Sir Henry John Delves Broughton
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, 11th
Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, DL (10 September 1883 – 5 December 1942), was a British baronet who is chiefly known for standing trial for the murder of
Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll Josslyn Victor Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll (11 May 1901 – 24 January 1941)Cokayne et al., ''The Complete Peerage'', volume I, p.1337 was a British peer, known for the unsolved case surrounding his murder and the sensation it caused during wartime ...
. The event was the basis of the film '' White Mischief'' and of the British television drama
The Happy Valley ''The Happy Valley'' is a British television drama, first shown on BBC1 on 6 September 1987 in the ''Sunday Premiere'' strand. It was written by David Reid, directed by Ross Devenish, and produced by Cedric Messina. It stars Holly Aird as Juan ...
, both from 1987.


Early life

Born at Doddington Hall in Doddington,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
, 'Jock' Delves Broughton attended the
Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...
, and was commissioned a
second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
in the Irish Guards on 10 December 1902. He came into the baronetcy upon the death of his father in April 1914. He had married Vera Edyth Griffith-Boscawen (2 January 1894 – 21 August 1968) on 8 July 1913; their daughter, Rosamond, married The 15th Lord Lovat in 1938. On the outbreak of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, as a Captain (British Army), captain in the 1st Battalion Irish Guards, he was due to sail with his men, but was taken ill and had to be replaced. He was forced to sell off most of the 34,000 acres (140 km2) of the family estate in the 1930s to pay gambling debts. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was part of a consortium which owned the Ensbury Park Race Course in Kinson, Dorset, now a part of Bournemouth. In 1939, he was suspected of insurance fraud after the theft of his wife's pearls and some paintings, on which he claimed the insurance.empty Months after he and Vera divorced, Delves Broughton married Happy Valley set#Diana, Lady Delamere, Diana Caldwell in Durban, Natal (province), Natal, Union of South Africa, on 5 November 1940, and the couple moved to the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.


Murder trial

Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, Lord Erroll was found shot in the head in his car at a crossroads outside Nairobi on 24 January 1941. He and the Delves Broughtons were part of the so-called Happy Valley set living in Happy Valley, Kenya, Happy Valley, Kenya. Erroll's former lover, Alice de Janzé, was initially viewed by the Happy Valley set as a suspect, but Sir Jock Delves Broughton – whose bride was very publicly carrying-on with Erroll – was arrested. He was acquitted at trial for lack of evidence, a conclusion that hinged on the identification of the murder weapon. Delves Broughton's pistol was a Colt's Manufacturing Company, Colt with 6 grooves, and Erroll was killed by a bullet with 5 grooves. No pistol was produced by the Crown or by the defence. Delves Broughton claimed that two of his pistols, a silver cigarette case and 10 or 20 shillings were stolen days before Erroll's death. Superintendent (police), Superintendent Arthur Poppy, a senior officer in the Kenya Police, claimed that Delves Broughton had stolen the guns from himself to give the impression that he had no .32 pistol at the time. Additionally, the bullet that killed Erroll was fired by a pistol with clockwise rifling; Colts use anti-clockwise rifling. Another bullet fired at Erroll also had 5 grooves and clockwise turning. On 11 May 2007, ''The Daily Telegraph'' writer Christine Nicholls described taped evidence she claimed was definitive proof that Delves Broughton killed Erroll.


Aftermath

Delves Broughton was never accepted back into the Happy Valley set and returned to England alone, his wife having already taken another lover. In December 1942, a few days after his arrival, 59 year-old Delves Broughton was found dying from a morphine overdose at the Britannia Adelphi Hotel, Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. The inquest recorded a verdict of suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed, in relation to illness following a back injury from a fall, the official reason for his return to England.''Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya'', Christine Stephanie Nicholls, Timewell Press, 2005, The baronetcy passed to his son, Evelyn Delves Broughton, Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton. After his death, his widow Diana Caldwell, Diana remarried twice, the first time to the Happy Valley's wealthiest settler, Gilbert Colvile, and the second time to Thomas Cholmondeley, 4th Baron Delamere, The 4th Baron Delamere.


See also

*Alice de Janzé


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delves Broughton, Jock 1883 births 1942 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Deputy Lieutenants of Cheshire Drug-related suicides in England Irish Guards officers British emigrants to Kenya People educated at Eton College British Army personnel of World War I