William James Yeldham

Elsie Florence Yeldham and William James Yeldham were convicted of the murder of 54-year-old George Stanley Grimshaw and sentenced to death, however, Elsie Yeldham was reprieved.

They killed him at Higham's Park, Chingford on 17 May 1922.

They were husband and  wife and murdered George Grimshaw during the course of a robbery at Highams Park near the river Ching after Elsie Yeldham lured him there.

George Grimshaw was last seen walking towards a local pub around 7pm. Around 8.45pm a 16 year old saw a scuffle in the bushes at Higham's Park and went to look but a man, William Yeldham confronted him and he ran away. However, moments later when he noticed they had left he went back and found two other people on the scene and George Grimshaw on the ground with his watch chain out minus its watch which had been stolen. George Grimshaw was moaning and bleeding from the head.

He was taken to Whipps Cross hospital where they found he had about 12 deep cuts to the scalp, some to the bone, and his front skull fractured with brain exposed. His eyes were also bruised with abrasions around. He later died.

After some investigations the police found out that George Grimshaw had been having a relationship with a waitress and so they started to look into that and found that he had been writing letters to a girl that had recently married a man called William Yeldham. After shop to shop enquiries they found out that the girl had been receiving letters to a certain address and when they went there they found a letter in George Grimshaws writing. From there they traced Elsie Yeldham and William Yeldham to Braintree where they were staying at Nunnery Farm, Bocking. They were brought in for questioning and Elsie Yeldham told them that she and William Yeldham had argued that day and she had then gone to meet George Grimshaw in London and that he had followed her and after they had gone to the pub they went to Highams Park where they sat and put their arms around each other. However, she said William Yeldham then came running out with an iron bar and beat George Grimshaw over the head a few times. She said she then searched him for money as she knew he carried a lot and she found a £15 treasury note, thirteen £1 notes and four  10/- notes plus the watch.

William Yeldham had joined the navy in 1915 and in 1918 got 90 days' imprisonment for stealing five Treasury notes from a shipmate. Later in 1919 he deserted his ship and was finally discharged from the Navy in October 1919. Since then he had only done a few months' work as a labourer on the roads, and had lived in an outhouse at Highlands Farm in Ilford that was kept by his grandfather and his mother.

Elsie Yeldham had been the daughter of an ex-PC in S Division who had retired on a pension in 1914 and died in January 1919. In January 1921 she was bound over for two years for stealing property valued at £8 from a house at which she had been employed as a housemaid. However, she broke her recognizances by changing her address, and on 11 November 1921, she was arrested at Highlands Farm, where she had been living with William Yeldham, for stealing a bicycle.

William Yeldham got 6 months' for that offence whilst Elsie Yeldham got 3 months for breach of recognizances.

By that time it appeared that Elsie Yeldham had been  seemed to have been living the life of a prostitute, and upon William Yeldham's release, towards the end of April, she seemed to have joined William Yeldham again and gone to sleep with him in the outhouse at Highlands Farm.

However, William Yeldham seemed to have done no work and to have lived off her earnings.

On Easter Monday, Elsie Yeldham met George Grimshaw, a married man employed as a painter and grainer and living at Forest Row, Walthamstow.

He generally carried £5 or £6 in his hip pocket and there was no doubt that after Easter Monday he constantly met and had connection with Elsie Yeldham.

On the evening of 17 May 1922 George Grimshaw met Elsie Yeldham at the Green Man public house in Leytonstone and then went to Highams Park, a distance of about seven miles, where they went into the park and sat down by some bushes near the River Ching.

William Yeldham said that he saw them board the bus and get on the top at the Green Man public house and that he got inside, travelled to Highams Park and followed them when they got out.

At about 8.30pm a man on the other side of the Ching Stream saw William Yeldham and George Grimshaw struggling near some bushes. He said that William Yeldham saw him and shouted at him and asked what he wanted. The man said that he just walked away, but that after he had gone about 100 yards he saw a man and a woman running away from where he had seen the struggle and he went back and with another man that had come by, he found George Grimshaw lying in the middle of the bushes.

George Grimshaw had been terribly battered about the head and died the next day in hospital.

The wounds had been inflicted with a spanner that was found in the stream. It had been taken from the stable at Highlands Farm that day.

George Grimshaw's pockets had been rifled and only 5/8½d was found on him. His watch had been broken from the chain and was sold by William Yeldham on 22 May 1922 for 2/-.

Elsie Yeldham admitted having taken £15 in Treasury notes from George Grimshaw's pocket, and she and William Yeldham were married by special licence on 20 May 1922, three days after the murder.

They were arrested by Metropolitan police officers on 24 May 1922 at Nunnery Farm in Booking, Essex.

They both admitted that they had been the persons involved in George Grimshaw's death.

Elsie Yeldham said in a statement she made to the police that she had quarrelled with William Yeldham and told him that she was going to meet her sister, but instead she went to meet George Grimshaw, by appointment, at the Green Man public house. She said that William Yeldham must have followed them.

She then said that whilst she was sitting with George Grimshaw by a holly bush, that she saw William Yeldham come up from behind with a piece of iron about a foot long and strike George Grimshaw a heavy blow on the head with the iron. She said that George Grimshaw however managed to get up on his feet, but that William Yeldham then repeatedly struck at him with the iron until he fell into the holly bush, as she thought, dead.

She said that William Yeldham then told her to go through his pockets, which she did, and found £15 in Treasury notes in his purse.

William Yeldham said that after Elsie Yeldham left him to go to her sisters that he thought he would go and steal some chickens and for that purpose took the spanner with him and carried it up in his waistcoat. However, he said that it was then too light to steal chickens and so he went for a walk and went to the Green Man public house in Leytonstone where he saw Elsie Yeldham  and George Grimshaw waiting for a bus. He said that they got on top and he got inside and that he followed them when they got out, but lost sight of them.

However, he said that he then heard a laugh and saw them lying together near a holly bush.

He said that he then walked round in front of them and said:

He said that George Grimshaw then rushed at him and that in self-defence he struck him with his fists and that George Grimshaw then said to Elsie Yeldham:

And started to run. However, he said that he ran after him and struck him with his fist again and that George Grimshaw butted at his chest and that the spanner fell out of his waistcoat and that George Grimshaw picked it up. However, he said that he then knocked it out of his hand and picked it up and in a fit of passion struck him.

He said that Elsie Yeldham had been standing watching and that he then left her with George Grimshaw's body. He denied telling her to rob his body, saying that she said to him:

At the trial, the case for the prosecution was that William Yeldham and Elsie Yeldham had deliberately conspired that Elsie Yeldham should lure George Grimshaw to a quiet place where William Yeldham could murder him and that they would then rob his body of the money which they knew he always carried about him.

The jury, it was said also adopted that view, and the police report stated that there was no doubt that that was true.

There was no recommendation to mercy and they were both sentenced to death.

In his letter to the Home Secretary, the judge noted:

They were convicted at the Old Bailey on 19 July 1922.

Both William Yeldham and Elsie Yeldham appealed.

William Yeldham appealed on the grounds that the charge should have been manslaughter, and Elsie Yeldham, on the grounds that, if William Yeldham's appeal was accepted, that she was only guilty of being an accessory after the fact.

However, in her appeal, it was noted that she said that she had robbed George Grimshaw's body on her own account and that when she told William Yeldham that she had done so that he said:

However, the police report noted that there was no doubt that she was of a somewhat low type, mentally and morally, but noted that the medical officers report didn't support the other reports from members of the Visiting Committee, Women's Societies and others, to the effect that she was weak-minded or half-witted.

The police report stated that they had little doubt that Elsie Yeldham had known well that William Yeldham intended that night to attack George Grimshaw, and whether William Yeldham told her to run through his pockets or not, she took advantage of the fact that he was half dead to rob him of £15.

However, the police report submitted that in the event of her appeal being dismissed, that, on the ground of her sex and the view expressed by the judge, which could be correct, that she had been acting under the influence of William Yeldham, that she should be reprieved.

Both appeals were refused, however, Elsie Yeldham was later reprieved.

William Yeldham was executed at HMP Pentonville on 5 September 1922.