John Avery Heritage

The murder of William Pearson 1901

Only a little is known of the background of George Henry Parker who also used the name Hill. His birth was registered in the Aston district [Birmingham] in the summer of 1878 and it was thought that he had 2 or 3 brothers. What is known is that he had been discharged from the army and had a chip on his shoulder in that he believed that he had been dealt with unfairly. He seems to have been a binge drinker but whether this was the cause of the end of his army career or as a result of his discharge is not clear. By August 1900, we find Parker in Portsmouth where he had befriended Mrs Elizabeth Sarah Rowland of 24 Prince Albert Street, Eastney. Lizzie as he called her, recalled that he treated her with kindness and affection and that he was of a very affectionate nature, generous but at times of a short temper. Apart from occasional visits to the theatre the pair spent their time drinking in bars – on the odd occasion he took too much liquor and passed out. Parker returned to his family as he was out of work and his constant expenditure on drink soon exhausted his funds. He told Lizzie that his father would help him out with funds and find him a job and he would return. Parker arrived back in January 1901 and was welcomed with Lizzie to afternoon tea at her mother’s nearby house and they resumed their carefree but somewhat drink led relationship. Lizzie [and presumably her mother] had omitted to tell George Parker that Lizzie was married to James Rowland, a private in the Scottish Rifles on service in India and that her wedding ring was tucked away safely in a drawer in her room.

After his arrival at Portsmouth on 12^th January they visited a couple places of entertainment and continued their by now familiar routine of visiting the local bars. Parker decided that before returning to London they should stay together overnight at Southampton so on Wednesday 16^th they travelled there by train. On the following morning as they headed to Southampton West Station they called in at a snug bar to consume more drink and Parker urged Lizzie to stay there as he needed to do some business in the town. In late Victorian England it would be unusual for any reputable lady to sit unaccompanied in a pub but he must have assured her that his mission would be a short one. Parker headed to Bernard Street and purchased a revolver and ten rounds for seven shillings and five pence. Lizzie was not aware of the transaction nor had noticed it in his pocket on his return. Unless they had come across the dealer whilst out walking around the town, it does raise the question as to how Parker knew the location of such a dealer in Bernard Street.

Lizzie claimed that Parker took but one glass of porter when he returned to the snug and then they left to go to the station and he urged her to accompany him on part of his journey to London promising that he would return to Portsmouth on the Saturday. He bought her ticket to Portsmouth having checked that she should change at Eastleigh just 10 minutes or so up the line and somewhat oddly purchased his own ticket to Eastleigh, not Waterloo. They both boarded the 11-15am train and at Eastleigh he got off to see her onto the Portsmouth train before dashing back to the London train.

Mrs Rhoda King, wife of Thomas George King, a printer, of 35 Exmoor Road had purchased a third class ticket to London as she was to be away a few days to visit a sick relative. She was the only occupant and travelled in the rear carriage with her back to the engine adjacent to a toilet. At Eastleigh a young man boarded [Parker] and sat also with his back to the engine near the door of the carriage, both being in corner seats. She took little attention of him except to note that he had a persistent cough and at times became quite restless. They continued to Winchester when another passenger [William Pearson] joined them and sat in the corner seat opposite Mrs King. There was no sign of recognition between Mr Pearson and Parker and Pearson read his newspaper for a while then appeared to be dozing in response to the rhythm of the train. Just before approaching Surbiton, Parker went into the lavatory and was in there about two minutes. As the train passed Surbiton, Pearson changed his seat to the other side of the lavatory door. Mrs King took her ticket out of her purse and lowered the window to check the progress of the journey. She heard two loud shots and spun around, she had not felt the bullet grazing her cheek but the warm blood caused her hand to touch the wound. In shock she focussed on her two companions, Pearson lay still with a shot wound to the temple with blood pouring out and Parker holding the pistol staring at his victim. Mrs King cried “What have you done?” and Parker replied “I did it for the money, have you any money?” It is usual for a robber from a mugger to a highwayman or bank robber to demand money by producing a firearm but less likely to kill the individual first before robbing the individual.

