Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in London's West End Page 15

  The jury retired at 6.35 p.m., and having considered the evidence returned after just half an hour. They found Prince guilty of wilful murder, but taking the medical evidence into account, not responsible for his actions. The judge ordered that the prisoner be retained as a criminal lunatic at Holloway until Her Majesty’s Pleasure be known. On hearing this Prince called out:

  Shall I not be allowed to make a statement of thanks to the Court? I should like to thank all the gentlemen who have assisted in the case. I did not bring my defence properly forward after the medical evidence because I did not think it necessary, and because I should not have been believed. All that I can say is that I have had a very fair trial and that –

  The Last Act in the Adelphi Tragedy. The Illustrated Police News

  MR JUSTICE CHANNELL: I cannot allow any statement now. It is better not.

  THE PRISONER: All I can say is that I thank you.

  MR JUSTICE CHANNELL: You are entitled to thank your counsel.

  Prince wished to continue but the judge had him removed from court.

  Terriss’s wife, Isabella who had not been well just before the murder, went with their son Tom to Algeria for a holiday. She did not live long after their return and died during the summer of 1898.

  As for Terriss’s leading lady and mistress, Jessie Millward, she suffered almost a total collapse after his death and vowed never to go on the stage again. However, with the support of her friends and after an extended holiday in Italy, she returned to the stage and almost a year after the murder opened at the Empire Theatre, New York, in Phroso an adaptation of the novel by Anthony Hope. She worked almost exclusively in America for the next fifteen years. In 1907, she married the Scottish actor John Glendinning. He had been working in America for over twenty years. Ironically, as a young actor he had appeared in tours of Adelphi Melodramas throughout the United Kingdom, often being billed as ‘the Terriss of the North’. Jessie retired in 1913. Her husband died in 1916, at the age of fifty-eight. In 1923, she published her autobiography Myself and Others, a collaboration with the journalist J B Booth. She died in 1932.

  Richard Archer Prince was not kept at the institution in Holloway for long, he was transferred to Broadmoor. Jessie Millward wrote of him in 1923:

  Prince was, of course, found insane, and sent to Broadmoor Asylum for life. Some time later I heard he had been appointed to the position of gardener, and from Broadmoor he frequently wrote to actors at the Adelphi begging their influence to get him released and to secure him a part in the Adelphi play. At Broadmoor, for all I know, he still remains. Only recently did I hear of him, through the visit of an ex-Cabinet Minister to the asylum. In the visitor’s honour a performance was given by the asylum band, the members of which were prisoners found insane. The conductor mounted to his desk, turned to the ex-Minister and gave him a majestic bow, then, tapping on his desk in manner of the professional chef d’orchestre, proceeded to conduct the performance. That conductor was Prince, the murderer of my friend.

  Richard Archer Prince died at Broadmoor in 1937.

  A dear friend of mine, the late actor, author and playwright, Richard Huggett, visited Broadmoor shortly before World War Two, as a boy, with his father, who was Professor of Physiology at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. They saw a pantomime, which had been staged by the patients. He remembered a conversation, which at the time meant nothing to him. Several of the staff were heard to say, ‘what a pity “Princey” wasn’t here this year. How he would have enjoyed it’. Richard went on to research the events surrounding Terriss and Prince and his radio play A Study in Hatred, was aired on BBC Radio 4.

  In so many autobiographies and accounts of the events surrounding the death of William Terriss which, including that of Jessie Millward (which totally ignores her true relationship with Terriss), glosses over the facts, including that it was generally known throughout the profession that Terriss’s murderer had been egged on by Abingdon and others, with tragic consequences. Even as late as 1930, when Seymour Hicks published his Between Ourselves, he was still prepared to veil the identity of Abingdon. Although he described in some detail the cruel hoax which was played on Prince, he referred to him simply as ‘Mr. A’. However in the penultimate paragraph of the chapter on The Murder of William Terriss, he states:

  It was Fate which later took ‘Mr. A’ to America, where after appearing with some success for a considerable period, he too came to a tragic end. He was discovered dead, having committed suicide by cutting his throat.

