Herbert Rowse Armstrong

Herbert Rowse Armstrong (1869 - 31 May 1922), the "Hay poisoner", is commonly claimed to be the only solicitor in Britain to have been hanged for murder.

Major Armstrong practised in Hay-on-Wye on the border of England and Wales from 1906 until his arrest on 31 December 1921.

Murder

He was charged with the attempted murder of Oswald Martin, a rival solicitor. Armstrong’s wife Katherine had died on 22 February 1921 after months of ill-health. Mrs Armstrong's body was exhumed and examined by Bernard Spilsbury. Her body revealed high levels of arsenic. When he was arrested, the police found a packet of the poison in his pocket, and many more were found in his house. He had been buying large quantities of the substance from the local pharmacist, who alerted the police.

In April 1922 Armstrong was found guilty of the murder of his wife at Hereford. On 16 May 1922, the Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed Armstrong's appeal and he was executed at Gloucester Prison on 31 May 1922.

The Armstrong case was dramatized on the BBC radio series "The Black Museum" in 1952 under the title of "The Champagne Glass". It was also the subject of the 1994 TV mini-series called "Dandelion Dead" which won a BAFTA in 1995.

External links

* [http://www.stephen-stratford.co.uk/hr_armstrong.htm Stephen's Study Room]
* [http://weldgen.tripod.com/crime-and-punishment/id23.html Newspaper excerpts from The Gloucester Chronicle]