Their attention was drawn back to Pearson who had gurgling noises in the throat and then the final silence of death. Parker removed a cigar case, a purse and a sovereign from Pearson’s pockets, the sovereign he offered to Mrs King almost as an inducement for her silence which she refused. Her two handkerchiefs were now blood soaked and suddenly reflecting the caring nature that his lady friend at Portsmouth had noticed in his character, Parker offered his own handkerchief but was urged instead to cover the wound and face of the dead victim. Almost as a shock reaction to his misdeeds Parker began incessantly talking that he was from Birmingham and on Saturday night was going to Liverpool [but had earlier promised Lizzie that he would go to Portsmouth] and then to South Africa [however the Union and Castle lines were the principal liner trade to South Africa from London and Southampton and not from Liverpool]. Mrs King realised at this stage that she had to fight for her own survival so offered him one shilling from her purse and went on her knees to beg for her life. This had the effect of calming him down and he mused as to whether he should place the weapon in the hand of the dead man to appear as a suicide. Mrs King told him to throw the gun out of the window and perhaps the bullets from out of his pocket. Parker began to take the advice and lowered the window on the door and hesitated as a repair gang were working that stretch of line. At last he threw it out and Mrs King remembered that it was near to some glass roofed buildings at Nine Elms [this later was helpful for the police when the weapon was recovered].

Mrs King was quite a feisty lady and her calmness helped to keep her alive. As they reached Vauxhall, Parker sprang from his seat and jumped onto the platform. On removing the personal effects from the dead man he had the good fortune to take Pearson’s ticket as otherwise the ticket of Southampton to Eastleigh would have raised questions at the barrier. Mrs King called for help and shouts of “Stop that man” were heard as he ran out of the barrier. A following porter spotted a constable on point duty and urged him to join the chase. Parker eventually after a long chase, ran into the coke gas chamber rooms of the South Metropolitan Gas Company works and employees joined the chase cornering Parker in the dark chambers next to a parked coal truck. The constable arrested him and took him to Larkhall Lane police station and belatedly Parker realised that Mrs King had triumphed in the situation. He made the remarks “I wish I had killed the woman and then I would have got away had I had killed her”’

Such a thankfully unusual event on a train journey soon attracted the press and rumours began to spread through the LSWR network to Southampton. One person thinking that they were serving a good deed rushed to Mr King at his print works to tell him that his wife was dead having been shot on the train. Mr King passed out at the news and went into deep shock but later a policeman called to tell him that his wife was in St Thomas’ Hospital and that the wound was superficial. Mrs King gave clear lucid statements about the event and after 8 days in hospital was released. She made a very credible witness at the coroner’s inquest and the trial. The judge commended her for her clear thinking and action.

A group of maintenance men searched the track and near to Wandsworth Bridge and retrieved the gun and the police got the dealer in Southampton to confirm it was the weapon sold to Parker.

On Friday, 1^st March 1901 Parker appeared at the Central Criminal Courts before Mr Justice Phillimore. His lawyers advised him to plead not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility. His defence Mr P. Clark argued that years of heavy drinking with the likelihood of DT’s had produced temporary insanity. The jury was not convinced and the judge sentenced him to execution by hanging.

Parker gave reasons for the shooting both under police interrogation and via letters sent from prison as he awaited his fate.

He claimed that Pearson, a well to do farmer and the brother in law of a London barrister, had caused him harm during his army service and this was an act of revenge. The fact that Pearson boarded the train at Winchester and randomly chose a carriage and seat suggests that Parker had never previously made his acquaintance. Mr Pearson had had no connection to the army.

Parker wrote to Lizzie his friend at Portsmouth and a letter of apology and sympathy to the Pearson family and to his father and variously signed as George Henry Hill and some as Parker.

Parker claimed that as his life was a miserable one and his lady love was in a very unhappy existence that he had purchased the gun so that when he returned to his love two days later at Portsmouth, he intended to shoot her and himself if he failed to get more money from his father which would end their misery. Lizzie was shocked at this revelation and said her life was not an unhappy one and she had no knowledge that he owned a gun. In writing to his father he confessed a life long weakness to spend, spend money often leaving him penniless. He accepted his fate but emphasised it was completely out of character and queried his own sanity.

Improved control on the sale of handguns in the UK began in 1903, with the Pistols Act, which required the production of a Game or Gun Licence before buying certain kinds of pistol was introduced.

Richard Andrews – mayor of Southampton on five occasions

with acknowledgements to Dr Richard Preston, researcher

Born the son of a wheelwright at Bishop’s Sutton near Arlesford he had rudimentary education at a dame school and from the age of 8 or 9 walked several miles each day to work in a saw mill. A few years later a customer of the mill took him as an apprentice and he became a blacksmith.

