Herbert Rowse Armstrong
Encyclopedia
Herbert Rowse Armstrong TD. MA. (13 May 1869 – 31 May 1922) was an English
solicitor
and convicted murderer, the only solicitor in the history of the United Kingdom
to have been hanged for murder
. He was living in Cusop Dingle, Herefordshire, England and practising in Hay-on-Wye
, on the border of England
and Wales
, from 1906 until his arrest on 31 December 1921 for the attempted murder of a professional rival by arsenic poisoning
. He was later also charged and tried for the murder of his wife.
, Devon. The family later moved to Edge Hill, Liverpool. He studied at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
, gaining a degree in law, and qualified as a solicitor
in February 1895. Initially practising in Liverpool, later Newton Abbot, he successfully applied for a vacancy in Hay-on-Wye
, Breconshire, in 1906. He married Katharine Mary Friend of West Teignmouth
, Devon, the following year; the couple would have two girls and a boy.
The Armstrongs moved into an imposing family home called Mayfield in the village of Cusop Dingle not far from Hay where Armstrong ran his law firm of Cheese & Armstrong. Armstrong was a hard working man and rose in the social community of the town. He was a leading member of the Freemasons and was appointed Clerk to the Justices. He joined the county Volunteer Force
and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1914 he was called up in the First World War, where he eventually gained the rank of Major
in the Royal Engineers
Territorial Force
, and served in France, May to October 1918. The award of the Territorial Decoration
was published in the London Gazette, 4 November 1919. After the War, he was usually referred to as "Major Armstrong".
, a private mental asylum near Gloucester
. On admission she had pyrexia, vomiting, heart murmurs, and albumen in the urine. There was also partial paralysis in the hands and feet and loss of muscle tone. Mrs Armstrong was also delusional.
Mrs Armstrong's condition began to improve at Barnwood, and she was discharged home on 22 January 1921. Shortly after her return home her condition mysteriously deteriorated again and she died exactly a month after her return on 22 February 1921. Dr Hincks was puzzled by Mrs Armstrong's symptoms, but nevertheless stated on the death certificate that she had died of gastritis, aggravated by heart disease and nephritis. Outwardly, Armstrong had shown nothing but forbearing concern for his wife, sitting at her bedside reading to her in the evenings, and leaving the office early whenever possible to be with her. If Armstrong did kill his wife, but for a later act of folly he might well have escaped detection.
It would seem that there had been at least problems in the marriage. Though authors who have studied the case have assumed that the Armstrong's marriage was a failure due to the domineering attitude of Mrs Armstrong to her husband, the precise nature of the Armstrongs' relationship is far from clear. It was generally held that Mrs Armstrong was a singularly unpleasant woman who regularly abused and humiliated her husband in public, and it was not unnoticed that, though the local newspaper described Mrs Armstrong as a 'popular Hay lady,' few people attended her funeral. On the other hand, Mrs Armstrong, whenever separated from her husband due either to her stays in hospitals or to his service in the War, is reported to have expressed her desire for the family to be reunited at the earliest opportunity.
Whatever the truth, service in the First World War had opened up new experiences for the Major and he had had several affairs. He also went to dances in Hay and made passes at local girls. On the day of Mrs Armstrong's death, the servants closed all the curtains as a mark of respect. The first thing that Armstrong did on returning home from the office was to open them again.
s. Perhaps Armstrong's reluctance to pay Martin was due to him having speculated with his client's funds and then losing it. If this was the case, the only thing Armstrong could do was gain time by quietening Martin somehow at least for a while until he could raise the necessary funds by some other means. It would certainly appear that the money entrusted to Armstrong as a deposit on the sale was gone. Martin kept mentioning the matter of completion to Armstrong, but the latter repeatedly delayed and it remained uncompleted by the time of Armstrong's trial.
