Harold Greenwood – On Trial for Murder

Local Solicitor Harold Greenwood married Mabel Bowater in 1896 and they lived in a magnificent Georgian type mansion known as Rumsey House, in Kidwelly alongside what was the main road to Carmarthen.

Greenwood was a Yorkshire Solicitor who had moved his practice to Llanelli in 1898.

Mabel was the sister of Sir Thomas Bowater, a one time Lord Mayor of London, and was a wealthy woman in her own right. Harold and Mabel Greenwood had four children and before her untimely death in 1919 she was said to have been in poor health.

On the day that Mabel died, two of her children were at home and the circumstances of her death remain a mystery to this day. A doctor was called to Rumsey House in the early hours of Monday morning 16 June 1919. Since his patient had suffered ill health for some time, and was receiving his medical attention, he was not unduly surprised when he found that she had died. Mabel was then 47 years old and her doctor thought that she had been suffering from cancer.

Kidwelly was a small town and it was not long before rumours started circulating, especially when Greenwood, aged 48, became engaged to Gladys Jones, on 12 July 1919. Gladys was a young woman who worked in the Llanelly Mercury office and tongues really began wagging when she married Harold Greenwood at Bryn Chapel, Llanelli, on 1 October 1919, little more three months after his wife had died.

Gladys Jones, the second Mrs Greenwood

Gossip was rife and the words “something fishy” were on the lips of many local people. It was not long before the police became interested and the people in the small town were stunned when the news arrived that an order had been issued by the Home Secretary for the exhumation of the body – nine months after it had been laid to rest in Kidwelly Church. In the dead of night, on the 16 April 1920, with a posse of police standing guard, the grave was re-opened and the coffin taken to Kidwelly Town Hall.

Speculation was rampant following the exhumation when Mabel Greenwood’s organs were sent to the Home Office for analysis. An examination by pathologists revealed that there was arsenic present in all the organs, but the total amounted to a little over a quarter of a grain.

The inquest was held in June 1920 and excitement was at fever pitch when the Home Office expert analyst spoke to the hushed court in a quiet voice. The ‘expert’ told the jury that arsenic was present in all the organs – brain, lungs, stomach, intestines, liver, spleen, kidneys, heart, oesophagus, rectum and uterus.

A maid who had been working at Rumsey House was called to give evidence and told how she had seen Greenwood in the china pantry at the house, where the wine was stored, for about a quarter of an hour on Sunday 15 June 1919.

The inquest, held at the Old Town Hall, Kidwelly, heard evidence that Greenwood had bought two quart tins of an arsenic-based weed-killer – one in February and one in April 1919 – and that before Mabel died Harold was having a ‘relationship’ with Miss Jones.

According to a local resident, a News of the World reporter visited Kidwelly a few years ago and tried to find the exact location of Mabel Greenwood’s grave. It seems that following her exhumation, the trial of her husband, and her re-burial, a headstone was not placed on her grave. It is thought that a small stone marks the spot where she was finally laid to rest.

The verdict of the jury at the inquest was that “the cause of death was acute arsenical poisoning and that the poison was administered by Harold Greenwood.” Harold, who had been married to Mabel for 23 years was arrested and spent 4½ months in prison before he came to trial at Carmarthen Assizes.

His trial caused a sensation, not only because a husband had poisoned his wife but because it was the first arsenic poisoning trial ever heard in the UK.

The trial opened at Carmarthen Assizes on Tuesday 2 November 1920 when two of the country’s leading barristers were engaged; Sir Edward Marlay Samson KC, for the prosecution and Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC for the defence.

A prominent Llanelli solicitor, Mr Thomas Richard Ludford, who later became a coroner for Llanelli district, had instructed Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC to defend Harold Greenwood.

The case which alleged that Greenwood had administered arsenic in the form of a proprietary brand of weed-killer into wine that his wife drunk on Sunday 15 June 1919, was long and involved. Evidence was given that Mrs Greenwood was an invalid and that her doctor was not surprised at her death.

Two pathologists who were called on to give evidence refuted the findings of the Home Office analyst and a ripple of excitement passed around the court when the legendary Sir Marshall Hall KC called upon Greenwood to give evidence. In answer to his questions, Greenwood said he married Mabel Greenwood [then Mabel Bowater] in 1896 and there were four children.

Sir Marshall Hall asked the questions, Greenwood answered:

Q “What were the terms on which you lived with your wife?”

A “Very very affectionate.”

Q “Had your wife any private means?”

A “Considerable means: about £900 per annum”

Q “Your wife died on June 16, 1919 in your presence?”

A “Yes.”

