The Camberley Poisoning

“The boy was lying on the bed in convulsions, and the bed was covered in black vomit...”

An accidental poisoning or a bid to wipe out an entire family? You decide.

Late in the evening of 22 September 1887 in Victorian-era Surrey, a doctor is called to a mysterious double-poisoning at the home of a gardener, Henry Bowles. There he finds Bowles’ wife Hannah and son Edward at the point of death, from what he later discerns as strychnine poisoning.

Jen and David examine whether this was a tragic mistake, a double suicide, or a terrible way to dispatch an entire family. They examine a family brought together by economic necessity to reveal what’s hiding beneath their façade of respectability, and delve into the details of the trial, looking at Henry’s possible motivations for murder. They also discuss the Victorian fear of poisoning, at what was the height of ‘Poison Panic’, in a time where common poisons like arsenic and strychnine were easily accessible and difficult to trace.

Discover the details for yourself in the episode's Case Files - a collection of all the key newspaper reports - available to browse for free on Findmypast: www.findmypast.co.uk/wasjusticeserved

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Producer - Madeleine Gilbert

Assistant Producer - Daisy Goddard

AV Editor - Callum Main

Videographer - Angus Webster

Video Lead - Andrew Farrell

Graphics/Design - Kate Benzie, David Bradley and Graham Jacobs

Researcher - Jen Baldwin

Voiceover - Elliot Hardman

AV Lead - Mark Asquith