Armstrong eventually invited Martin to a meeting at his home on 26 October 1921. Martin found tea laid out with cakes and buttered scones. Martin probably thought the Major wanted to discuss completion of the property sale, but the two men merely discussed everyday things and office organisation, although Martin could have raised the matter himself. Armstrong spoke of being lonely after the death of his wife. During the meeting over tea, Armstrong picked up a scone, said "Excuse fingers" and handed it to Martin, who ate it. Having returned home, Martin became violently ill.
Martin's father-in-law, John Davies, the chemist (pharmacist) in Hay, had made several sales of arsenic
to Major Armstrong supposedly to kill dandelions despite the fact that it was the autumn and there were only twenty dandelions in the garden of Mayfield, the Armstrongs' home. The chemist was now suspicious of Martin's sudden illness, and when Martin told him he had been to tea at Mayfield, certain ideas started to form in Davies' mind. Meanwhile, Dr Hincks became struck by how similar Martin's symptoms were to those of Katharine Armstrong. Hincks, Martin, and Davies discussed the situation and Davies warned the Martins against receiving gifts.
It was subsequently discovered that a few weeks before the tea party, a box of chocolates had been anonymously sent to the Martins. Mrs Martin's sister-in-law had eaten some and become violently ill. Fortunately, some chocolates remained and when examined some were found to have a small nozzle-like hole in the base. Dr Hincks contacted the Home Office and explained his suspicions about what had happened to Martin, and later voicing suspicions about Mrs Armstrong's death. Samples of the chocolates and Martin's urine were examined and found to contain arsenic, and the Home Office
now passed the case to Scotland Yard
. Meanwhile, and with a note of black comedy, Armstrong began to bombard Martin with further invitations to tea, for which Martin found it increasingly difficult to find excuses to avoid.
Scotland Yard had to move slowly so as not to warn Armstrong of their suspicions. They eventually arrested him on 31 December 1921, and he was charged with the attempted murder of Oswald Martin. The Major maintained he was innocent. When he was arrested, the police found a packet of arsenic in his pocket and many more in his house. Mrs Armstrong's body was exhumed
and examined by the eminent Home Office pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury
. Her body was riddled with arsenic ten months after death, and on the 19 January 1922 Major was charged with the wilful murder of his wife. "I repeat what I said before. I am absolutely innocent" said Armstrong.
on 3 April 1922. Armstrong was defended by Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, one of the leading criminal trial barristers of the day. Public and media interest was enormous. A year earlier there had been a trial near Hay of another solicitor, Harold Greenwood
, for the murder of his wife by poison, supposedly disguised as an illness. Greenwood had been acquitted. Also, the fact that the three men who brought the charges to the police included Armstrong's business rival and the latter's father-in-law looked suspicious to some people. It was believed by some that Armstrong was being framed. But despite the widespread belief that he would be acquitted, the prosecution case was a strong one. Katherine Armstrong's body was riddled with arsenic and at the time of her death the ingested quantity must have been far higher, and Armstrong had made huge purchases of arsenic. The defence had somehow to make the jury believe that Mrs Armstrong had committed suicide by getting out of bed, going downstairs and helping herself to arsenic without anyone seeing or hearing her; or that massive doses of arsenic had somehow got into her system some accidental way. All witnesses confirmed that towards the end she was almost paralysed. Dr Bernard Spilsbury
insisted that the fatal dose must have been taken within twenty-four hours of death, and the family GP Dr Hincks affirmed that for Mrs Armstrong to have taken it herself was "absolutely impossible."
or the white powder, arsenic trioxide
. He claimed that it was his practice to put small portions of arsenic into individual pouches, which he squirted into the ground near spots where dandelions tended to grow. One small pouch was found on his person following his arrest, and there was no reasonable explanation offered for his carrying it around, particularly as the arrest was in December. Armstrong did not come off well in a cross-examination by Mr Justice Darling concerning this point.
Much later, after the trial, two possible motives emerged for Katharine Armstrong's poisoning. Firstly, the Major had decided he wanted a different, more congenial wife. Secondly, Katharine had written a will in 1917 leaving the bulk of her estate not to her husband, but to their children. Armstrong produced a new will following his wife's death, giving him control of her estate, but studies suggest that it was probably forged. For some time before the Velinewydd estate affair Armstrong's business had been in financial difficulties. The difficulties in relation to the sale of the Velinewydd estate made things even worse for him.