  It did not take much to work out who ‘Mr. A’ was, even for those not in the know, particularly as Abingdon died by his own hand and by the method described by Hicks. Abingdon was found dead at his apartment at 235 West 76th Street, New York, on 19 May 1918.

  The Daily Telegraph organised a Memorial Fund. A new Lifeboat House was built on the Grand Parade at Eastbourne, a place where Terriss had spent much of his leisure time. The inscription read:

  This Life-boat House has been erected in memory of WILLIAM TERRISS with subscriptions received by the ‘DAILY TELEGRAPH’ from those who loved and admired him, and who sorrowed together with all his friends and fellow countrymen at his most untimely end.

  1898

  “Shadows we are and shadows we pursue.”

  In Rotherhithe, a theatre which opened in 1899 was named the Terriss Theatre. It changed its name to the Rotherhithe Hippodrome in 1908.

  The victim in this terrible tragedy, William Terriss, died at the height of his fame, still possessing the looks and physique of the romantic hero, and idolized by a vast and adoring public on both sides of the Atlantic. The saddest thing of all, is that today he is largely forgotten. Great and popular actor though he was, the melodramas which were the mainstay of his distinguished career, gave him little opportunity to stamp his mark on milestones of theatrical history. Nevertheless the man is a milestone himself, and both his gallantry as well as his contribution to the English speaking theatre should not be forgotten. Of Terriss, I leave the last words to one of our greatest actresses, Dame Ellen Terry, who said of her close colleague and intimate friend: ‘He died a beautiful youth, a kind of Adonis, although he was fifty years old.’

  The grave of William Terriss (second left), in Brompton Cemetery. The author

  CHAPTER 12

  The Strange Disappearance of Victor Grayson 1920

  ‘But you say at the same time that you are convinced he is dead. Why?’ I inquired.

  ‘I am certain he was murdered,’ replied Ryan.

  Victor Grayson occupied the political stage for less than a decade. He served as a Member of Parliament for just two and a half years. In 1907, when he was twenty-five, his sensational bi-election victory as a Socialist (according to Reg Groves, one of Grayson’s biographers, the only Socialist ever to be elected to the House of Commons), made all the more dramatic because the Labour Party, then in its infancy, had refused to adopt him as their candidate, seemed to herald a brilliant political career. In the General Election of 1910, he lost his seat but he had caught the imagination of a discontented electorate across the entire country. Before he had the opportunity to appear on the parliamentary stage again, the Great War intervened and towards the end of it, he suffered the tragic loss of his wife in childbirth. Disoriented, disillusioned and increasingly over indulgent in alcoholic stimulation, he began to mix with men of a different political persuasion to his own, including Horatio Bottomley (the swindler) and the honours tout Maundy Gregory. He got a bee in his bonnet about what he considered to be an abuse of the honours system, and following his investigations and some sensational claims of political impropriety, namely regarding the actual sale of honours, he threatened to spill the beans. Then in 1920, he disappeared completely, and it wasn’t until seven years elapsed that the general public at large were even aware of the fact. Had these strange new associations for a Socialist, anything to do with his disappearance? The last official sighting of Grayson was in the heart of the West End. Although there were many reported
so-called sightings of him until at least the nineteen forties, none were fully corroborated. Foul play has been at the heart of the many theories that surround Grayson’s disappearance. The story of his known existence is an intriguing one.

  Named Albert Victor, after the Duke of Clarence, the eldest son of the then Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, Victor Grayson was born in Liverpool on 5 September 1881(a seventh son). In the six weeks between his birth and registration the family had moved from 8 Talieson Street to 15 Elstow Street in the Kirkdale district. His mother, Elizabeth Craig, was a native of Scotland, who had been brought up in the Highlands. After her parents died she moved to Ireland where she went into domestic service. There she met and fell in love with a young soldier from Yorkshire. His name was William Dickenson. According to family legend he deserted and took her away with him by ship to Liverpool, married her and they settled there. He changed his name to Grayson to avoid detection. William was a devout Christian, who had a thorough knowledge of the bible. He found work as a carpenter and settled down to married life.

