Mystery of Newbury town clerk found dead hundred miles away revisited, 130 years on
On this day 130 years ago, tragedy struck in Newbury.
One morning in February 1895, Newbury solicitor and town clerk Henry Burke Godwin left his offices at Messrs Louch & Godwin in Northbrook Street and boarded a train to London. But he never returned.
His body was found eight days later in a field near Leicester, with a single gunshot wound to the head.
A jury returned a verdict of “suicide during temporary insanity”.
But what drove this respected pillar of the community, described as an honourable and upright man, to end his own life more than 100 miles from home?
‘Mysterious Disappearance of Town Clerk’
On Wednesday, February 20, HBG boards a train to London. He checks into the lavish (former) Midland Grand Hotel in St Pancras.
He continues to Leicester the next day, leaving his luggage behind at the hotel. But before he leaves, he sends a letter to his clerk William Robert Pettifer.
When he arrives in Leicester, he bumps into Richard Canning, a former Newbury man from a family of drapers in Market Street. What a coincidence – or not.
After exchanging a few words, HBG abruptly leaves. Canning later said he seemed worried. Stranger yet, he contacts mayor of Newbury Harman Skinner Hanington about their interaction twice over the coming days.
HBG then takes a horse-drawn tram terminating at Aylestone – barely a mile from Canning’s home at Norwood Villa. He could have gone anywhere. But he chooses to go here.
He takes refreshments at The Union Inn, Blaby, that evening. Again, quite the journey for a well-dressed gentleman with a limp on his right foot. He would undoubtedly stand out in this tiny village on the Grand Union Canal.
Landlord Arthur Hyde later said he was acting strange. HBG then leaves in the direction of Leicester, perfectly sober – the last time he is seen alive.
However, he is apparently recognised watching a body being pulled from the canal at Aylestone on February 25. There are no less than three suicides in this area within a week.
That night (February 21), his letter to Pettifer arrives. It alludes he will “never return” and that Leicester was “far enough away for his purpose.” (The district coroner never disclosed the full contents due to their “private nature”.)
He also sends a parcel containing his keys, watch and chain, a diamond ring and a newspaper cutting referring to a police case in Highgate in which two people were charged with “sleeping out”, with a memorandum attached reading “do what is right”.
Pettifer leaves immediately for Leicester with HBG’s son Walter and business partner Francis Quekett Louch. But they fail to trace him.
The Newbury Weekly News runs a desperate plea on February 28 headlined ‘Mysterious Disappearance of Town Clerk’.
‘Town Clerk of Newbury Found Shot’
Two labourers found HBG’s body the same day under a hedge at Glen Parva, a parish between Blaby and Aylestone.
He had a revolver clenched in his right hand and £7 in his pockets (hundreds today). He was 57 years old.
His body was moved to The Union Inn, Blaby. A doctor examined him, but no post-mortem was carried out.
He confirmed the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. HBG had been dead for at least three or four days, but the cold had prevented decomposition. Indeed, this period was among the coldest on record in the UK, known as the ‘Great Frost’.
A telegram relayed the news to Newbury the same night. Pettifer travelled the next morning to identify him.
An inquest was held on March 1. The mayor of Newbury, as undertaker, went to Leicester to arrange the return of his body to Newbury.
‘For the best of fathers, from your loving son Walter’
The town mourned his loss. The flag on the Town Hall flew at half-mast. Shops closed and spectators lined the streets as the funeral procession travelled to St Mary’s Church, Speen.
His funeral, meant to be private, also drew a large crowd, among them eminent Newbury historian Walter Money, Joseph Hopson (of Camp Hopson) and Boer War veteran Major Gerald Ricardo. Other mourners included headmasters, vicars and councillors.
HBG had held a number of posts and was clearly highly regarded. So, why did he do it?
Pettifer said at his inquest: “I may say he attributed his financial troubles to the failure of a firm in Newbury.” Louch also claimed HBG had been depressed for weeks.
What was this “failed firm” which contributed to HBG’s downfall?
The Smoke Annihilator
To understand HBG’s actions, we must turn to another prominent Newburian: Samuel Elliott.
Elliott’s of Newbury is perhaps best remembered for building Horsa gliders in the Second World War. But its founder Samuel Elliott first ventured into business in Newbury as a builder in 1860.
He then set up Albert Steam Joinery Works behind Newbury Methodist Church in Albert Road (where Bayer was).
The company grew into one of the town’s largest employers and was renowned for its high-quality carving, moulding and joinery work.
But Elliott was also an inventor. Except his latest creation would cost him, and others, dearly.
Smog was a serious concern for Victorian Britain. Factories coated entire towns and cities with soot.
But Elliott’s ‘Smoke Annihilator’ cleaned the smoke from furnaces before it was released into the environment, while also creating some useful byproducts – a forerunner to the smoke ‘scrubber’ system much used today.
He exhibited the apparatus to MPs, press and scientists in London, Birmingham and Newbury during the early 1890s. He also secured support from the Duke of Westminster, Earl of Carnarvon and Lord Wantage.
But the project failed to gain commercial backing. Perhaps leading industrialists, already restricted by the Factory Acts, were not keen to go green.
Elliott was declared bankrupt to the tune of £140,266 in 1895. Creditors’ hearings told a tale of financial ruin stretching back several years. It appeared he staked his company’s entire future on the success of the smoke washer.
Elliott approached HBG once he encountered difficulties with his smoke project in 1888. HBG then offered him more money in 1893 to be repaid with a significant bonus.
The pair signed a written agreement enabling HBG to recover a percentage of the total returns, plus interest on his dividends, with a clause to exempt him the consequences of the partnership.
In total, Elliott owed £22,000 to HBG – more than £3m in today’s money, depending on which benchmark you use.
He presented a statement showing the “large deficiency” at a private meeting of his creditors on February 18 – just two days before HBG went missing.
But Elliott firmly dismissed any claims he was partly responsible for HBG’s death.
He accused Dr Douglas, chairman of the Newbury Ratepayers’ Association, of libel after he said HBG had been “grossly deceived and embarrassed”.
He wrote to Dr Douglas: “You have no right to endeavour to make me the scapegoat for the acts of the late Mr Godwin... had the shares of my smoke company been well taken up, Mr Godwin would have made a small fortune out of my invention.”
Dr Douglas had never mentioned Elliott by name.
And that was how a well-meaning and potentially revolutionary device brought untold misery to all those involved.
And what became of them?
HBG left behind his wife Elizabeth and their two children at their home in Donnington Square.
Canning died in Leicester in 1905, aged 48.
After the bankruptcy, local businessmen formed a new company, Elliott’s Moulding and Joinery Company Ltd. Elliott was kept on as a works manager.
He later started a new company in Caversham, Samuel Elliott and Sons (Reading) Ltd. He died in 1915, aged 77. Elliott’s of Newbury continued trading until 1974.
It’s a fascinating case, still with plenty of unanswered questions. But, confined to the history books, it’s easy to forget it involves real people and their suffering.
If you or someone you know needs support, please speak to your GP or seek help. Some organisations include:
Time to Talk on (01635) 760331
Samaritans Newbury on 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org
Always call 999 in an emergency.
Thanks are owed to Bryan Sylvester, Ros Clow and Graham Salter for their support with this project.
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