Deterrence (Part Eight)

Respectable:

Only one lawyer was ever executed in Britain in the twentieth century. Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong qualified as a solicitor in 1895, practising in Newton Abbott and Liverpool before moving to Hay-on-Wye in 1906. He became a junior partner in the firm Cheese and Armstrong, before his partner's death in 1914. Armstrong then took over the business. He was a respected figure in Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

His murder conviction remains controversial even now. Many believe it to be a miscarriage of justice nearly a century after he was hanged by the then Chief Executioner, John Ellis. Armstrong was an unusual candidate for execution. He was popular with guards who wanted Ellis and his assistant Edward Taylor to ensure that the polite officer of the court did not suffer unnecessarily. The hangmen were not pleased. So how did the distinguished former Major go from a respected solicitor to the condemned cell in Gloucester Prison?

Pesky Dandelions:

Armstrong had a problem with pesky, but determined dandelions, colonising his garden. On August 4th 1920 he purchased weed-killer to deal with the nuisance. His relationship with his wife Katharine was said to be strained. She eventually required treatment for delusions in a mental institution, being admitted two days after the purchase of the weed-killer.

On January 11th 1921 Armstrong purchased some arsenic, purportedly to tackle the persistent, but unwanted dandelions. He bought and kept a quantity of the deadly poison, which he decided to divide into portions to deal with each plant individually. It was an odd method of dealing with the menace of the dandelions, but that was his justification for the purchase of the poison. It did not impress the judge who quizzed him closely on the topic.