  Victor Grayson received his elementary education at St Matthew’s Church of England School in Liverpool’s infamous Scotland Road. From an early age he was an avid reader, cutting his teeth on penny dreadfuls and the like. Victor spent the early years of his life growing up in a typical working-class district, a district more aptly described as that of skilled artisans’ dwellings than of slums. After he left school, the family moved home several times, and following his father’s death, finally settled at 137 Northcote Street where his mother died in 1929, reportedly grieving the disappearance of her famous son. On leaving school he spent six years as an apprentice turner at the Bankhall Engine Works of J H Wilson. At the age of eighteen he began attending Bethel Mission in Edinburgh Street. He gained experience as a public speaker, firstly as a Sunday School teacher, and later by addressing outdoor Christian meetings. After two years he decided to move on as he disagreed with some of the teachings at the Bethel Mission. Instead he went to the Hamilton Road Mission, where he made contact with the pastor of the Anfield Unitarian Church, the Revd J L Haigh, who recognized that young Victor possessed considerable talents and took him under his wing.

  Victor Grayson, during the bi-election campaign of 1907. Author’s collection

  The Reverend Haigh became Victor’s mentor and such was Haigh’s influence that Victor decided to follow him into the Unitarian Church. While he continued working as an engineer, he assisted at the Mission in the evenings and at weekends. He took the Sunday School and became an active participant in the Mission’s debating society, which gave him scope to develop his talents as a speaker. He took on board the things he heard and refashioned them in his own way, becoming, according to Reg Groves, without being aware of it, a socialist, and it was as a socialist that he expressed his views. With the Reverend Haigh’s help, Grayson got into Liverpool University, then in the autumn of 1904 he went to Owen’s College, Manchester to study for the ministry. The College specialized in training recruits from industrial areas for the Unitarian Church, and undertook financial responsibility for poorer students, providing the opportunity for bright young men from working-class backgrounds to enter the ministry.

  Not only were the closing years of Queen Victoria’s reign Victor Grayson’s formative years, they were also the formative years of the labour movement. Two forces were being galvanized into action, the forces of socialism and the forces of trade unionism. The Independent Labour Party was founded in 1893 from several Yorkshire and Lancashire socialist societies, including the Colne Valley Labour League (later to become Colne Valley Socialist League).

  Grayson’s interest in politics was gathering momentum and by 1905 he spent an increasing amount of time on Socialist politics at the expense of his studies. He addressed many meetings in various Lancashire towns but it was to be across the border in Yorkshire, that a great opportunity came his way and set him on the path to Westminster. In December 1905 during the course of the General Election campaign, in Huddersfield, a prominent trade union leader, Will Thorne, was booked to address a meeting at the Town Hall on 16 December, in support of the Labour candidate, T Russell Williams. Thorne was unable to attend and Grayson was invited to stand in for him. He gave a dazzling performance. His speech electrified the audience who were mesmerized by the powerful oratory of this relatively unknown young man. Grayson presented his political views like an evangelist presents his love of God; in an age when England abounded with great political orators, Grayson excelled. Both friends and foe alike agreed that he was phenomenal on the platform. He seldom used notes and possessed that rare gift that enabled him to marshall his thoughts into logical sentences whilst on his feet. He possessed a natural wit and repartee, which allowed him to turn the mood of any crowd and to extricate himself from any difficulties he might encounter with hecklers. He did not speak in any particular dialect, and those who passed any comment on his speaking voice regarding any trace of accent, described it as ‘faintly northern’.

  That speech in Huddersfield, on 16 December 1905, established Victor Grayson as a serious politician, in the eyes of the district’s socialists and he became an overnight celebrity. Grayson made a particular impression on the members of the Colne Valley Labour League. Many invitations followed and the young, debonair, good looking theology student found himself addressing meetings across the straggling Colne Valley constituency, which stretched to within ten miles of Manchester. By July 1906 Grayson decided that despite his deep religious convictions, life as a minister was not for him and he was given permission by the College authorities to withdraw from his course.

