The peculiar case of the electric constable : a true tale of passion, poison and pursuit

by Carol J. Baxter

Paper Book, 2013

Status

Available

Call number

B TAWELL BAX

Collections

Your library, B - Biography - Quaker

Publication

London : Oneworld Publications, c2013.

Subjects

Murder England History

Poisoning England History

Quakers Great Britain History

Telecommunication History

ISBN

9781780742434

Description

John Tawell was a sincere English Quaker but a sinning one. Convicted of forgery, he was transported to Sydney, where he opened Australia's first retail pharmacy and made a fortune. When he returned home after 15 years, he thought he would be welcomed, a reformed, rich entrepreneur; instead he was shunned. Tawell was struggling financially and emotionally when on New Year's Day 1845 he boarded the 7.42pm train from Slough to Paddington. Soon, policemen rushed to the station looking for a suspected murderer -- but the 7:42 had departed. The Great Western Railway was experimenting with a new-fangled instrument, the telegraph, so a message was relayed to London: a "KWAKER" man was on the run. It became the sensational murder of the day, involving poisoning, religious scandal, sexual innuendo, and very little hard evidence. Tawell was infamous, and his trial helped to secure the telegraph's fame and adoption -- a watershed event.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member DebbieMcCauley

On New Year's Day 1845, a message is delivered via the telegraph wires laid beside the railway tracks between Slough and Paddington stations; "A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill and the suspected murderer was seen to take a first-class ticket for London by the train which left Slough at

7:42 p.m. He is in the garb of a kwaker" [Note: The two-needle telegraph contained no code for the letter 'q']. Soon, Quaker wannabe John Tawell is arrested on circumstantial evidence for the poisoning of Sarah Hart, who would turn out to be his mistress and mother to two of his children. As the story unfolds it turns out that Tawell was convicted of forgery years before. He served time on board the 'filthy, vermin-infested' prison hulk 'Retribution' at Woolwich [p. 89, the same hulk my 4th great grandfather spent time on in 1827], before being transported to Australia then returning to England 24 years later a wealthy man. A thoroughly researched book about the first person to be arrested as the result of telecommunications technology, a lying selfish murderer who didn't want his relationship with his mistress to become public and so poisoned her, leaving her to die painfully, and her children motherless. Hanging was probably too quick a death for him! Includes; Contents page, prologue, epilogue, author's note, bibliography and index.

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LibraryThing member Faradaydon

The author has excelled i n her research, but the book would have been improved by some judicious editing. Still worth a read.

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