Background
Emily Hilda Blake was born in 1878 at Chedgrave, between Lowestoft and Norwich in Norfolk (England), the fifth child of a police constable and his wife.
By age nine, both of her parents had died, leaving her and her brother living in Heckingham Workhouse, typically a pretty miserable existence.
She always used the Christian name Hilda rather than Emily, so this account follows her preference.
Hilda’s father had formerly been a bailiff to and tenant of Sir Reginald Beauchamp, whose sister Hilda she may well have been named after.
Sir Reginald took an interest in the orphaned Blake children.
He sat on the board of the Self-Help Emigration Society and in that capacity arranged for Hilda and her brother Thomas to be sent to Canada in May 1888, with Hilda placed in the household of a farming family named Stewart.
Hilda did not like her new home and soon ran away.
This led to an extended custody dispute between the Stewarts and neighbours who had taken her in.
Eventually, Hilda grew tired of the conflict and ran away again, taking employment as a domestic servant with Robert and Mary Lane in Brandon, Manitoba, in the summer of 1898.
Among other domestic responsibilities, she helped look after the couple’s children.
By the summer of 1899, 32-year-old Mary Lane had another baby on the way.
The Murder of Mary Lane
On the afternoon of Wednesday the 5th of July 1899, Hilda was ironing curtains that Mary was hanging in the windows.
Around 4:00 p.m., a gunshot rang out and Mary Lane cried out before running from the house and collapsing on the sidewalk (pavement) outside.
Neighbours rushed to her assistance and brought her back inside, but Mary died within minutes on the parlour floor from a bullet wound to the back without being able to identify her assailant.
Mary’s children were playing in the back yard at the time and fortunately did not witness their mother’s death.
The only witness inside the home was Hilda.
She claimed that an itinerant tramp had entered the house and shot Mary after she had previously refused his demand for food.
The local chief of police, James Kirkaldy, investigated what was a highly unusual violent crime for Brandon, taking a detailed physical description of the alleged tramp from Hilda on the 10th of July.
As Kirkaldy assembled the physical evidence, he concluded that Hilda’s account of the wandering tramp was fabricated, and he placed her under arrest.
The murder weapon was located discarded in a nearby garbage can.
Investigators traced the firearm and discovered it had been purchased by Hilda on the 20th of June 1899 from the Hingston-Smith Arms Company in Winnipeg—an extraordinary purchase for a 21-year-old female domestic servant to make.
She later claimed she had originally bought the revolver to commit suicide.
Chief Kirkaldy charged her with murder, whereupon she provided a written confession.
In this statement, she claimed she shot Mary in a fit of jealousy over her deep attachment to Mary’s children.
It was widely alleged that the underlying motive was an infatuation with Robert Lane, with Hilda believing she could never win his affections while Mary remained alive.
If that was indeed the case, no evidence emerged that Robert reciprocated her feelings, and the police never formally interviewed him on the matter.
This potential motive was quickly set aside to protect Robert Lane’s reputation in the community.
He remarried shortly afterward, needing a mother for his four motherless children as much as a spouse.
The Trial and Escape Attempt
As was standard procedure, Hilda appeared before the local magistrate on the Monday following the crime, where the prima facie evidence was heard.
She declined to cross-examine Chief Kirkaldy or Dr. MacDiarmid, who had performed the post-mortem on Mary, and was committed for trial before the Court of Queen’s Bench.
The trial took place at the Brandon Courthouse before Judge A. C. Killam on the 15th of November 1899.
Judge Killam was the same jurist who had presided over her foster custody hearings ten years earlier.
Hilda wore a “smart and becoming” brown velvet dress for a trial that lasted just five minutes.
When the indictment was read, she entered a plea of guilty to wilful murder.
Judge Killam advised her against pleading guilty and urged her to accept court-appointed defence counsel, but she refused, insisting instead on the most severe legal punishment available.
The case never went to a jury.
The court adjourned, and on the following day Hilda was brought back to court for formal sentencing.
Under Canadian criminal statutes of the era—reflecting traditions detailed in capital punishment in the British Commonwealth—only one sentence was available: that she be hanged by the neck until dead.
She was returned to Brandon Gaol to await her execution.
While awaiting sentence, Hilda made an escape attempt using a metal file smuggled to her by one of the prison matrons, Emma Stripp.
When the plan was discovered, Emma Stripp was prosecuted for aiding an escape and received a two-month prison sentence.
While incarcerated, Hilda composed a literate poem titled “My Downfall,” which was published in the Western Sun on the 14th of December 1899.
As was common in late-Victorian capital cases involving female prisoners, a campaign for a reprieve emerged.
The effort was led by Dr. Amelia Yeomans, an early physician, suffragette, and past president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who argued that Hilda suffered from “moral insanity” and was “morally degenerate.”
