The final stage in the sensational Hay poisoning tragedy was reached on Wednesday morning when Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong, Solicitor of Hay, Brecknockshire was executed at Gloucester Prison for the murder of his wife Katherine May Armstrong by arsenical poisoning on February 22nd 1921.
The crime was committed at Cusop in Herefordshire and the reason for the execution taking place in Gloucester where Armstrong was lodged after his arrest and trial was the closing of Hereford Gaol. With his execution ends one of the most remarkable murder dramas of modem times. For five months Armstrong had fought for his life, first in the Police Court at Hay, where he had acted as Magistrates Clerk for many years, then at Assizes at Hereford before Mr Justice Darling and finally in the Court of Criminal Appeal in London where his Counsel Sir Henry Curtis Bennet KC argued against his conviction but without avail and all efforts having failed to save him, Armstrong resigned himself to his fate.
All through the whole of the time he had preserved an air of unconcern, and this he maintained to the end.
A LAST VISIT — 'I AM AN INNOCENT MAN'
For the first time since his arrest Armstrong showed emotion on Tuesday. It was when Mr Mathews, his solicitor, and Mr Chivers his managing clerk, visited him for the last time, to take final instructions as to the disposal of the condemned man’s legal practice in Hay and to receive his wishes and instructions regarding his property and the future of his children, the oldest of whom is 13. Armstrong has made no confession but to the contrary denies his guilt. When Armstrong said 'goodbye' he did so without tremor. 'Don’t grieve over me, Mr Mathews', he said, 'I am perfectly alright, I know it is tomorrow but I have no fear'.
The Rev Jeifreys de Winton, Vicar of Hay and the Rev CM Buchanan, Vicar of Cusop said that during the interview Armstrong comported himself with the utmost cheerfulness and said to his family:— 'I feel better now than I ever did, I realise that the end has come and I am prepared for it, I have no confession to make, I am an innocent man'. 'I don’t know what to think of him', said the clergyman with a troubled face, 'In my opinion, if he committed the crime, he must have been mad at the time', said Mr Buchanan.
ARRIVAL OF THE EXECUTIONER
It is now a rule that the hangman must sleep in the prison the night before an execution. Special arrangements were made in the prison for the accommodation of Ellis the hangman and his assistant Taylor who were due at the prison at four o’clock in the afternoon. Their duty was indicated by the following notice posted on the front gate:—
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT 1868
The sentence of the law passed upon Herbert Rowse Armstrong, found guilty of murder, will be carried into execution at eight am tomorrow.
Signed: Edward Martin Dunne, Sheriff of Hereford. H Whyte, Governor, Gloucester Prison 30th May 1922
THE FATAL MORNING
Some time before the appointed hour of execution a large crowd of over 1000 men, women and children gathered in Barrack Square, a number of police were on duty, but the crowd was very orderly. While in the condemned cell, Armstrong had been zealously guarded by two Warders night and day. The cell has two doors, one of which was not used until the Wednesday morning since Armstrong had been its inmate. Just before eight o’clock this second door opened, and Ellis and his assistant stepped into the cell.
Quickly the doomed man was pinioned and led into the adjoining appartment where the scaffold was last erected ten years ago. Armstrong only had to take five steps from his cell when he stood upon the drop. The rope was placed round his neck, his head was covered and in less than a minute from the time Ellis entered his cell the bolt was drawn and the execution was over.
The crowd remained outside the gaol for a considerable time after the execution being particularly interested in the departure of the executioners who left in a closed cab nonchalantly reading their morning papers.
As the Jury were leaving the prison after the inquest, they caught sight of the Chaplain in his surplice reading the prescribed service over Armstrong’s body. The brief service over, the grave was quickly filled in and the final scene closed in one of the most sensational poisoning dramas in the history of crime in this country.
Excerpts from The Gloucester Chronicle 1922
