Sgt. James McNicol - Hanged for
Manslaughter?
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Background.
James
McNicol was hanged in December 1945 in what must have appeared at the time,
especially to the authorities, to be an "open and shut" case.
Nobody including James disputed the basic facts of the killing and at no time
did he try to deny responsibility for his actions. Like so many cases it
would have quickly faded from the memory and into history but for the efforts
of his niece, Elaine Merrilees, who became fascinated by the fate of her
uncle. The more she discovered the more she came to the conclusion that
James was really only guilty of manslaughter rather than murder. Elaine
asked me to help write and publish this article so that the case might become
more widely known and also to give a personal insight into how the crime and
execution affected her family. The details of the case are taken from the
official papers obtained from the Public Records Office in early 2001 and are
set out below. Where quotation marks are used in my part of the article, they
contain the words given in statements or evidence and are not merely my
interpretation of what people might have said.
Elaine’s summation of the effects on the family is to be found at the end.
Early days.
James was
born in Motherwell in
He fought for his King and Country in
The days leading up to the crime.
By early
1945, James was serving at a heavy anti-aircraft battery, called NAN1, at
During the
summer of 1945, James had a brief relationship with Pte. Jean Neale and went
out with her 4 times during the week prior to the murder. They had a slight
tiff the night before the shooting when, according to Jean, James wanted to
stay talking outside her hut and she didn't. After this, she considered
the "relationship" over.”
James spoke to her again the next night when she was with another girl
at the bonfire celebrating VJ day and asked her if she was going to the dance
later on. She replied that, "she didn't know" and James left.
The
night of Thursday the 16th August 1945- VJ night plus 1.
(Taken from
Sgt. Len Cox's police statement of the tragic events of that night.)
After the
Allies victory over Japan (VJ Day) the previous day, there were, not
surprisingly, many parties and dances all over Britain and it was decided to
hold a dance at Thorpe Bay camp on the following evening (16th August) with the
permission of the Commanding Officer, Captain Edmund Roxby. James had
been drinking in a pub called the Halfway House during that afternoon and had
in fact drank a very large amount of beer, perhaps as much as 14-16 pints
altogether during the afternoon and evening.
On the
afternoon of the 16th, James went with Sgt. Cox, another Sergeant, and two
gunners to the Halfway House and they each consumed 5 pints of mild and bitter
- presumably they each bought a round. They then clubbed together and
gave James some money to purchase 6 quarts of beer (12 pints) and then made
their way back to the camp around
Some sort
of altercation ensued between James and Jerry McKay, presumably over Jerry
dancing with Jean. James had apparently thrown a glass of beer over him
and there had been heated words. Sgt. Cox was told about this by Jean and
came out of the NAAFI to see what was going on. He and James had words
and Sgt. Cox told James that, "if I wasn't frightened of losing my
chevrons (sergeant's stripes) - I would do something about it." Other men intervened and prevented an actual
fight at this point. (see “Albert's” recollections below). Sgt. Cox
told the court that during the last dance, James spoke to him again and said
that if Sgt. Cox still wanted to make something out of the incident he would
see him outside.
Jerry and
Sgt. Cox saw Jean and her friend back to her hut and Sgt. Cox went back to the sergeant's
sleeping hut. In the hut when Sgt. Cox arrived were fellow sergeants,
Kirkaldie,
Sgt.
Cox now prepared to retire and got into bed and switched off the lights.
He had only been in bed a minute or so when one Bombardier Abley came in and
spoke to him, as a result of which he and Sgt. Kirkaldie got up and dressed
again and went to Bombardier Abley's hut.
They then went to the Sergeant's Mess and found James who offered Len Cox a
drink. Sgt. Cox told James he would see him in the morning. Cox and
Kirkaldie then returned to their hut and Kirkaldie tied the door handle to the
bedsteads with some rope. Kirkaldie made sure the door could not be
opened (by James) and they turned off the lights and again went to bed.
A little later the occupants of the hut were woken by the sound of the door
being rattled, followed by the sound of a window pane being broken. Sgt.