However, it must be noted that the evidence against the Armstrong, though considerable, was nonetheless purely circumstantial. No one had actually seen the Major administering poison, and at the time of his arrest he had made no attempt to draw upon his dead wife's fortune. Mrs Armstrong had occasionally spoken of suicide, some medicines contained arsenic, and there were plenty of other people coming into contact with her at Mayfield. The prosecution failed to show how it was Armstrong and only Armstrong who administered poison, and no one else. As for the Martin poisoning, the money to cover the Velinewydd deposits would still have to have been found, and Mrs Armstrong's funds would not have covered it. Other than gaining a little time, the death of Martin would not in any way have relieved the Major's business problems. Armstrong made no confession, and adamantly maintained his total innocence until the bitter end.
dismissed his appeal
and, facing death bravely, Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong was hanged by John Ellis
at Gloucester Prison on 31 May 1922. Ellis claimed that before the trap was opened on the gallows the Major called out, "Kitty I'm coomin to ye!" although this is unconfirmed. The News of the World
reported that when asked by the prison governor on the morning of the execution if he had anything to say, the Major's last words were "I am innocent of the crime for which I have been condemned to die."
radio series The Black Museum
in 1952 under the title of The Champagne Glass.
It was also the subject of a 1994 TV mini-series called Dandelion Dead
, which starred Michael Kitchen
as Major Armstrong, Sarah Miles
as Katherine Armstrong, David Thewlis
as Oswald Martin and Lesley Sharp
as Martin's wife. It was directed by Mike Hodges
and won a BAFTA
in 1995. As well as telling the main story of Major Armstrong's crimes, the series develops the courtship of Martin and his wife and shows the effects of events on Armstrong's children.
, making the killer a doctor like Crippen and having the murder scheme unravelled by a second murder plot.
Deadly Advice
, a black comedy released in 1994, was set in Hay-on-Wye and had Jane Horrocks
becoming a serial killer under the ghostly influence of Armstrong (played by Edward Woodward
) and others like Dr Crippen (Hywel Bennett
) and Jack the Ripper
(John Mills
).
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
and convicted murderer, the only solicitor in the history of the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to have been hanged for murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. He was living in Cusop Dingle, Herefordshire, England and practising in Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye , often described as "the town of books", is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales.-Location:The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains...
, on the border of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, from 1906 until his arrest on 31 December 1921 for the attempted murder of a professional rival by arsenic poisoning
Arsenic poisoning
Arsenic poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the element arsenic in the body. Arsenic interferes with cellular longevity by allosteric inhibition of an essential metabolic enzyme...
. He was later also charged and tried for the murder of his wife.
Early life and career
Armstrong was born in May 1869 to a family of modest means in Newton AbbotNewton Abbot
Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England on the River Teign, with a population of 23,580....
, Devon. The family later moved to Edge Hill, Liverpool. He studied at St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...
, gaining a degree in law, and qualified as a solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
in February 1895. Initially practising in Liverpool, later Newton Abbot, he successfully applied for a vacancy in Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye , often described as "the town of books", is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales.-Location:The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains...
, Breconshire, in 1906. He married Katharine Mary Friend of West Teignmouth
Teignmouth
Teignmouth is a town and civil parish in Teignbridge in the English county of Devon, situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign about 14 miles south of Exeter. It has a population of 14,413. In 1690, it was the last place in England to be invaded by a foreign power...
, Devon, the following year; the couple would have two girls and a boy.