The Dominion Government of Canada held the power of executive clemency, but the Governor General in Council declined to exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.
The Execution at Brandon Gaol (27/12/1899)
Hangings at Brandon Gaol in Manitoba were rare, with only four carried out in its history:
- William Webb: Hanged on 28 December 1888 for the murder of his wife, Mary.
- Emily Hilda Blake: Hanged on 27 December 1899.
- Walter Gordon: Hanged on 20 June 1902 for multiple murder.
- Harry Green: Hanged on 25 February 1915 (the final execution at Brandon).
Hilda’s execution was set for Wednesday morning, the 27th of December 1899, making her the first and only woman executed in the province of Manitoba.
She wore the same brown velvet dress she had worn at trial and ate a full breakfast at 7:00 a.m.
The Reverend C. C. McLaurin remained with her in prayer until the appointed hour.
Hilda had specifically asked to see Chief Kirkaldy, who visited her cell shortly before 8:00 a.m.
She handed him a letter written on Christmas Day and asked him to ensure there would be no unnecessary delay in carrying out her sentence, which he promised.
The gallows had been constructed in the gaol yard according to the standard Canadian and American pattern, featuring a wooden stairway leading to an elevated trapdoor platform roughly ten feet above the ground.
John Robert Radclive (also recorded as Ratcliffe) served as Canada’s official hangman.
Radclive had studied William Marwood’s long-drop system and applied calculated tables designed to break the cervical vertebrae, consistent with the evolution of the long drop in the 20th century and his work at the double execution of Cordelia Poirier and Samuel Parslow in Quebec.
At 8:30 a.m. on a cold, clear winter morning, Hilda’s arms were secured with leather pinioning straps in the condemned cell.
She was led into the yard by the gaoler, accompanied by Rev. McLaurin, with Radclive following behind.
An audience of 25 assembled witnesses fell completely silent as she appeared.
Hilda walked firmly to the scaffold, asking Radclive to hold the hem of her skirt so she would not trip as she ascended the stairs.
On the platform, she momentarily hesitated before stepping onto the trapdoor at Radclive’s direction.
Radclive secured her ankles, and observers noted that she looked toward the noose, smiled, and said to those on the scaffold:
“Do not think too hard of me. Good bye.”
Radclive drew the black hood over her head.
Witnesses noted that she flinched slightly as the noose was drawn snug beneath her jaw.
Rev. McLaurin recited the Lord’s Prayer; as he spoke the words “forgive us our trespasses,” Radclive pulled the lever.
The trap opened, and she dropped without any visible struggling.
Her body was interred within the prison precincts later that day.
Radclive later described Hilda as one of the calmest and bravest individuals among the more than 80 prisoners he executed during his career.
Analytical Commentary
There was little legal basis for the executive to grant a reprieve, despite Dr. Yeomans’ petitions.
No medical evidence supported clinical insanity, and the crime showed clear premeditation through the purchase of the firearm weeks in advance.
Because Mary Lane was pregnant at the time of her death, the shooting effectively claimed two lives, an outcome Hilda almost certainly understood as a resident domestic helper.
Historians have also noted that Hilda’s case intersected with broader contemporary debates concerning the British “Home Children” immigration schemes.
Many Canadian critics viewed the importation of impoverished, orphaned British workhouse children with suspicion, and the Brandon murder was cited by opponents of the practice as evidence of inherent social risk.
Contemporary accounts indicate that Hilda preferred the finality of execution to serving a life sentence burdened by remorse, joining other notable colonial female capital cases such as Minnie Dean in New Zealand and Mary Ann Higgins in England.
A comprehensive historical examination of her life and trial was published by Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, titled Walk Towards the Gallows: The Tragedy of Hilda Blake, Hanged 1899 (Oxford University Press).
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Emily Hilda Blake?
Emily Hilda Blake was a 21-year-old British domestic servant who had been sent to Canada as an orphaned Home Child in 1888. She was convicted of shooting and killing her employer, Mary Lane, in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1899.
Why did Hilda Blake shoot Mary Lane?
Hilda claimed in her confession that she acted out of intense jealousy regarding her affection for Mary Lane’s children. Contemporary observers suspected she had developed an unreciprocated infatuation with Mary’s husband, Robert Lane.
Who was the hangman at Hilda Blake’s execution?
Canada’s official executioner, John Robert Radclive (Ratcliffe), performed the hanging at Brandon Gaol using the British long-drop method.
Why is Hilda Blake’s case historically unique in Manitoba?
She is the first and only woman ever executed by judicial hanging in the history of the province of Manitoba.
How did the Canadian government handle the petition for clemency?
Despite a campaign led by suffragette and physician Dr. Amelia Yeomans arguing moral insanity, the Dominion Government declined to exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, leaving the court’s death sentence intact.
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