One of Mrs Fowler’s final letters was written on the riverbank a few minutes before she stabbed herself to the heart. She had scrawled her last farewell on the back of an envelope, and she wrote of the beauty of the world and the spring flowers.
It must be easier to be hanged, the letter added, than to have to do the job oneself.
Another letter revealed how she attempted to throw herself under a train at Oxford Circus, and then under a bus, but the crowds were too much for her.
There was only a small group of witnesses and the jury to represent the public in this final stage of the Princess Alice drama. The inquest lasted only twenty-five minutes.
Dr Julian Bertrand, the local doctor who conducted the post-mortem, said there were six stab wounds in the chest, three of which had reached the heart. Death, he said, was due to haemorrhage following self-inflicted wounds by a sharp-pointed instrument, and that she was dead before entering the water.
Miss Blythe North, maid and companion to Mrs Fowler on the Princess Alice, took the oath in a faint voice. She identified the handbag and the handwriting of Mrs Fowler. After she had finished her evidence, the coroner gave her permission to leave the courtroom.
EVANS’ PETITION
A committee of prominent townspeople in Southampton was formed yesterday to help in the organisation of the distribution of the forms for the petition of the reprieve of Jim Albert Evans, the twenty-two-year-old ship’s steward who is under sentence of death for the murder of Mr S. F. Fowler on the Princess Alice.
Mr H. S. Staines, MP for Hampshire, in whose constituency Evans’ home is situated, has offered to bring the case officially before the Home Secretary.
Tables at which the petition can be signed are being placed at various places in the streets in Southampton. Business houses are assisting, and members of their staff yesterday canvassed from house to house with petition forms during their dinner hour.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Louisa put the newspaper down on the breakfast table. The end had arrived. Joseph Fowler had been murdered and Ella had killed herself in a brutal and horrible fashion, leaving behind her two boys. Jim may narrowly miss execution but would serve life in prison for a crime he never committed. She knew Jim believed Ella had done the deed, in defence against a bullying husband, and that he had protected her – and her sons – from a certain death sentence. But now he must lose his youth and middle-age to an institution that would spit him out the other end, a reject from society, a man with no chance to build a happy life.
Blythe North had made good her escape: she had sent Louisa a postcard to say that she would be appearing in a play in Covent Garden next month and would leave two tickets in her name at the box office. Louisa would not be going.
Sir Clive Montague had been tracked down by one newspaper reporter and, although the gist of the message had been ‘no comment’, it was apparent that he had retired to his country house. Louisa hoped he found his own peace there.
Since her marriage to Peter Rodd, Nancy had softened, writing quite often to Louisa, filling her in on the family’s gossip. In the last letter, she’d described Unity addressing a crowd of two hundred thousand Germans at a midsummer festival near Heidelberg, and reported that she had accepted a job as the London correspondent of Der Stürmer. Nancy added that Unity wrote to all the family frequently, even Jessica, with jolly snippets of news about her life in Munich, always signing off: Heil Hitler and much love.
To Louisa’s relief, Diana had broken off contact with her. She heard that Diana’s relationship with Mosley was as strong as ever, matched only by their belief in the cause of fascism. Jessica, according to Nancy, had embraced communism with equal fervour. Louisa smiled to herself at the thought of Christmases at Swinbrook, but it wasn’t as if the children of Lord and Lady Redesdale were fazed by raging arguments.
Deborah, the youngest, had tried two nights at boarding school at the end of last year and been made thoroughly miserable by it. She was home, said Nancy, happiest out riding and never thinking about anything so dreary as times tables or geography.
That left Tom, who had been rewarded for his part in the successful defence counsel with a case of his own – but, Nancy’s letter said, he would have to fit it in with his latest affair with a beautiful Austrian dancer: And we all know where he prefers to spend his time if he has to choose between legal chambers and a bedchamber.
What, then, of Louisa and Guy? Soon they would be with their own child; it was a happiness that blinded her sometimes, catching her unawares with its white light. Yet her part in the Fowler trial, however unwitting, had threatened sometimes to shut it out. Now that it was, at last, completely over, she could tell Guy the truth.
Today, when Guy got home, she would tell him. With the case closed, and Jim reprieved, she felt free at last of the danger of breaking her oath to the British government. Guy might resign from the police – if he shared her fury at the institutions that misdirected the lives of innocents and protected the lives of the guilty – but she wasn’t afraid for him if he did. She already had a plan. An office somewhere, perhaps above a shop, smart but discreet, their names on the door: Guy and Louisa Sullivan, Private Detective Agency.
That would come. For now, Louisa put her hand on her stomach and felt the stirrings of the life within, a flutter like a silk scarf in the wind.