Q “Now Harold Greenwood, did you, directly or indirectly, cause to be administered, or administer to your wife any arsenic at any time in your life?”

A “I did not.”

Sir Marlay Simpson then cross-examined Greenwood for the prosecution.

Q “Were you very attached to your wife at the time of her death.”

A “Yes.”

Q “She died on June 16?”

A “Yes.”

Q “On July 4 did you buy a diamond ring?”

A “I wrote for it on July 4, and I bought it only on July 11.”

Q “Whom did you give the ring to?”

A “It was bought for my daughter in the first instance.”

“That is not an answer to my question. I asked you to whom did you give the ring?”

A “I gave it to Miss Gladys Jones.”

Q “Was that on July 27?”

A “Yes, about then.”

Q “Though you had so great an affection for your wife, a month after her death you gave Miss Jones a diamond ring for which you paid £55?”

Greenwood’s answer was inaudible.

Harold Greenwood maintained throughout the proceedings that in the early hours of the morning that his wife died she had been given two morphia pills. He claimed that theses pills were too strong for her and that was the cause of her death.

During the evidence given by Police Superintendent Jones, allegations were made that pages had been removed from his note book. The pages that had been removed were said to have contained some of the statements made by Greenwood. The allegations were strongly denied, but interestingly enough as a result of this case the police brought in the practice of numbering every page of police notebooks.

Superintendent Jones was vigorously questioned as to why he failed to obtain a statement from Greenwood’s 22 year old daughter, Irene, who had been at the house throughout the day her mother had been taken ill until she died. As a result, Irene Greenwood was called as a witness for the defence and told the court that she had drunk from the wine bottle, that had allegedly contained the weed-killer, twice on the day in question.

Sir Edward Marshall Hall, who was suffering ill-health, made an impassioned plea for Greenwood, which lasted over three hours. He stressed that there had been conflicting medical opinion as to whether a quarter of a grain of arsenic found in the organs could lead to the assumption that death was due to arsenic poisoning.

Summing up for the prosecution, Sir Edward Marlay Samson submitted that a fatal dose of arsenic could not have been administered innocently.

The Judge, Mr Justice Shearman, summed up for three hours before sending the jury to consider their verdict. After only two hours and twenty-eight minutes the jury returned to give their verdict of “Not guilty.”

After a trial lasting eight days and considering the evidence for less than three hours, the jury came to the conclusion that Mabel Greenwood had been administered a fatal dose of arsenic on that Sunday in June, but that the evidence before them was insufficient to prove by whom it had been administered.

After all the exertions of the police, and the investigations of the foremost chemists, analysts and pathologists in the country, the poisoning remained a mystery which has never been solved.

Harold Greenwood was discharged from the dock immediately and moved away from Llanelli to Herefordshire, where he lived under an assumed name for a further nine years, until he died having little money, suffering broken health and a mere shadow of his former self.

Rumsey House (built in 1862) became a Welsh Congregational Chapel known as Capel Sul following the departure of the Greenwood family from Kidwelly.

Gladys Jones

Gladys Jones was the daughter of the owner of the Llanelly Mercury and Harold Greenwood had been friendly with the family since he arrived in Llanelli in 1898. He had known Gladys since she was a young girl and within months of the death of his first wife Mabel he married Gladys at Bryn Chapel. Harold was known as a ‘Jack the Lad’ and was a real favourite with the ladies.

Within a couple of days of notifying the Llanelli registrar that he intended to marry Gladys he had written a letter to another lady, May Griffiths, who was the sister of Dr T R Griffiths.

Dr Griffiths was the doctor who had been treating Mabel Greenwood before her untimely death and was very friendly with Harold Greenwood. Greenwood seemed oblivious to the gossip and personal problems that would arise by his proposed marriage and the letter he wrote to May Griffiths:

“My dearest May,

I have been trying hard to get you this last fortnight, but no luck, always someone going in or you were out. Now I want you to think very carefully and to send me over a reply tonight. There are very many rumours about, but between you and I this letter reveals the true position.

Well, it is only right that you should know that Miss Bowater and Miss Phillips between, them have turned my children against you very bitterly, why I don’t know. It is only right that you should know this, as you are the one I love most in this world and I would be the last one to make you unhappy.

Under the circumstances, are you prepared to face the music? I am going to do something quickly as I must get rid of Miss Bowater at once as I am simply fed up with her.

Let me have something from you tonight.

Yours as ever, Harold.”

Note Miss Bowater was Edith Bowater, sister to Mabel Greenwood.

Other material can be found at:

http://www.kidwellyhistory.co.uk/Articles/Greenwood/Murder.htm

Newspaper report