Unusual at the time, by the age of 21 he was married and had a child. Determined to find work to support his family he walked to Chichester and having no success returned home. Chichester’s loss was Southampton [and later we discovered also Winchester’s] gain. With half a crown in his pocket he walked to Southampton and took employment at a carriage works.

Within 10 years he had his own successful carriage works employing dozens of men. The entrance to the works in Above Bar is roughly where the HMV and Robert Dyas shops stand today. The carriages apart from the axles were built entirely in the works giving him quality control and the ability to custom build to the specifications of his customers. He favoured the railways seeing them not as a competitor but a way of efficiently shipping his products to London, Birmingham and other thriving cities. The Queen ordered miniature carriages for the use of the royal children thus allowing him to display the warrant coat of arms.

Richard Andrews decided to go into politics and in a three and a half year period was to become mayor on five occasions. The first two were to bring great acclaim in that working closely with the two MP’S [one the Solicitor- General and the other the chairman of P&O] Southampton thrived and prospered with apart from the railways and docks developing national institutions such as HM Customs, Inland Revenue, Board of Trade and HM Coastguard built new premises. Andrews did much to promote Southampton and its people and during the run up to the Great Exhibition visited the US and persuaded their government that the exhibits should be brought into the port of Southampton and taken by rail to London. Other countries followed the idea not without some cost as they asked for free harbour dues and berthing but in exchange Southampton Docks were now well and truly on the map.

Partly for health reasons he decided to live in Winchester and bought a large acreage of land and built several houses including a hunting lodge which he lavishly turned into The Pagoda. Not content with a political career in Southampton, he also stood as a councillor for Winchester and to some degree took his eye of the ball of Southampton politics. He briefly flirted with becoming an MP when the resident MP resigned on being appointed Attorney-General but suffered the humidity of coming third in the contest.

Andrews was a great supporter of the abolishment of the Corn Laws and allowed the coach works to hold public meetings of protest. Perhaps his great ally was Timothy Falvey proprietor and editor of the Hampshire Independent and fellow councillor and Corn Law abolisher who tidied up the speeches, grammar and spelling. Andrews always had the weakness of a poor education and often his political rivals would mock his grasp of grammar and with a smile perhaps an anomaly with the modern day John Prescott [now Lord Prescott - on stepping off an aircraft announced that it was good to be on terra cotta].

The statue to Andrews in Andrews [East] Park was erected in 1860 with some local criticism that it was too ornate and like a wedding cake. The figure of Portland stone stood the test of time but the supporting Bath stone eroded badly and was removed for safety reasons in 1971. Local residents nicknamed the residual statue as “Stumpy Dick” and perhaps in recognition that he did deserve a little more respect the council placed the statue on a plinth in 2000.

Hampshire Pudding Recipe

Line the edge of a pie dish with good puff-pastry, spread jam at the bottom of the dish, about an inch thick. Beat the yolks of three and the whites of two eggs thoroughly. Add to them three ounces of soft sugar, pounded and sifted and three ounces of dissolved butter. Heat these together until they are quite thick, pour the mixture over the jam, and bake in a moderate oven till the pastry is baked.

The odd case of the undertaker who stored babies’ bodies at his premises [1876 Southampton]

Stephen Blundell, a Southampton undertaker, with his wife and an assistant, were committed for trial on a charge of larceny. It arose from the circumstance that, in consequence of an offensive smell from the premises and complaints from neighbours, that the premises were examined by Dr. Osborn, medical officer of health for Southampton and the Nuisances Inspector, and a number of infants' bodies, fifteen or sixteen in all, were found. All, with the exception of one which was found in the shop, were concealed among a heap of saw-dust and dirt in the cellar underneath the premises. A few of the decomposed babies had been stored in drawers within the workshop, a few were in skeleton condition and the most recent was still in a coffin.

Stephen Blundell arose from his sick bed and produced certificates of still-birth or burial for all cases and no offence under the Registration Act could be sustained. The prisoners were committed on a charge of larceny by the court. The principal offender, Stephen Blundell, died shortly after his committal, and the charges against his wife and assistant were discontinued.

It was the practice [and possibly still continues] to place a dead baby into a freshly dug grave [hopefully with the agreement of the next of kin of the existing body] which helped poor families who would not be in a position to purchase a grave. Blundell had charged 5 or 6 shillings for this service but clearly did not fulfill the burial and there does not appear to be any explanation as to why he stored all the bodies.