Cox recalled seeing the light being switched on from outside and saw a hand
withdrawing back through the broken window.
He then heard a shot and felt "something hit his chest". He
heard a second shot a few seconds later. He remained conscious and was given
medical treatment for his injuries.
It is
thought that the second shot was the one that fatally injured Sgt. Kirkaldie,
striking him in the throat and passing right through his neck from one side to
the other. According to the army Medical Officer who examined both
sergeants at the scene, Sgt. Kirkaldie died instantly from this wound due to
shock.
In his
statement, Sgt. Cox agreed that he was normally on good terms with James as was
Sgt. Kirkaldie and also stated that neither of them had a relationship with
Jean Neale.
James'
version of the events differs slightly from Sgt. Cox's. In his statement
he told the police that he had some more beer when he got back to the dance and
was upset to find Jean Neale dancing with another man. He followed Jean
and Jerry into the dance and threw a pint of beer over Jerry. Sgt. Cox
intervened and told James that he didn't like him and never had. Sgt. Cox
tried to fight James but James wasn't prepared to fight in the dancehall.
James found Sgt. Cox later who, according to James, told him that if it wasn't
for only having another 3 weeks to do in the army, he would kill him
(James). James went into another hut to get some matches and noticed
Bombardier Abley and Sgt. Cox and was called a "mad bastard" and was
otherwise verbally abused. James again went off and sat on his own and had a
smoke when Sgt's. Cox and Kirkaldie came in and Sgt. Cox continued the barrage
of verbal abuse. James decided the best thing he could do was to have a
"good hit at him" otherwise the others would think he was afraid of
Sgt. Cox. He was also thinking about Sgt. Cox's threat to kill him and
expected to be beaten up by Sgt. Cox in the morning. James wandered
around for a while and found himself in the Command Post and saw the rifles.
He took up one of them and made his way towards the camp. According to
his statement, "I had no intentions of killing Cox but I wanted to wound
him." He went back to the sergeant's hut, broke the window and switched
the light on. He tried to shoot Sgt. Cox in the leg. He fired
another shot and then in a dazed state, knowing he had done something seriously
wrong, ran away. At this stage, he was completely unaware that he had
killed his best mate Sgt. Kirkaldie. A little later he found himself in a
field and decided to bury the rifle there. Unsure of what to do next he
went to the Rochford gun site and went to bed. He fell asleep fully
clothed and remained there until he was woken by the police later on that
morning. James offered no resistance when he was arrested and cooperated fully
with the police giving an open truthful statement. When he was charged with murder, James told
the police immediately where he had buried the army Lee Enfield rifle. It was
found on August 23rd in a field behind the Coastguard Station at
James had taken the rifle from the Command Post which begs the question whether
the guns were adequately secured. The camp commander, Captain Roxby, had
given verbal instructions to the site commanders, including Captain Owen who
was in charge of NAN1, regarding the security of the rifle stores. As a
result of these, the 45 rifles on the NAN1 camp were collected up and put into
the armoury which was then locked. However, this room was totally
insecure and the means of entry to it was a widely known
"secret." James had had a clip of ammunition in his kit bag,
for some time, although this was against the rules.
“Albert”
- an eyewitness to the events of the night of the 16th.
“Albert” was a fellow soldier at
"For
several weeks before the VJ Day celebrations James had been seen with a young
local lass (Jean Neale) and he escorted her to the party that evening. James
seemed happy to stand near the bar drinking and his young lady accepted a dance
from a RAF Officer (who was a friend of sergeant Cox.) James threw a drink in the guy's face and
told him to back off as the girl was with him.
At that point, Len Cox involved himself in the argument. To avoid trouble the airman left the dance
but there was a notable atmosphere between James and Cox for the rest of the
evening."
"For almost 30 minutes I watched James trying to evade another
confrontation with Cox, this was proving difficult so he decided to leave but
just before James left I and others heard Len Cox say, "You had better let
your family know that you won't be coming home, and sleep with one eye open as
I intend to finish this later."
