Hubert Chevis
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Hubert George "Hugh" Chevis (21 September 1902 – 21 June 1931) was a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
in the
Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
of the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
who died of strychnine poisoning in June 1931 after eating contaminated
partridge A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perd ...
. The youngest son of Sir William and Amy Florence, Lady Chevis, née Dannenberg, Hubert Chevis was born at
Rawal Pindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and List of cities in Punjab, P ...
, India. The first years of his life were spent in India. He later attended Charterhouse School in Surrey. Chevis graduated from the Royal Military Academy as a 2nd Lieutenant on 29 August 1923. At the time of his death in 1931 Chevis was an instructor at the Aldershot Training Camp in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
, and had been married for approximately six months to Frances (née Rollason), an extremely wealthy 29-year-old heiress. Chevis was her second husband, the first having been Major George Jackson, a veterinarian.


Suspicious death

On the afternoon of 20 June 1931 the couple had friends over for cocktails at their Blackdown Camp bungalow. After their friends had left, the Chevises had a slightly earlier dinner than usual, as they wanted to attend the local military tattoo that night. Dinner was prepared by their cook, Ellen Yeomans, and served by their batman, Nicholas Bulger. Gunner Bulger served the
Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
n partridge, onto the
sideboard A sideboard, also called a buffet, is an item of furniture traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers ...
in the dining room, where Mrs Chevis carved it. After Chevis had eaten a mouthful of the bird, he summoned Bulger, saying "Take this bird away. It is the most terrible thing I have tasted." His wife tasted the meat and agreed with him. The partridges were incinerated in the kitchen by Ellen Yeomans. Not long after ingesting the mouthful of partridge, Chevis started experiencing severe cramps and convulsions and a doctor was called. Later that evening, Mrs Chevis also fell ill. A second doctor was called and the couple was admitted to Frimley Cottage Hospital. Chevis died at 9.50 am the following morning after five doctors had administered artificial respiration over a period of several hours. Not long after having been admitted to hospital, both Hubert and Frances Chevis had been given powerful emetics. Two grains of strychnine were found in his stomach. Mrs Chevis subsequently recovered, as she had only tasted the meat. Announcement of Chevis's death was made in the press on Monday, 22 June (''The Times''). On 24 June, Hubert Chevis's father, Sir William Chevis, received a
telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...
on the day of his son's funeral that said "Hooray, hooray, hooray!". It was sent from the Irish capital,
Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
and signed "J. Hartigan". On the back of the telegram was written "Hibernian", a well-known hotel in Dublin. The local police were notified, but nobody of that name was found at the hotel. Subsequent enquiries undertaken by the
Irish police This is a description of law enforcement in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Before the Republic (then called the Irish Free State) left the union in 1922, one police force — the Royal Irish Constabulary — policed almost the whole ...
found that a south Dublin chemist had sold strychnine about four weeks earlier to a man who was similar in appearance to the man who had sent the telegram in the name of J. Hartigan. The '' Daily Sketch'' published a copy of the telegram, only to receive another telegram signed "J. Hartigan" that read, "Dear Sir, Why did you publish a picture of the Hooray telegram?" Chevis's father also received a postcard on 4 August 1931 from "J. Hartigan" that said, "It is a mystery they will never solve."


Investigation

The shipment of Manchurian partridges from which the Chevis partridges had come was examined by experts, but they found no poisoned birds. Several people were interviewed, including Mrs Chevis and her former husband, G. T. T. Jackson of the
Royal Army Veterinary Corps The Royal Army Veterinary Corps (RAVC), known as the Army Veterinary Corps (AVC) until it gained the royal prefix on 27 November 1918, is an administrative and operational branch of the British Army responsible for the provision, training and ca ...
. Jackson denied that he had anything to do with the death of Chevis, stating that he was "miles away at Northampton" at the time. He added that he considered J. Hartigan, the man who sent the telegram, "a cad and a blackguard". Mrs Chevis was unable to shed any light on her husband's death. Irish police later identified the author of the telegram towards the end of 1931 and determined that apart from being mentally unbalanced, he had no other involvement in Chevis's death. Police records identifying this person have not survived. Many theories were propounded about Chevis's death, but the investigation stalled because of a lack of evidence. After several weeks the coroner announced at the inquest, "There is no evidence on which you can find a definite verdict; therefore I direct you to find an open verdict." Chevis's death is often referred to as a murder, but this is incorrect. As the coroner returned an
open verdict The open verdict is an option open to a coroner's jury at an inquest in the legal system of England and Wales. The verdict means the jury confirms the death is suspicious, but is unable to reach any other verdicts open to them. Mortality studies c ...
, in a legal sense this meant that he was unable to confirm whether Chevis has died by accident or misadventure; suicide; murder or manslaughter. Legally, Chevis's death should be referred to as a suspicious death.


Evidence Hubert Chevis was murdered

Though Hubert Chevis's death is strictly speaking a suspicious death, there is some circumstantial evidence to suggest that he may have been murdered by his wife, Frances. In May 1931, one month before Hubert Chevis's death, Frances Chevis changed her will. Copies of the pre-amended will and the amended will do not survive. In Frances Chevis's defence, it seems that she regularly changed her will. On the day of her husband's death, Frances released herself from Frimley Cottage Hospital and returned to her London apartment to recuperate. In the interim, she had arranged for her chauffeur and her children's nurse, Ivy Thorne, to clean up the Chevis bungalow at Deepcut Military Camp. By the time the Surrey Police had arrived at the bungalow any possibly incriminating evidence had been removed. In November 1931 Frances Chevis departed for India to pursue an old flame who was an army officer serving there. This person has never been identified, but it seems that he departed for India shortly before or at the time Frances changed her will. She sought permission from the Surrey Police to leave England to travel to India, and was quite open with the police as to why she wanted to travel to India. She returned to England in 1932. Though close to her children, records suggest that none of them travelled to India to visit or be with her while she was there. At the time of Chevis's death there were "rumours" that Frances was having an affair with her chauffeur, a married man with a young daughter.


Media

The case was the subject of a documentary on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
on 3 September 2011, part of the ''
Punt PI ''Punt PI'' is a fact-based comedy radio series on BBC Radio 4 in which Steve Punt investigates mysteries in Britain. Format Each episode is 30 minutes long and there are three or four episodes in each series. Starting with series two, every ep ...
'' series presented by
Steve Punt Stephen Mark Punt (born 15 September 1962)Mr Stephen Mark Punt
company-director-c ...
.BBC Radio 4, 3 Sept 2011, Punt PI - Murder by poisoned partridge.
/ref> Lack of evidence prevented the programme from reaching any firm conclusions, but it noted that none of the initial suspects had both the motive and opportunity. It also conjectured that both Chevis and his father, Sir William Chevis, had strong connections to the
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was him ...
, and that 'J Hartigan' is an anagram of 'Raj hating'.


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * * * *Diane Janes, ''The Case of the Poisoned Partridge: The Strange Death of Lieutenant Chevis'' (2013), The History Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chevis, Hubert George 1902 births 1931 deaths 1931 murders in the United Kingdom British murder victims English people of German descent Deaths by poisoning People educated at Charterhouse School People from Rawalpindi Royal Artillery officers Unsolved murders in England Strychnine poisoning