Remembering severe winters at Southampton

The severe freeze we experienced in January 2010 was lessened to some degree as many of our homes, shops and offices are heated but if we turn the clock back a few years [and yes those were periods of climate change] the severity must have had major consequences on the residents of the town often with coal stocks frozen and little or no heating.

February l8 1855 newspaper report

State of the River Thames on Friday. -The river about Greenwich was much covered with ice: the navigation is completely stopped. The masters of the vessels frozen up in the piers, between the Custom House and the Pool, have adopted every precaution, in laying out extra mooring chains, in case of the ice breaking away the corporation mooring chains. In many parts of the river below the bridge the ice has set in so firm between the shore and the vessels moored near mid-stream, that the crews walk to and from their vessels to the shore. All the labourers along the shore are thrown out of employment and great distress prevails.

Southampton Water was almost covered with floating ice on Thursday. A brig, in coming down from Eling, at the top of Southampton Water, had a hole knocked in her while ploughing through the masses of ice, and was in danger of sinking. The boats in the stream had to be guarded from the ice by hurdles placed at the bows. In Southampton Docks scores of mullet were caught with the hand and in hand nets. They floated about by hundreds on the surface, alive, but perfectly helpless, being benumbed by the intense cold.

5th April 1888 newspaper report

Severe snowstorms and gales have been experienced in many parts of the country during the week. The traffic on the Didcot, Newbury, and Southampton Railway was interrupted for several hours on the 20th inst. by a snow-block in a deep cutting near Compton. A goods train which left Didcot Junction between two and three o'clock was snowed up, and a snow-plough and a large gang of men were at work for some time before a passage through the snow could be affected.

22 March 1899 newspaper report

Low-lying houses at Southampton were flooded, the inhabitants escaping on rafts and boats from the second story windows. The cross channel services were performed with great difficulty. The marine promenade St. Hellier, Jersey, was greatly damaged. Railways inland were disorganized. The Trafalgar broke from her moorings, and was only just saved by tugs from collision with the Terrible. The battleship Terror arrived at Portsmouth with her funnel, weighing 20 tons, damaged. The ship was in a terrific roll in the Bay of Biscay. Tremendous tidal waves Inundated the North Wales coast and flooded the country in many parts.

30th January 1940 newspaper report

The dock at Southampton was frozen and the steamer to the Isle of Wight was ice-bound. Ice-breakers vainly endeavoured to free, the Thames, Humber, Mersey, Severn, and other rivers and canals for traffic. Railways in North Wales were snowed up.

The Building of Plymouth Breakwater The Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society's report on my presentation on the subject on 4 January 2010:

Our first talk of the New Year was John Avery on the "Building of the Plymouth Breakwater 1812-1841". A great engineering feat in its time even by today's standards, it was decided in 1806 to provide the Channel Fleet with a safe anchorage in Plymouth Bay. After purchasing a 25 acre site from the Duke of Bedford at a cost of £10,000 John Rennie and Joseph Whidbey were commissioned to come up with a scheme. Four million tons of stone were excavated from nearly quarries which were then transported to the site on ten specially converted sailing barges. The scheme was finally completed in 1841 by John Rennie's son, Sir John Rennie and turned out to be well over budget equating to about 72 million pounds by today's standards. Because of the cost, only one lighthouse was built on the Breakwater and is situated at the western end. Started in 1841 it was finished in 1843 and built of white Cornish granite. At the eastern end a beacon was constructed with a stepped base and topped with a pole and cage which could accommodate several shipwrecked sailors. Trinity House acquired the lighthouse bell from Montreal Cathedral as it was shipped back to the foundry where it was made, as considered " too flat" in tone for it's original purpose. John ended his talk on rather a sad note with stories and some slides of various shipwrecks that had occurred over the years. In particular in 1905 a submarine sunk just off the Breakwater with hardly any survivors and all the lighthouse keeper could do was to look on in horror as the tragedy unfolded.

Commemoration 70th anniversary of bombing raids in Southampton

Welcome to this heritage website

Southampton Old Cemetery

An early municipal cemetery now a haven for wildlife. With the assistance of my co-conservators Geoff Watts and Veronica Tippetts I founded the Friends of Southampton Old Cemetery in 2003.