”This remark infuriated James and provoked the fight which followed, but myself
and Kirkaldie managed to separate them before things got out of hand. To this
day I wonder if Kirkaldie's death could have been avoided by letting James and
Cox fight out their anger then and there.
When James stormed off in a rage I went after him, I found him some time later in
the Sergeant's Mess in an agitated state. I managed to calm him down a bit and
we were having a drink in the Mess when Len Cox came barging in accusing James
of up-turning his bunk."
"Your Uncle was not one to shy away from confrontation so he stood his
ground inviting Cox outside to finish things once and for all. Len Cox told
James that this was not the time or place for settling the score, he also
threatened to file a complaint against him in the morning. Cox left slamming the Mess door behind him. (I
remember this clearly because the door actually came off its hinge.)
Kirkaldie and myself stayed with James after Cox left, half an hour later
Kirkaldie retired to bed and at about 2am I also went to my bunk leaving James
alone, two hours later Donald was dead and Len Cox wounded.
James was a genuine nice chap and his actions that night were hard to
believe. I did give statements to the police and my senior officers but I
was not called to give evidence during the trial at
Trial.
The trial
opened at the Essex Assizes in
Mr Cecil Havers KC appeared for the prosecution while Mr Tristram Beresford KC
was defending James. James was charged with murder and attempted murder
and pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The
prosecution called various witnesses including Sgt. Cox and Private Jean Neale
and they all seemed to give a fair version of what had happened on that
night. Sgt. Cox denied, however, that he had threatened to kill
James.
In the
witness box, James asserted that he had never intended to kill Sgt. Kirkaldie
and explained that when he went back to the sergeant's hut to go to bed, he
found the door locked and became angry. He told the court that this is
what made him break the window and fire a shot. He then stepped back and
fired a second shot generally at the hut. James claimed that Cox had threatened
to kill him, which made him “irritated" and he got a rifle from the
Command Post and went to the hut with the intention of confronting Cox.
"Having got so far I fired the rifle twice. He told the court that he
didn't aim but just fired wildly."
“I had not the smallest intention of killing anyone. I only wanted to
frighten Cox. I was dazed. I knew I had done wrong. I ran away from the
camp and buried the rifle." Under cross examination though, James
agreed that he had intended to shoot Cox in the legs if he (Cox) got nasty but
had no intention of killing him.
Mr. Tristram Beresford, for James, invited the jury to bring in a verdict of
manslaughter on the grounds that James was too drunk to form any intention of
killing anyone. This was rejected by the jury.
In his
summing up, Mr. Justice Lewis told the jury that although during the trial
there had been references to James' jealousy over Pte. Jean Neale, there was no
suggestion that James had any cause to be jealous insofar as Sgt. Kirkaldie was
concerned.
Toward the
end of the second day of the trial, the jury retired to consider their verdict
and soon returned and declared James guilty on both charges. Mr. Justice Lewis
then donned the black cap and sentenced James "to be taken back to the
prison where he was last confined and from there to a place of execution, there
to be hanged by the neck until dead and that thereafter his body be buried in
the precincts of the prison. He added the customary rider "May the
Lord have mercy upon your soul." James was now taken down from the
dock and transferred back to prison.
Appeal.
The Appeal
was heard on Wednesday, December 5th. The defence submission was that
James was under the influence of drink so as to be incapable of forming any
intention to murder.
In his judgement, Justice Humphreys, one of the
3 Lords Justices of Appeal in Ordinary, accepted that everyone agreed that
James was so drunk as to make himself a nuisance and his own evidence made it
clear that he acted as he did because he had a quarrel with another man (Sgt.
Cox) who was in the hut. However, the
appeal was dismissed as it was plain from the evidence that James had gone to
the hut intending to do someone an injury and a man had died as a result.
A short
article in the Motherwell Times reads as follows :
MURDER APPEAL DISMISSED.