The Armstrongs moved into an imposing family home called Mayfield in the village of Cusop Dingle not far from Hay where Armstrong ran his law firm of Cheese & Armstrong. Armstrong was a hard working man and rose in the social community of the town. He was a leading member of the Freemasons and was appointed Clerk to the Justices. He joined the county Volunteer Force
Volunteer Force (Great Britain)
The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, before forming part of the...
and rose to the rank of Captain. In 1914 he was called up in the First World War, where he eventually gained the rank of Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
in the Royal Engineers
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
Territorial Force
Territorial Force
The Territorial Force was the volunteer reserve component of the British Army from 1908 to 1920, when it became the Territorial Army.-Origins:...
, and served in France, May to October 1918. The award of the Territorial Decoration
Territorial Decoration
The Territorial Decoration was a medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army...
was published in the London Gazette, 4 November 1919. After the War, he was usually referred to as "Major Armstrong".
Death of Mrs Armstrong
In May 1919, Kitty Armstrong's health first began to weaken, with certain symptoms which the local physician, Dr Thomas Hincks, diagnosed as a case of brachial neuritis. From this she appeared to recover, and did not need to consult Dr Hincks for over a year. But in August 1920, Mrs Armstrong's health, both physical and mental, deteriorated again. Armstrong kept in close contact with Dr Hincks, and showed great concern for his wife, consulting relatives and friends as well. Hincks found that Mrs Armstrong was showing signs of mental collapse and came to the conclusion that it was connected to her illness. At the end of August, Mrs Armstrong was admitted to BarnwoodBarnwood House Hospital
Barnwood House Hospital was a private mental hospital in Barnwood, Gloucester, England. It was founded by the Gloucester Asylum Trust in 1860 as Barnwood House Institution and later became known as Barnwood House Hospital. The hospital catered for well-to-do patients, with reduced terms for those...
, a private mental asylum near Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
. On admission she had pyrexia, vomiting, heart murmurs, and albumen in the urine. There was also partial paralysis in the hands and feet and loss of muscle tone. Mrs Armstrong was also delusional.
Mrs Armstrong's condition began to improve at Barnwood, and she was discharged home on 22 January 1921. Shortly after her return home her condition mysteriously deteriorated again and she died exactly a month after her return on 22 February 1921. Dr Hincks was puzzled by Mrs Armstrong's symptoms, but nevertheless stated on the death certificate that she had died of gastritis, aggravated by heart disease and nephritis. Outwardly, Armstrong had shown nothing but forbearing concern for his wife, sitting at her bedside reading to her in the evenings, and leaving the office early whenever possible to be with her. If Armstrong did kill his wife, but for a later act of folly he might well have escaped detection.
It would seem that there had been at least problems in the marriage. Though authors who have studied the case have assumed that the Armstrong's marriage was a failure due to the domineering attitude of Mrs Armstrong to her husband, the precise nature of the Armstrongs' relationship is far from clear. It was generally held that Mrs Armstrong was a singularly unpleasant woman who regularly abused and humiliated her husband in public, and it was not unnoticed that, though the local newspaper described Mrs Armstrong as a 'popular Hay lady,' few people attended her funeral. On the other hand, Mrs Armstrong, whenever separated from her husband due either to her stays in hospitals or to his service in the War, is reported to have expressed her desire for the family to be reunited at the earliest opportunity.
Whatever the truth, service in the First World War had opened up new experiences for the Major and he had had several affairs. He also went to dances in Hay and made passes at local girls. On the day of Mrs Armstrong's death, the servants closed all the curtains as a mark of respect. The first thing that Armstrong did on returning home from the office was to open them again.
Excuse fingers
Oswald Martin was Armstrong's only rival solicitor in Hay. They were representing opposing parties in a property sale, the Velinewydd estate, which could have ended with Armstrong's client losing and Armstrong having to pay a large sum to Martin's client. The details of the whole transaction remain unclear; Martin subsequently said there was a question about the titleTitle (property)
Title is a legal term for a bundle of rights in a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or an equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different parties. It may also refer to a formal document that serves as evidence of ownership...
s. Perhaps Armstrong's reluctance to pay Martin was due to him having speculated with his client's funds and then losing it. If this was the case, the only thing Armstrong could do was gain time by quietening Martin somehow at least for a while until he could raise the necessary funds by some other means. It would certainly appear that the money entrusted to Armstrong as a deposit on the sale was gone. Martin kept mentioning the matter of completion to Armstrong, but the latter repeatedly delayed and it remained uncompleted by the time of Armstrong's trial.