HISTORICAL NOTES
A warning: this contains spoilers. Do not read before you have completed the novel, unless you want to know what happens …
All the conversations in this book are completely fictional. However, there are some elements of the plot that are derived from real-life events.
The murder trial of Ella Fowler and Jim Evans was based on the real-life murder trial of Alma Rattenbury and George Stonor. Some of the cross-examinations in the novel (with the doctor and Ella) closely follow those of their real-life counterparts, with thanks to the British Newspaper Archive. Rattenbury and her lover Stonor (who was employed by the Rattenburys as their chauffeur) were accused of the murder of Alma’s husband Francis in 1935. In the trial, Stonor was found guilty and sentenced to death, but the public view was that Alma had masterminded the killing. Her treatment at the trial was criticised at the time. She committed suicide soon after, believing her lover faced execution. At Alma’s burial, police had to be brought in for crowd control – over three thousand people tried to watch the funeral, with women climbing on tombstones for a better view. At the cemetery, signatures were collected for a petition to commute Stonor’s sentence, which was successful. Over three hundred thousand signatures were presented to the Home Secretary and the sentence was changed to penal servitude for life. Stonor was released from prison in 1942, and died at the age of eighty-three on exactly the sixty-fifth anniversary of Francis Rattenbury’s murder.
Tom Mitford did indeed work ‘in a lowly capacity’ on the Rattenbury murder trial (a footnote in Charlotte Mosley’s The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, p.158), with Alma’s defence barrister, Mr F. J. O’Connor, KC. Tom’s chambers was 4 Paper Buildings, Temple, but his career as a barrister is not recorded as an illustrious one. There is little mention of his legal achievements in the public arena, but his passion for love affairs, particularly with the Austrian dancer and film star Tilly Losch, is information that reached me with the kind courtesy of Margaret Simmons, who holds Losch’s archive.
Iain is loosely based on Maxwell Knight, the leading agent-runner for MI5 before the war. He was head of section B5(b), responsible for infiltrating agents into subversive groups, and had particular success penetrating British fascist movements. He also favoured women agents as superior in skill to their male counterparts. Maxwell is widely believed to be the inspiration for ‘M’ in the James Bond books by Ian Fleming.
The MI5 file on Diana was opened on 26 September 1934, so I have taken the liberty of moving that date forward by a little over a year. The file on Sir Oswald Mosley, however, was opened in 1933, with a report from Detective Constable Edward
Pierpoint, who had been at a fascist public meeting in Manchester.
MI5’s ‘third direction’, in which agents are permitted to commit illegal acts, was the basis of Wolfgang’s murder of Joseph and the subsequent cover-up by Iain.
Wolfgang von Bohlen and his family fortune is based on that of the Krupp family and the money they made through Nazi support after 1933 (and, later, through use of slave labour during the Holocaust). Their steel works were the centre of Hitler’s secret rearmament programme, expanding their employees from 35,000 to 112,000. In 1933, Hitler made Gustav Krupp – the only German to be accused of war crimes in both wars – chairman of the Reich Federation of Germany Industry. Jews were ousted from the company, the board was disbanded and Krupp became the sole decision-maker. (Wolfgang’s character and his part in Joseph’s murder is completely fictional.)
Wolfgang’s work as an agent for the British is not derived from any member of the Krupp family, but there was a Wolfgang Gans zu Putlitz who was the first secretary in charge of the consular section for the German Embassy in London, where he was sent in 1934. A member of the Nazi Party and the SS, he was an agent for MI5. He consistently warned the British government that appeasing Hitler in his apparently peaceful plans was the fastest route to war.
For those who wonder if the rest of the world was alarmed by the rise of Hitler as early as 1933, the Nazi boycotting of Jewish businesses and products was in full swing by March 1933, and was government-sanctioned by Goebbels from 1 April that year. There were meetings in New York soon after – with gatherings of over a thousand people – to discuss boycotting German exports because of this anti-Jewish policy. In short: people knew.
Regarding what Sir Clive told Louisa: in May 1933, Sir Robert Vansittart, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, forecast that: ‘The present regime in Germany will, on past and present form, loose off another European war just so soon as it feels strong enough … We are considering very crude people, who have few ideas in their noddles but brute force and militarism.’ Quoted in The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, p.195, by Christopher Andrew, who quotes the source ‘Security Service Archives’.
Mention of the KdF (Kraft durch Freude) leisure organisation is real. Translated as ‘Strength Through Joy’, it was part of the national German labour organisation and was dedicated to instilling and strengthening Nazi ideals and unity by providing leisure and travel opportunities for the German masses. One of these was a cruise brand that began in 1934 with chartered ships operating out of German ports with cruises to the Mediterranean.