The Court of Criminal Appeal on
Mr Tristram Beresford, K.C. for McNicol, said the crime was committed after a
bonfire and dance on V. J. Day Plus One and the only question was whether it
was a case which could properly have been reduced to manslaughter in view of
the defence that McNicol was under the influence of drink so as to be incapable
of forming any intention to commit murder.
Mr Justice Humphreys said there was no misdirection of the jury and no ground
for the court interfering with the conviction. “Thank you, my lord," said
McNicol as he left the dock.
After the appeal.
There was
very considerable efforts made on James' behalf to secure a reprieve,
particularly in his local area. James' defence had raised a petition of
20,700 signatures for mercy.
Mr. Alex
Anderson MP for
Mr. Anderson asked him to consider an appeal on the following grounds, which he
had put in a letter :
1. McNicol was a young man of unassuming and blameless character prior to
joining the forces.
2. While serving in the East he had a most severe attack of malaria and was
invalided out. "Malaria patients I
am told are peculiarly susceptible to the effects of alcohol."
3. When the tragedy occurred he was so deeply under the effects of alcohol as
to be scarcely responsible for his actions particularly if his physical
condition is considered.
4. The man he killed was his best friend which shows that there was no
premeditation.
5. He was a war hero and much loved and respected in his hometown and within
the ranks of his regiment, his death would leave them with an abiding sorrow.
James' own
petition for mercy is reproduced in full below.
Copy of a Petition written by 1322, James McNichol. Submitted to the
Secretary of State 8.12.45.
Sir,
I respectfully request you to give this my petition for your most earnest and
sympathetic consideration. I know I have been guilty of a terrible tragedy and
must in some way be punished. I am also fully aware of the fact that
whatever I may say it will in no way alleviate the suffering that I have caused
to those near and dear to the unfortunate victim of my terrible act.
I was fully alive to the fact that drunkenness is no defence in law for what I
did, but I do earnestly ask you to consider the incidents leading up to this
tragedy. I do assure you, Sir, that had I been my usual sober self
nothing would have been further from my mind than to harm any living soul least
of all this my great friend. It so happened that we were celebrating V. J. Day
and I had taken more to drink than I was accustomed to. During the evening
several incidents occurred in the camp which made me irritable and somewhat
quarrelsome. Indeed, I must have been in a hopeless state prior to the incident
and have little or no recollection of what happened. I must have been in a very
fuddled state of mind, and quite irresponsible. In that abnormal state of mind
I must have taken a rifle and fired it into the hut. The shouts and screams
after the incident made me run away, and it was some time before I sobered up
and realised that something was wrong. I eventually arrived back at the camp,
and was informed of what had occurred. I was shocked and could not realise
my folly. I do earnestly implore you, Sir, to believe me when I say I
never had any real intention to harm anyone least of all the unfortunate victim
with whom I had no quarrel, but was on the best of terms. I have been a serving soldier for some six
years, and have risen from the ranks to sergeant. My character has always been
exemplary, and during my 4 ½ years abroad in France, West Africa, and India I
have been conscious of my duty towards my fellow men and my country. I
earnestly request that these facts coupled to the suggestion that the effect of
strong drink on my brain would be greater after being out East.
I have stated already that I am fully conscious of the terrible crime committed
by me, and realise that I must be punished, also that whatever I may do it will
never be erased from my memory. I therefore implore you from the depth of my
heart to grant me a reprieve, so that I can in some small way atone for the
past, and bring some compensation to the innocent persons whom I have wronged.
If this reprieve was forthcoming, I swear that during the years of my
imprisonment I would do all in my power to rehabilitate myself, and thus to
atone for the past.
I therefore fervently hope and pray that you will spare my life so that I can
be given the opportunity to prove to all concerned that I can be a decent and
law abiding citizen. No one will ever know what I have suffered during
these terrible weeks, and I feel that I have in some measure paid for my sins,
years of imprisonment can never be as terrible as I have passed through these
last few weeks. God only knows how I have repented this great wrong. He
knows also that what I am asking you to consider is true, and his Son was
prepared to forgive those that crucified him, so I plead with you to grant this
merciful act. I therefore fervently hope and pray that you Sir, will take a
merciful view that during these very long hours in a condemned cell that I have
made my peace with God, and will afford me the chance of one day resuming my
responsibilities as a decent citizen and atoning for this terrible
tragedy.