  In Colne Valley rumours were spreading that the local Liberal MP, Sir James Kitson, was to be elevated to the House of Lords; this would mean a by-election. When Kitson became Lord Airedale in mid June 1907, the Colne Valley Labour League had already made its contingency plans and Victor Grayson was officially adopted as their candidate on 22 June 1907. The Labour Party’s national body was composed of representatives of trade unions, the Fabian Society and the ILP (Independent Labour Party, a body committed to democratic socialism). There had been some trouble about Grayson’s candidature. The national leaders of the ILP did not favour the choice made locally in Colne valley, they had their own choice of candidates in mind, namely Bruce Glasier and W C Anderson. There were some who thought that the twenty-five-year-old Grayson was too young. In those days Members of Parliament were not paid, support was usually provided from Labour Party and Independent Labour Party funds. Despite this the Colne Valley Labour League stood their ground and Grayson fought the election as a socialist, and was not officially adopted by the Labour Party, as both the party and the ILP refused either to support or endorse him.

  The by-election took place on Thursday 18 July and Grayson won the seat at the expense of the Liberals. It was a close run contest, of the 11,671 voters on the Electoral Roll, 10,370 voted, a turnout of 88%, the result being:

  Albert Victor Grayson (Socialist) 3,648

  Philip Bright (Liberal) 3,495

  J C H Wheeler (Conservative) 3,227

  Victor Grayson went to take his seat in the House of Commons with very little money of his own. It was not until the Independent Labour Party met on 25 August that they agreed to pay Grayson a Parliamentary allowance of £220 until their annual conference at Easter 1908. This was the amount the Labour Party paid its MPs, and in return they expected Grayson to accept conference decisions, as he was in receipt of their money. Grayson might have been a great orator but his performance as an MP was not so impressive, his inactivity on the Parliamentary scene did not escape the attention of his political opponents, nor the newspapers:

  In 1907 of the possible 149 divisions, he voted in 21 (14%)

  In 1908 of the possible 463 divisions, he voted in 33 (7%)

  In 1909 of the possible 920 divisions, he voted in 51 (5.5%)

  As far as speeches and debates were concerned, Grayson did not use his skills to any great effect in the h
ouse:

  In 1907 he made 1 speech and asked 3 questions

  In 1908 he made 1 speech, asked 5 questions and made 2 interventions

  In 1909 he made 1 speech and made 1 intervention

  In his book The Problem of Parliament, published during his time as an MP, in 1909, in conjunction with G R S Taylor, Grayson wrote:

  We have examined the history and achievements of the Whig Party, the Tory Party, the Trade Unionists, and, finally, the Labour Party. It is not a matter of speculation, but a sad historical fact, that as instruments of Reform they have all been the most dismal of failures. No one would maintain that they have not seen, during their time, many beneficial changes which have a certain right to be ascribed to their influence and energy. It is rather a surface credit, after all said and done. Nature has a way of shuffling on its career towards something better, and goes this way without depending very seriously on the help of the politicians, whether they be Radicals or Conservatives or Labour men or Socialists. No Government has yet had the audacity to sit on the Wheels of Destiny, which insist on going round for the sheer love of the thing. But, on the other hand, no Government or Party or Association which has reached the political stage in any coherent form, has the courage to offer its aid to Dame Nature.

  Since he became an MP, Grayson had become increasingly friendly with the editor of the Clarion, Robert Blatchford and in February 1909, Blatchford offered Grayson a job on the paper. This provided Grayson with the opportunity to reach a wide readership and he accepted the offer. The relationship between Blatchford and Grayson grew closer, with the result that Grayson’s actions both inside and outside the House of Commons were steadfastly defended in the columns of the Clarion. However, Grayson was becoming very sloppy with the way he organized his meetings, at which he would take to the platform and mesmerize the audience with his oratory skills. He would sometimes book two, or even three, to take place within a single day, the result being that he was unable to get to them all, and this led to a certain amount of ill will. Despite this carelessness, within the Colne Valley itself, his popularity remained undiminished. When he addressed open air gatherings, crowds of working men and women would follow him from meeting to meeting. However, within the Colne Valley Socialist League, there was dissention in the ranks, prompted by the League’s president, Francis Littlewood, a close friend of Philip Snowden, who had opposed Grayson’s candidature in the first place. In the General Election of January 1910, Grayson lost his Colne Valley seat, being beaten into third place, the result was: