Historical West Berkshire murders: The Wash Common shotgun tragedy that took the lives of two siblings in 1891
A terrible tragedy that took the lives of two siblings occurred in a Wash Common house more than 130 years ago, and we’re still not sure what really happened on that bloody and fateful night.
On Thursday, January 15, 1891, a sister and brother were both killed by shotgun at Warren Farm, with only the sister’s husband able to recount the horrific events of the evening.
The farm, which has since been demolished, once stood in the now leafy, pleasant and suburban Warren Road by Park House School.
In early 1891, Warren Farm was owned by John Chamberlain who lived at the address with his wife Annie Maria. The couple had been married just 15 months.
Annie had come from the well-to-do Heath family who were farmers who lived at Boames Farm in Enborne.
Annie’s brother was called Sydney Heath. He was married and lived with his wife and three children in a newly-built house on the road from Newbury to Wash Common.
Sydney was the organist of a nearby Methodist chapel which once stood on Essex Street (it was demolished in 1990) and John and Annie were regular attendees of the church.
According to the report on the tragedy published in the Newbury Weekly News at the time: “Both families were in comfortable circumstances, and they continued in happy, united, and most cordial relations with their parents.”
On the morning on January 15, Sydney was invited by his sister to join her and her husband for the evening at Warren Farm to enjoy some music and discuss some family matters.
John had just written his will and made Sydney and Annie its executors. He was a wealthy man, so he wanted to discuss the will with both of them that night.
At around 6.40pm, Sydney delivered a letter to the Wash Common postman Mr Snook before travelling to the home of his sister and brother-in-law. This was the last time he was seen alive by anyone not involved in the affair.
According to John, the trio were chatting amicably in the front room of the house with Sydney playing the piano when Annie asked John to leave the room so that she could discuss something in private with her brother.
John agreed and left the room. Immediately following this, he heard a gunshot and quickly re-entered.
The NWN reported what he saw: “Mrs Chamberlain had possessed herself, of a double-barrelled breech-loading gun, and creeping up softly behind her brother had literally blown his brains out.
“Death, happily, must have been instantaneous, as the left side of the skull was completely blown off into a corner of the room, while the poor fellow’s brains bespattered the piano, the sheet of music, and the wall.”
John then rushed to his wife who had turned the weapon on herself and tried to wrestle the gun off her.
However, during the struggle, the shotgun went off a second time. Annie was shot in the back and died shortly after.
A carter working in some stables close by heard the gunshots, went to the house and discovered a grief-stricken John shouting for help. The police were called and the house was guarded overnight while they carried out their investigation.
The inquest into the sordid affair was held in the club room of The Gun Inn on the following afternoon at 2.30pm, and a large crowd gathered outside the pub after news of the deaths had spread through Newbury like wildfire.
During this inquest, it was established that despite Annie’s outward “amiable and cheerful disposition”, she may have been suffering with some mental troubles.
Her father described her mind as “slightly unhinged” and John had said she had recently been acting “very strange in her manner”, referring to one recent evening when she had decided to sleep with her head to the bottom of their bed and her feet to the pillow.
He also revealed that five or six weeks previously she had said: “I am tired and want to destroy my life.”
During his testimony, which he reportedly gave while “sobbing hysterically”, John admitted that he might have accidentally touched the gun’s trigger while he attempted to take it from his wife.
An incoherent and scribbled suicide note supposedly written by Annie was also found at the scene.
It was addressed to her mother, and it read: “You have made our lives a misery to us all. This action I have done as a means of release from it.
“I can no longer keep from doing it. Hoping you will forgive me. Yours no longer, I remain.”
John could not offer any motive as to why his wife would want to kill her brother. He stated: “I have never seen any brother or sister on more friendly terms.”
He could also offer no insight into the strange suicide note, but both he and Annie’s father confirmed that it matched her handwriting.
A doctor who examined the bodies said that it was quite possible that the incident had occurred in the way that John had described, and the jury at the inquest decided not to have a post-mortem examination carried out.
After the three-hour enquiry concluded, the jury declared that Annie Maria Chamberlain was accidentally shot while her husband John tried to take the gun away from her to prevent her from committing suicide, and that Sydney Heath was shot by his sister Annie while “she was suffering under temporary derangement”.
No concrete motive for Annie’s actions was ever established but it was discussed at length in the papers following the deaths.
An anonymous man who said he had previously been in the employ of Annie and Sydney’s father George Heath told the NWN that there was some animosity between the dead siblings, and that he had recently overhead them having a heated conversation.
However, these claims were never verified.
On Tuesday, January 20, 1891, Annie and Sydney were buried together in the graveyard of St Michael and All Angels Church in Enborne where several deceased members of the Heath family are interred.
John Chamberlain quickly became the subject of intense press speculation, and it was soon discovered that he wasn’t who everyone thought he was.
John’s real name was in fact Moses Belcher Whitehorn. His parents had run The Blackbird pub in Bangor and had died when he was very young.
He was adopted by his aunt who was married to the farmer and dealer Benjamin Chamberlain.
Benjamin left Moses £3,000 – worth nearly half a million pounds in today’s money – in his will under the one condition that he change his name to John Chamberlain.
It was also revealed at the inquest that just a fortnight before the incident at Warren Farm, the Chamberlains had taken out a joint life insurance policy that John would now be the sole beneficiary of following his wife’s death.
John never revealed how much money he received from the policy, but many believed it to be a very large sum, with some even speculating it could have been as much as £50,000.
Despite this, a formal murder investigation into the deaths of Annie Maria Chamberlain and Sydney Heath was never carried out by police, with the conclusions reached at the inquest found to be satisfactory by authorities.
Reflecting on the case today, there are still several unanswered questions.
How is it that Annie was shot in the back when she wrestled with her husband for control of the gun? Wouldn’t she more likely have been shot in the front of her body?
Did Annie and Sydney harbour some secret resentment towards each other that the Heaths concealed from the authorities?
Did Annie invite Sydney to Warren Farm on the evening of Thursday, January 15, 1891 to kill him and then herself?
And was John Chamberlain being entirely truthful about what really occurred that night? Was he in fact behind the deaths, with the financial gain of the life insurance being the motive?
The bloody Wash Common mystery of the tragedy at Warren Farm may never be fully solved.