I am your obedient Servant,
(signed James McNichol.)
All the
grounds set forth by Mr. Anderson and the two petitions were rejected by
Chuter- Ede and on
In the
condemned cell.
James was
now transferred to Pentonville prison, as Wormwood Scrubs did not have an
execution facility and
James'
family had been convinced that he would be reprieved, as was everybody else
involved with the case. But this was not to be and the governor informed
James of the decision on the 18th and that he only had 3 days left to
live. It is impossible to imagine the mental torment that a person goes
through having been told that they are to be hanged in 3 days time.
Execution.
James was
hanged by Albert Pierrepoint at
On Monday, the 31st of December 1945, 10 days after
James was hanged, a journalist for the Motherwell Times, who had reported the
trial and execution, allegedly got wind of a document which may have saved
James from the gallows The document was said to contain a medical report on
malaria, confirming that sufferers were known to have mental blackouts if they
mixed too much alcohol with their medication - the alkaloid, quinine. This
report had been commissioned by James' defence but arrived too late to be
considered.
Comment.
Obviously, we
cannot be sure of the precise words used by Sgt. Cox to James and whether he
really did threaten to kill James or whether James genuinely believed from Sgt.
Cox's words and body language that his life was threatened. Both men had
had a lot to drink that night and both were most probably at the aggressive
stage. However, there was not the slightest motive to kill Sgt. Kirkaldie
and James had had no disagreement with him that evening.
In my view, having carefully examined the evidence, there was no intent to kill
anyone. The proof of intent (the mens rea or guilty mind) is crucial to
secure a conviction for murder. Without it, there can only be a
conviction for manslaughter.
Had James killed Sgt. Cox he would have been guilty of murder because he
intended to frighten or harm Cox, which intention, if the subsequent act were
to have caused the death of Cox, would have certainly constituted murder.
James was a
young man who had the best years of his life blighted by the war. He contracted
malaria serving his country, for which the army prescribed him quinine, the
standard medication at that time. Did they, however, make clear to James
the dangers of mixing quinine with alcohol? They had a clear duty of care
to do so.
Although much was made by the defence of James' drunken state on the night of
the crime, it seems little weight was given at either the trial or the appeal
to the combined effects of alcohol and quinine. The doctrine of diminished
responsibility did not come in until 1957 with the Homicide Act of that
year.
James was clearly consumed with remorse at what he had done and it would seem,
from his petition, genuinely repentant. At no time did he try and deny
responsibility for the crime.
Was his
execution humane? Where was James while John Riley Young was being hanged
- could he hear the crash of the trap? I cannot think of another case
where two men were hanged on the same gallows an hour and a half apart.
Prisons were always very quiet during an execution and the crash of the
trapdoors was often audible through the prison.
The law
on murder in 1945.
In 1945, if
a person was convicted of murder, the death sentence was mandatory (notice I
say sentence, not penalty, as around 50% of condemned inmates were
reprieved). After the trial, the judge would send the case papers to the
Home Office with his recommendation. If he recommended mercy, the Home
Office would almost always reprieve. The jury's recommendation to mercy,
where made, was often ignored however.
Did the
crime really deserve death? With so many being reprieved at this time, it
is difficult to see that James deserved to hang. There was no motive and
no evidence, never mind proof, of "evil" intent in this case.
It is unlikely that he would have posed any continuing or significant danger to
the public at large.
No
explanation of how the decision to reprieve or not to reprieve was ever given
by the Home Office. Everything was decided in secret by the officials who
advised the Home Secretary. Derek Bentley's case is the perfect example of this
executive secrecy in action.
Even Parliament was not permitted to debate a capital case until after the
execution and petitions on behalf of the condemned were routinely got up and
equally routinely ignored by the Home Office. Although the Home Office
would have listened politely to Mr. Anderson, because he was an MP, they tended
to the view that it was none of an MPs' business.
The
application of the death penalty at the time.
My
perception of the justice system as it operated after the war in this country
is that it couldn't really make up its mind what it wanted to achieve - should
all murderers die or just the "worst" ones or just the expendable
ones? One wonders whether had James been an officer, rather than an NCO, if the
outcome would have been the same? Britain was much more class ridden in those
days and he may well have been seen as expendable.
One of the
things that I am sure counted against James was that he used a gun - this was
something that the Home Office appeared to take a very poor view of at that
time. Like Ruth Ellis 10 years later, he also injured another person,
however accidentally. Was the fact that he was a single man another
factor that counted against him?
At no
stretch of the imagination could what James did be termed an evil crime, but
this didn't seem to matter to the Home Office. He had been lawfully
convicted and could therefore be hanged. And yet others were reprieved who had
committed much worse crimes on the basis of their sanity in the condemned cell
or because of a physical feature or injury that would have made hanging them
difficult. There appeared to be no consistency in the decision making
process and the gravity of the crime didn't seem to be the important factor in
deciding who should live and who should die. Bear in mind that most of
those who were reprieved spent no more than 12 years of their “life sentences”
in prison (not the rest of their lives) so James would have been typically no
more than 40 years old upon release, had he been reprieved.
Summation by Elaine Merrilees.
There are no words that adequately describe what my family endured as a
result of James’ crime and subsequent execution and when Richard Clark asked me
to do just that for this article I discovered (some 60 years on) the subject is
still an emotive one for his surviving siblings.
My uncle’s execution was the proverbial skeleton in our family closet.
Shame, guilt, and abiding grief kept it there for over half a century.
Pro death penalty campaigners claim a retributive execution can somehow bring
''closure'' to those who lose loved ones to murder, without indicating how the
family of the prisoner should achieve the same after their relative is killed in
the name of justice. An execution, of course, cannot guarantee any such
emotional relief to the bereaved; ultimately the only thing achieved is one
more dead body and more grieving relatives.
My grandfather, Robert McNicol, was the eldest of the McNicol siblings
and after his father died he was the one the others looked to for advice and
guidance. He was a welding inspector with Motherwell Bridgework and when James
left school he helped get him a labouring job with the company. When war broke
out in 1939 my grandfather was exempt from conscription under the reserved
occupation rule but his young brother wasn’t and within weeks James eagerly
answered the call to arms.
For the duration of WWII my grandfather (and the rest of the family)
prayed for James’ safe return and ‘ironically’ after celebrating VJ day they
got the first good night’s sleep in years, James was in England and would be
coming home shortly, or so they thought.
My grandfather seldom spoke of his brother or events which led to his
execution but in one of his rare nostalgic moods he did tell me about the day
(August 18th 1945) that he heard of James’ arrest.
“The day started like any other Saturday, I called in at the Bridgework
then went down the Masonic club for a beer. I was only there five minutes when
Willie Dyer pulled me aside and said he heard rumours that our James was in
some sort of bother down in Southend. Willie was a retired policeman who kept
his ear to the ground and earlier that day an old mate told him James had been
lifted in a drink related incident. I wasn’t too worried at that stage; our
James never could handle his drink and it wouldn’t be the first time he slept
off a hangover in the cells. Willie said he’d make some enquires and come
to the house later if he felt it was something I needed to know. I hardly gave
it a second thought for the rest of the day and when Willie turned up at our
door at teatime my only concern was that I would have to offer him a cup of the
precious tea rations. As it turned out Willie brought his own drink, a hip
flask of whisky and that in itself told me it was bad news. After pouring me a
large drink Willie sat down and said “There’s no easy way to say this Rab but
your brother has been charged with murdering a fellow sergeant called Donald
Kirkaldie.”
Compiled with help from James’ two surviving siblings.