Armstrong eventually invited Martin to a meeting at his home on 26 October 1921. Martin found tea laid out with cakes and buttered scones. Martin probably thought the Major wanted to discuss completion of the property sale, but the two men merely discussed everyday things and office organisation, although Martin could have raised the matter himself. Armstrong spoke of being lonely after the death of his wife. During the meeting over tea, Armstrong picked up a scone, said "Excuse fingers" and handed it to Martin, who ate it. Having returned home, Martin became violently ill.
Martin's father-in-law, John Davies, the chemist (pharmacist) in Hay, had made several sales of arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
to Major Armstrong supposedly to kill dandelions despite the fact that it was the autumn and there were only twenty dandelions in the garden of Mayfield, the Armstrongs' home. The chemist was now suspicious of Martin's sudden illness, and when Martin told him he had been to tea at Mayfield, certain ideas started to form in Davies' mind. Meanwhile, Dr Hincks became struck by how similar Martin's symptoms were to those of Katharine Armstrong. Hincks, Martin, and Davies discussed the situation and Davies warned the Martins against receiving gifts.
It was subsequently discovered that a few weeks before the tea party, a box of chocolates had been anonymously sent to the Martins. Mrs Martin's sister-in-law had eaten some and become violently ill. Fortunately, some chocolates remained and when examined some were found to have a small nozzle-like hole in the base. Dr Hincks contacted the Home Office and explained his suspicions about what had happened to Martin, and later voicing suspicions about Mrs Armstrong's death. Samples of the chocolates and Martin's urine were examined and found to contain arsenic, and the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
now passed the case to Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...
. Meanwhile, and with a note of black comedy, Armstrong began to bombard Martin with further invitations to tea, for which Martin found it increasingly difficult to find excuses to avoid.
Scotland Yard had to move slowly so as not to warn Armstrong of their suspicions. They eventually arrested him on 31 December 1921, and he was charged with the attempted murder of Oswald Martin. The Major maintained he was innocent. When he was arrested, the police found a packet of arsenic in his pocket and many more in his house. Mrs Armstrong's body was exhumed
Exhumed
Exhumed may refer to:*Exhumation*Exhumed , a first-person shooter*Exhumed , a deathgrind band* Exhumed Films, a Philadelphia-based "organization* Exhumed river channel, a ridge of sandstone...
and examined by the eminent Home Office pathologist Dr Bernard Spilsbury
Bernard Spilsbury
Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury was an English pathologist. His cases include Hawley Harvey Crippen, the Seddon case and Major Armstrong poisonings, the "brides in the bath" murders by George Joseph Smith, Louis Voisin, Jean-Pierre Vaquier, the Crumbles murders, Norman Thorne, Donald Merrett, the...
. Her body was riddled with arsenic ten months after death, and on the 19 January 1922 Major was charged with the wilful murder of his wife. "I repeat what I said before. I am absolutely innocent" said Armstrong.
Rex versus Herbert Rowse Armstrong
The trial of Major Armstrong for the murder of his wife began at Hereford before Mr Justice Charles DarlingCharles Darling, 1st Baron Darling
Charles Darling was an English lawyer, politician and later a High Court judge. After being educated privately, he was called to the English Bar in 1874. He was appointed a QC in 1885, and was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Deptford from 1888 until 1897, when he was appointed a Judge...
on 3 April 1922. Armstrong was defended by Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, one of the leading criminal trial barristers of the day. Public and media interest was enormous. A year earlier there had been a trial near Hay of another solicitor, Harold Greenwood
Harold Greenwood (solicitor)
Harold Greenwood was an English solicitor who was accused and acquitted of murdering his wife by arsenic poisoning. He was tried at Carmarthen Assizes in 1920 and defended by Edward Marshall Hall; his case is a rare example of a legal professional being charged with murder.-Facts:Harold Greenwood,...
