LOCAL HISTORY


Margaret Drinkall with her latest book


SHORT STORY By Margeret Drinkall


The Search for ‘the


On Tuesday 7th April 1959, a young man called Neil Saxon called in at the Rotherham College of Technology to talk to his 21 year old girlfriend Joyce Moran, who worked as a clerk in the general office.


Struggle and Suffrage in Sheffield


Competition Winners


Two lucky readers will be delving deep into local history after winning our latest Aroundtown competition.


We are pleased to announce the winners of last edition’s competition are Samantha Potter from Rotherham and Mrs J Tonks from Sheffield. Both prize winners will shortly be absorbed in the pages of Struggle and Suffrage in Sheffield, the recently published book of Rotherham author Margaret Drinkall. As well as featuring in our January edition this year when Margaret explained how she had managed to turn her love of history into her dream job, the esteemed author has also done us the honour of writing a series of features exclusively for Aroundtown and you can now enjoy reading her first one.


Thank you for our many competition entries, our highest number to date! We hope everybody enjoys a flavour of Margaret’s fascinating stories.


So, even if you weren’t lucky enough to win our competition, you can still be captivated by one of Margaret’s fascinating stories.


He was talking to her through a hatch when a man approached with a gun and shot him before firing through the hatch at the girl. Unable to get a clear shot he then pushed open the door to the office and fired another five or six times. The gunman, who walked with a limp, was then seen walking out of the College, openly carrying a pistol. He got into his car and drove away.


The assassin was physics lecturer Bernard


Hugh Walden aged 33, described as a sad and pathetic figure who had developed a crush on the young girl Joyce Moran. However, his feelings turned into hatred when he asked her to marry him and was refused. Walden lived in lodgings on Spinneyfield, Rotherham and had formed an attachment to the girl who lived with her parents close by on Far Lane.


Immediately after the shooting a nationwide police search was established for Walden describing him as being ‘about 5 feet 7 inches in height, of thin build and wearing a blue/grey sports jacket and flannel trousers. The following day Mr J E Cotton, the Chief Constable of Rotherham, told the local and national press that Walden’s car a pale blue Ford Prefect (SET 369) had been found in Leeds. Inside were three revolvers and another two guns were found at his lodgings. Mr Cotton stated that the man had not to be approached and made an appeal directly to Walden to give himself up.


Across Britain, a search was made by police officers anxious to locate the ‘limping man’ from Rotherham, but it was not until 2nd June that he was found sleeping in a park shelter in Reading. PC Hawkins, of the local police force, found him lying on a seat with a shotgun in a broken position beside him. Hawkins asked Walden ‘what are you doing here at this time of night with a gun?’ The man answered that it was ‘a long story’ before admitted that he was the ‘limping man’ wanted by police.


Limping Man’


Walden was brought back to Rotherham in an unmarked car, but just before it reached the town he was transferred into a police van. News of his capture had spread and it was noted that large crowds now lined the pavements along Effingham Street hoping to catch a sight of the killer. Walden was brought before the magistrates and the enquiry lasted for two days before he was found guilty and sent to take his trial. It became clear that had providence intervened, the murders might not have taken place at all. Walden had been offered a senior teaching post at Barnsley, and if the offer had come a few weeks earlier he might have left Rotherham altogether. Witnesses gave evidence that he had become embittered by only getting a third class degree through illness when his mother died. Walden had always believed that his family expected him to get a first class degree and that somehow he had let them all down. He also developed polio which caused the limp. Walden told officers in Rotherham that when he asked Joyce to marry him she laughed at him and viciously added ‘that was the first nail in her coffin’.


A death sentence was issued on 22nd July but an appeal was lodged, which was later dismissed, with regret by the Home Secretary Mr. R A Butler. At the time there was a great argument about whether Britain should abolish capital punishment. Campaigners agreed whereas the police and the government were determined to keep it to deter offenders, like Walden, from carrying firearms. When he appeared at the Sheffield Assizes on 1st July, there was no dispute that he had been suffering from diminished responsibility when the crime was committed. The judge Mr Justice Hilberry trying to clarify the situation for the jury stated ‘the truth is that mental abnormality is incapable of definition’. Nevertheless, Walden was found guilty and he was given the sentence of death and was executed at Leeds Armley Gaol on 14th August 1959. The argument against capital punishment continued and illustrating the case a Daily Herald reported stated that ‘although it had been a pointless crime, without profit or gain Walden did not deserve to die’. Irrespective of this, two young Rotherham people had lost their lives through the actions of a thwarted man with a gun in his possession.


aroundtownmagazine.co.uk 35


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84