The name Donald Kirkaldie was a familiar one, James spoke fondly of him many
times in letters home so hearing that he’d been charged with his murder was
hard to believe.
Willie Dyer didn’t know all the details just that James had been up in court
that morning and remanded until the 28th of August, needless to say my
grandfather didn’t get much sleep that night or the next.
The train to London left from Glasgow Central regularly but it was an expense
my grandfather could ill afford, not to mention the cost of digs when he got
there. However as it turned out others had already anticipated the family’s
need, on Monday evening Willie Dyer came to the house with a train ticket to
London and the name of an army official who’d be expecting him off the train.
He didn’t ask questions as to who paid for the tickets, the Lodge looked after
their own and at that time my grandfather was just grateful for his affiliation
with them.
The rest of the family had to be notified before they read about James’
arrest in the newspapers; a very brief story on the shooting appeared in one of
the national Sundays but buried amid the victory headlines it seemed to have
gone unnoticed. Things would be very different when the weekly issue of the
Motherwell Times came out on the Thursday; “Local war hero charged with murder”
would make front page news. So on Monday night he gathered the family round and
tried to explain what was going on.
On Tuesday 21st August, my grandfather took the train to
During that visit James could barely contain his remorse for what he had
done, for the shame he had brought upon his family, nor his own grief for
Donald Kirkaldie, a man who for the past two years had been his loyal friend
and confidant. The mood was a sombre one, both men finding it hard to
console each other. James told my grandfather what he could remember of the
events that night and said he had no intention of seriously hurting anyone. Sgt
Cox had shown him up in front of some men from his regiment and his intention
was to scare him and in doing so be able to face the guys in the morning with
his pride in tact.
There was no time for long silences; arrangements had to be made for
James’s defence if he was to avoid the gallows, so setting aside morbid emotion
they talked in practicalities rather than pleasantries.
Back at his lodgings the first thing my grandfather did was write a
letter to Donald Kirkaldie’s widow expressing his and the whole families
remorse for her loss, as a result of his brother’s actions. (I have been told
that Mrs Kirkaldie replied with a kind letter.) Most surprising, but welcome,
was the support from James’ regiment; many of them approached my grandfather
offering their heartfelt sympathies to the family and for the predicament James
was in. One sergeant in particular described James as a decent chap and a “damn
good soldier.” My grandfather was moved
to tears by this because he could see for himself that these guys were grieving
the loss of Kirkaldie yet they found the courage to show compassion to the
family of the man who had killed him.
The next few weeks were difficult for the family; their brother was
remanded in a prison hundreds of miles from home and this only added to the
utter helplessness they already felt. “What happens in the family stays in the
family” was the rule as far as my grandfather was concerned but as news of
James’ plight hit the local and national newspapers he felt like the whole
world knew his business. The pre-trial weeks were the worst; local people had
read little more than the headlines and from those had all but tried, convicted
and executed James. The family tried to get on with their daily lives with as
semblance of normality, they met the stares and finger pointing head on because
not doing so would only reinforce public opinion that they were in some way
responsible for James’ crime. Their courage and relentless crusade to gather
support for James eventually won over the majority of the town’s citizens.
Efforts to save James.
The Motherwell Times seemed sympathetic to James’ plight and my
grandfather quickly recognised they could be a powerful ally in his defence and
used them to that effect.
After sentence was handed down the reporter from the Motherwell Times
approached my grandfather to offer his condolences and said that he was stunned
the jury had disregarded the judge’s summing up statement and based on that,
believed James would be reprieved. This was also the feeling of James’ legal
counsel but taking nothing for granted the McNicol clan mounted a campaign to
save their brother’s life. James’ two sisters Mary and Annie took up position
in Motherwell High Street stopping people and asking them to sign their
petition, younger brothers Richard and Andrew took to the streets of Wishaw and
surrounding area with the same petition, my grandfather and James’ oldest
school friend went door to door the length and breadth of Lanarkshire every
night after work.