, for the murder of his wife by poison, supposedly disguised as an illness. Greenwood had been acquitted. Also, the fact that the three men who brought the charges to the police included Armstrong's business rival and the latter's father-in-law looked suspicious to some people. It was believed by some that Armstrong was being framed. But despite the widespread belief that he would be acquitted, the prosecution case was a strong one. Katherine Armstrong's body was riddled with arsenic and at the time of her death the ingested quantity must have been far higher, and Armstrong had made huge purchases of arsenic. The defence had somehow to make the jury believe that Mrs Armstrong had committed suicide by getting out of bed, going downstairs and helping herself to arsenic without anyone seeing or hearing her; or that massive doses of arsenic had somehow got into her system some accidental way. All witnesses confirmed that towards the end she was almost paralysed. Dr Bernard Spilsbury
Bernard Spilsbury
Sir Bernard Henry Spilsbury was an English pathologist. His cases include Hawley Harvey Crippen, the Seddon case and Major Armstrong poisonings, the "brides in the bath" murders by George Joseph Smith, Louis Voisin, Jean-Pierre Vaquier, the Crumbles murders, Norman Thorne, Donald Merrett, the...
insisted that the fatal dose must have been taken within twenty-four hours of death, and the family GP Dr Hincks affirmed that for Mrs Armstrong to have taken it herself was "absolutely impossible."
Arsenic poisoning
Then Armstrong had to explain his habits concerning arsenicArsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
or the white powder, arsenic trioxide
Arsenic trioxide
Arsenic trioxide is the inorganic compound with the formula As2O3. This commercially important oxide of arsenic is the main precursor to other arsenic compounds, including organoarsenic compounds. Approximately 50,000 tonnes are produced annually...
. He claimed that it was his practice to put small portions of arsenic into individual pouches, which he squirted into the ground near spots where dandelions tended to grow. One small pouch was found on his person following his arrest, and there was no reasonable explanation offered for his carrying it around, particularly as the arrest was in December. Armstrong did not come off well in a cross-examination by Mr Justice Darling concerning this point.
Much later, after the trial, two possible motives emerged for Katharine Armstrong's poisoning. Firstly, the Major had decided he wanted a different, more congenial wife. Secondly, Katharine had written a will in 1917 leaving the bulk of her estate not to her husband, but to their children. Armstrong produced a new will following his wife's death, giving him control of her estate, but studies suggest that it was probably forged. For some time before the Velinewydd estate affair Armstrong's business had been in financial difficulties. The difficulties in relation to the sale of the Velinewydd estate made things even worse for him.
However, it must be noted that the evidence against the Armstrong, though considerable, was nonetheless purely circumstantial. No one had actually seen the Major administering poison, and at the time of his arrest he had made no attempt to draw upon his dead wife's fortune. Mrs Armstrong had occasionally spoken of suicide, some medicines contained arsenic, and there were plenty of other people coming into contact with her at Mayfield. The prosecution failed to show how it was Armstrong and only Armstrong who administered poison, and no one else. As for the Martin poisoning, the money to cover the Velinewydd deposits would still have to have been found, and Mrs Armstrong's funds would not have covered it. Other than gaining a little time, the death of Martin would not in any way have relieved the Major's business problems. Armstrong made no confession, and adamantly maintained his total innocence until the bitter end.
