer’s house) to get changed. He took her across the road and he got distracted, he then heard a noise, turned around and saw the girl had slit her throat with a knife she pinched from the breakfast table. The girl lingered for a few hours but eventually died from her injury. The verdict was “Felo de Se”, so she had to be buried between the hours of nine p.m. and midnight.

21/ Warminster Town Hall, April 1885

22/ Salisbury Suicide, June 1883

The inquest at East Harnham on the body of Cerena Florence Hale aged twenty, a pupil at the Salisbury Diocesan Training College. Her body was seen at ten a.m., floating in the river by Mr Russell, a visitor from Sussex who was fishing at the time. The body was taken out, but she was dead. Hale was last seen going to the garden near the river to get some woodruff. Her parents lived at 20 Oakley Crescent, Chelsea and the following note was found in her desk.

“Dear Ma- I am deeply grieved to tell you that I have given way to temptation. You will hear all from Miss Rodwell, our lady superintendent. She has been kind to me through all; oh, so very kind. At the time I write this I feel out of my mind. What to do I don’t know. I feel sure I shall be dismissed from college, and rather than bring disgrace upon you and my vicar. I will get rid of myself. I feel that I have done more than I can expect forgiveness for.”