Reactions from locals gave them encouragement to carry on, most people believed
James should be punished for his crime but few thought he deserved to hang for
it. At that time the Lanarkshire area was very much divided by religion and the
family feared their fight to save James was reliant on just half the town’s
population. As it turned out they were wrong, the general consensus was that
(despite his terrible crime) James was a war hero and that fact alone got him
the sympathy vote of both Catholics and Protestants alike.
My grandfather’s association with the Masonic order brought him into contact
with ‘’all the right people” in the Lanarkshire/Glasgow area and all those
right people lent their support to the campaign. Local MP Alex Anderson was
just one such acquaintance who did all he could and more for James, (so much so
that he and my grandfather remained firm friends until Mr. Anderson died in
February 1954.) However at the end of the day it wasn’t a political issue and
in the immediate aftermath of war the insignificant matter of James’ life was
way down the priority list of those who could have intervened.
Despite all efforts to save James from the gallows an execution date was set
for December 21st. On the 18th of that month my grandfather once again
travelled to London hoping and praying that an eleventh hour reprieve would be
forthcoming. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be and on Thursday December 20th my
grandfather visited his young brother for the last time. James seemed to have
accepted his fate and said that he hoped his execution would bring some solace
to Donald’s family. He again apologised for the shame he had brought upon the
family and once again begged forgiveness, he had written letters to each of his
brothers and sisters reconciling any and all disagreements they had had in the
past.
Execution day and its aftermath.
At 9.30 on the morning of the 21st the McNicol family gathered in
Motherwell to console each other. In London my grandfather waited outside the
prison for official confirmation of his young brother’s death to be posted.
When the announcement was made my grandfather requested a meeting with the
prison chaplain who last spoke with James but his request was denied.
When someone was hanged in Britain their body was buried unceremoniously
in the prison grounds and their families were given no further information. As far
as my family were concerned James had given quite enough of himself to King and
country and they were damn furious that this so called “GREAT” British justice
system had not only punished James for his crime but were now punishing them by
denying them the right to take their brother home to Scotland for religious
burial next to his parents. Had not King and country had their “pound of
flesh?” James was dead and nothing they did to him thereafter had any further
retributive effect on him personally, but only on his family and friends.
The death of a loved one is difficult under any circumstances but for
many the funeral is the first step in the long grieving process. My family were
denied this and as a result they never did come to terms with James’ death.
On his return home from London my grandfather gathered the family together and
told them they were not to talk of James or his crime, he then went through the
family photograph albums and systematically destroyed all trace of his brother.
My grandfather was a proud man, well liked and respected amid the local
community and although not ashamed of James he was ashamed of his crime and
felt the sooner the whole sordid affair was laid to rest the sooner he could
start rebuilding his life and the family’s good name.
Not talking about James was easy, however, not thinking about him was an
entirely different matter and one my grandfather had no control over. There
were days when thoughts of James filled his head and when they did he would
walk for hours not really knowing where he was going but always ending up in
the same place, his mother’s grave in Motherwell cemetery. On her death-bed he
had promised his mother that he’d look out for his five younger siblings and
felt terribly guilty that he had let her down. He didn’t feel responsible for
his brother’s crime but he often blamed himself for not doing enough to save
James from the gallows. His guilt eased as the years passed but his faith in
the British justice system was never restored especially when he saw so many
“less deserving” cases being reprieved from their death sentences.
Despite all this my grandfather remained a patriotic Royalist until his death
at the age of 79 in 1994. He became an elder in the local church, rose to the
ranks of Installed Master in the Masonic lodge and raised his two sons and my
mother to be proud and respectful of their country and its royal heritage.
As a child I found it amusing that my grandparents stood up from their seats
wherever the National anthem sounded, be it at a formal function or in their
own home in front of the television. Knowing what I do now I don’t find their
patriotism amusing, I find it incredible!!
At his funeral in 1994 we had to erect loud speakers outside so that those who
couldn’t fit in the church could hear the service, testament that he did in
fact restore the family’s ‘’good name.”
END
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