The notion of Hitler’s potential investment in an architectural project around Blenheim Palace sprang from the lore that Hitler had his sights set on the Duke of Marlborough’s ancestral home as his UK base, and allegedly instructed the Luftwaffe not to bomb it.
Sir Oswald Mosley did indeed have an affair with his late wife’s sister Baba in the summer of 1933 (he had previously had a brief fling with the third sister, Irene, as well as their stepmother, Grace Curzon). With thanks to Anne de Courcy for these details, in her acclaimed biography, Diana Mosley.
Unity Mitford met Hitler in the Osteria Bavaria café in Munich, in February 1935, and went on to be a member of his inner circle. Her anti-Semitism was not hidden, and the Jewish Chronicle reported in August 1935 that she had written an article as the London correspondent of Der Stürmer, in which she declared that she thought with joy of the day when she would be able to say with authority ‘out with them’. She later had boyfriends who were in the SS.
Diana Guinness went on to marry Sir Oswald Mosley in Goebbel’s drawing room, with Hitler as a witness, on 6 October 1936.
READING LIST
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, edited by Charlotte Mosley, Harper Perennial, 2008
Hitler’s British Traitors: The Secret History of Spies, Saboteurs and Fifth Columnists, Tim Tate, Icon Books, 2019
Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People, Julia Boyd, Elliot & Thompson, 2017
Court Number One: The Old Bailey – The Trials and Scandals That Shocked Modern Britain, Thomas Grant, John Murray, 2019
The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, Christopher Andrew, Allen Lane, 2010
Rules of the Game, Nicholas Mosley, Martin Secker & Warburg, 1982
Nancy Mitford, Selina Hastings, Vintage, 2002
To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914–1949, Ian Kershaw, Penguin, 2016
A Night to Remember, Walter Lord, Penguin, 1956
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I must acknowledge Alma Rattenbury, Stephen Rattenbury and George Stonor. One cannot know the complications of their lives, only the tragedy that caught them in a tangled web. I hope I have used the framework of their case respectfully, without losing sight of the brutality that nonetheless existed within the fatal murder.
As ever, I owe a huge debt to those far cleverer and more expert in the historical period than me. With thanks to Charles Cumming, Celestria Noel, Annette Jacot, Michael Gracy and Margaret Simmonds for their knowledge and sharp eyes. Any mistrakes [sic] that remain are, of course, entirely mine.
Writing a book is only one facet of the finished article you hold in your hands. For inspiration and guidance, Ed Wood and Catherine Richards are my shining beacons. Rosanna Forte stepped in as editor when COVID-19 shook things up and was exactly what I and the book needed. The teams at Little, Brown and St Martin’s Press are tireless, creative, patient and excellent, whether editing, designing, marketing or selling. Thank you Stephanie Melrose, Laura Vile, Andy Hine, Kate Hibbert, Thalia Proctor, Catherine Burke, Charlie King, Sarah Melnyk, Allison Ziegler, Nettie Finn, Helena Doree and Sally Richardson.
I’d also like to thank the many editors, translators, designers and marketers of the foreign editions of this series for their enthusiasm and good cheer in taking Louisa and Guy around the world. Not forgetting the booksellers, bloggers, literary festival organisers and, of course, readers. I love hearing from you, whether on social media or email, in any language – keep it coming! Thank you, always, for your attention and support. A book isn’t a book until someone reads it, so I depend on you.
Thank you to Caroline Michel, Laurie Robertson and the Peters, Fraser & Dunlop team for their constant endeavours.
I am so lucky to be kept safe and loved by my family, enabling me to write – I couldn’t ask for more. Thank you my darling Simon, Beatrix, Louis and George. Not to leave out Zola and Benson, of course, always showing us the best way to spend a working day (stretched out on the floor of the office).
This book is in memory of Hope Dellon, a giant of publishing, who I was honoured and fortunate enough to get to know over the course of several books and long lunches. Hope’s love of books and writers was both generous and exacting, the perfect combination for an author, and her legacy is magnificent.
ALSO BY JESSICA FELLOWES
The Mitford Scandal
Bright Young Dead
The Mitford Murders
Downton Abbey—A Celebration
The Wit and Wisdom of Downton Abbey
A Year in the Life of Downton Abbey
The Chronicles of Downton Abbey
The World of Downton Abbey
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JESSICA FELLOWES is an author, journalist, and public speaker. She is the author of The Mitford Murders novels as well as the New York Times bestselling official companion books to the Downton Abbey TV series. Former deputy editor of Country Life, and columnist for the Mail on Sunday, she has written for the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, The Sunday Times, and The Lady. Jessica has spoken at events across the UK and US, and has made numerous appearances on radio and television. She lives in Oxfordshire with her family. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Prologue
Part One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Part Two
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
The Mitford Trial Page 27