Execution
On 13 April 1922 at Hereford Shire Hall, Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of his wife. Mr Justice Darling stated that he concurred with the jury's view and that it was absurd and unsupported by any evidence that Mrs Armstrong had committed suicide. He then sentenced Major Armstrong to death. On 16 May 1922, the Court of Criminal AppealCourt of Criminal Appeal
The Court of Criminal Appeal is the name of existing courts of Scotland and Ireland, and an historic court in England and Wales.- Ireland :See Court of Criminal Appeal ...
dismissed his appeal
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
and, facing death bravely, Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong was hanged by John Ellis
John Ellis (executioner)
John Ellis was a Rochdale hairdresser and newsagent who served as one of the United Kingdom's executioners for 23 years, from 1901 to 1924....
at Gloucester Prison on 31 May 1922. Ellis claimed that before the trap was opened on the gallows the Major called out, "Kitty I'm coomin to ye!" although this is unconfirmed. The News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
reported that when asked by the prison governor on the morning of the execution if he had anything to say, the Major's last words were "I am innocent of the crime for which I have been condemned to die."
Media adaptations
The Armstrong case was dramatised on the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio series The Black Museum
The Black Museum
The Black Museum was a 1951 radio crime drama program independently produced by Harry Alan Towers and based on real-life cases from the files of Scotland Yard's Black Museum. Ira Marion was the scriptwriter, and music for the series was composed and conducted by Sidney Torch...
in 1952 under the title of The Champagne Glass.
It was also the subject of a 1994 TV mini-series called Dandelion Dead
Dandelion Dead
Dandelion Dead is the title of a British TV mini-series produced in 1994, telling the true story of Herbert Rowse Armstrong, a practising solicitor in the provincial town of Hay-on-Wye, Wales, who was convicted and hanged in May 1922 for the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of a fellow...
, which starred Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen
Michael Kitchen is an English actor and television producer, best known for his starring role as DCS Foyle in the British TV series Foyle's War.-Early life:...
as Major Armstrong, Sarah Miles
Sarah Miles
-Early life and career:Sarah Miles was born in the small town of Ingatestone, Essex, in South East England.She first attended Roedean but at the age of 15 she enrolled at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...
as Katherine Armstrong, David Thewlis
David Thewlis
David Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
as Oswald Martin and Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp
Lesley Sharp is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.-Early life:...
as Martin's wife. It was directed by Mike Hodges
Mike Hodges
Mike Hodges is an English screenwriter, film director, playwright and novelist. His films as writer/director include Get Carter, Pulp, The Terminal Man and Black Rainbow; as director his films include Flash Gordon, Croupier and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead...
and won a BAFTA
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
in 1995. As well as telling the main story of Major Armstrong's crimes, the series develops the courtship of Martin and his wife and shows the effects of events on Armstrong's children.
In popular culture
With elements of the Crippen case, Francis Iles created his novel of murder in a country village, Malice AforethoughtMalice Aforethought
Malice Aforethought is a murder mystery novel written by Anthony Berkeley Cox, using the pen name Francis Iles. It involves a Devon physician who slowly poisons his domineering wife so that he may be with the woman he loves. It is an early and prominent example of the "inverted detective story",...
, making the killer a doctor like Crippen and having the murder scheme unravelled by a second murder plot.
Deadly Advice
Deadly Advice
Deadly Advice is a 1994 British comedy drama film directed by Mandie Fletcher and starring Jane Horrocks, Brenda Fricker and Edward Woodward.-Plot:The daughters of a domineering mother aspire to break free of her control and form romantic attachments....
, a black comedy released in 1994, was set in Hay-on-Wye and had Jane Horrocks
Jane Horrocks
Barbara Jane Horrocks is an English voice, stage, screen and television actress, voice artist, musician, and singer. She is best known for her role as "Bubble" in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous as well as her distinctive voice....
becoming a serial killer under the ghostly influence of Armstrong (played by Edward Woodward
Edward Woodward
Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE was an English stage and screen actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , Woodward began his career on stage, and throughout his career he appeared in productions in both the West End in London and on Broadway in New York...
) and others like Dr Crippen (Hywel Bennett
Hywel Bennett
Hywel Thomas Bennett is a Welsh film and television actor. Bennett is best known for his recurring title role as James Shelley in the television sitcom Shelley from 1979 to 1984 and its sequel The Return of Shelley from 1988 to 1992....
) and Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
(John Mills
John Mills
Sir John Mills CBE , born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills, was an English actor who made more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades.-Life and career:...
).