Edwin Sowerby

Edwin Sowerby was convicted of the  murder of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend Jane Darwell and sentenced to death.

He cut her throat at a dance at the school house in Crofton near Wakefield on 25 October 1920.

Edwin Sowerby had been a miner at Crofton and had lived at North's Yard, Crofton. He had been twice rejected for the army, but was accepted in March 1916 and served at home until October 1918.

For five months earlier in 1920 he had been keeping company with Jane Darwell, who was the daughter of a miner and employed as a domestic servant at the Royal Oak public house in Crofton. However, about five months before the murder Jane Darwell broke off their engagement.

However, Edwin Sowerby continued to press his suit and on 17 October 1920 he called upon her father and asked if he could have his daughter, to which her father replied, 'Yes, if she wants you'. Edwin Sowerby, who appeared to the father to have had some drink, then jumped up and said, 'If I cannot have her, no one else shall. I shall shoot her and then shoot myself'.

A little later Jane Darwell came in and Edwin Sowerby asked her, 'Do you love me?', to which she replied, 'No'.

The following day Edwin Sowerby remained in bed, apparently unconscious. His mother summoned a doctor who came to the conclusion that Edwin Sowerby was not unconscious, as when told to put out his tongue he did so. The doctor said that he thought that Edwin Sowerby had been suffering from neurasthenia and prescribed a sedative accordingly.

That evening Jane Darwell heard that Edwin Sowerby was ill and called and saw him alone.

Edwin Sowerby appeared to be better the following day and spoke to his doctor and on 11 October 1920 he was out.

On 21 October 1920 Edwin Sowerby told a man that he was going to do  away with himself and later the same day he told an uncle of Jane Darwell that he was going to commit suicide by putting his head on the line.

On the night of 25 October 1920 Jane Darwell left her work and went home to change her clothes in order to go to a whist drive and dance at the Council School Crofton, promoted by the Crofton Cricket Club. Her father took her to the school and left her there at about 11pm.

At about 11.40pm Edwin Sowerby went to the dance and at about 12.20am he crossed the room and sat down beside Jane Darwell. They whispered together for a minute or two and then he cut her throat to the bone with a razor and afterwards slightly cut his own throat.

Jane Darwell died at once.

A man that had been at the dance then lifted Edwin Sowerby up and staunched the blood. Edwin Sowerby then asked him to feel in his trouser pocket and get his ticket out. The man asked him what ticket he meant and Edwin Sowerby replied, 'Feel in my left hand trouser pocket and read it aloud for all in the room to hear'.

The man then found the ticket in his pocket, which was actually a dance programme upon which Edwin Sowerby had written, 'Me and Jennie gone for ever. E Sowerby. Love to all'.

Edwin Sowerby was then taken to hospital where he refused to speak and refused food. He was artificially fed and the wound to his throat was stitched up and on 2 November 1920 he was removed to prison.

His only defence at his trial was insanity, however, there was little or no evidence in support of it.

A medical officer at the prison reported Edwin Sowerby to be of sound mind. His medical officer at the prison who attended to him on 8 and 9 October 1920 said, ‘He is a normal, sane man. I should call him a weak character. I thought he was intellectually weak'.

The hospital doctor that treated Edwin Sowerby also said that he thought he was sane and to have had no mental or physical disease. He said, 'I have no doubt whatever. I could not express an opinion  as to his mental condition at the time of occurrence'.

However, Edwin Sowerby's mother said that since he had come out of the army that Edwin Sowerby had, 'suffered dreadful with his head'.

Two other witnesses also gave evidence regarding Edwin Sowerby's threats of suicide on 21 October 1920.

Edwin Sowerby was convicted of murder with no recommendation to mercy. After finding Edwin Sowerby guilty, the judge remarked that the jury would not have done their duty if, after hearing the evidence they had heard, they had not returned any other verdict.

Edwin Sowerby was executed at Leeds on Thursday 30 December 1920. It was noted that when he went to the scaffold that he had carried a photograph of Jane Darwell with him.