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Florence Nightingale Shore was an accomplished nurse, just like her celebrated second cousin and godmother, whom she was named after. She hadn’t been back in England long following her service abroad, when on the 12th of January 1920, she boarded a train from London to Hastings. At some point on that short journey, she was violently attacked, which resulted in her death a few days later. By whom is unknown.
Let’s explore the unsolved murder and discuss who the man in the brown suit was, the last person thought to have been with Florence in the carriage.
Florence was born on the 9th of January 1865. She was born into a wealthy family based in Derbyshire. When she was 16, her father declared bankruptcy; he had also been conducting many affairs. Her parents would divorce 5 years later. This deeply affected Florence, who declared that she would always be able to support herself independent of any man.
In her 20’s, she travelled to China where she worked as a governess for more than 2 years.
On returning to England, like her Godmother, she trained as a nurse and became a highly respected member of the profession.
She was due to collect the Royal Red Cross in March 1920 at Buckingham Palace.
In January 1920, Florence was staying at Carnforth Lodge, a nurses’ home in Hammersmith, with her friend Mabel Rogers, who worked as matron there. They had been friends since training as nurses together in 1894, in Edinburgh. Mabel and Florence served side by side in the South African and First World Wars.
Here is a quote from the coroner, Mr Glenister, when opening the inquest on the 24th January that addressed Florence’s career and character as reported in the Bexhill-on-Sea Observer.
“She was a lady of philanthropic disposition, a nurse of many years standing and had devoted herself to tending the sick and people wounded in the War. She had been on service abroad for some 4 or 5 years. She was a Nobel woman, a woman we could ill afford to lose. She was, I believe, well known to the officers of the Army and was highly respected and esteemed by everyone who came in contact with her. It seems exceedingly hard that a lady of this character should lose her life under these distressing circumstances”
On the 12th of January 1920, the friends made their way to London’s Victoria Station. Florence was planning to make a quick trip to visit some friends in Hastings. Mabel wasn’t travelling with her; she had tickets for a London show that night, she was helping with the luggage, and to see her friend off safely.
They boarded the London to Brighton South East Express Train just after 3 pm.
Florence wanted a front-facing seat, so she selected an empty compartment. They chatted a little until the time to depart was announced, and Mabel said her goodbyes and got up to leave. At this point, a young man entered the compartment. He didn’t speak, but Mabel noticed his odd appearance. It was a bitter winter’s day, but the man was wearing a brown suit, but no overcoat.
Once on the platform, Mabel turned to wave to her friend, but the man was standing up, blocking the window.
The train departed, and the first stop was Lewes and then on to Polegate. Here 3 workmen entered the compartment where Florence sat. At first, they thought she was asleep with a veil over her face, but it soon became clear that was not the case. The veil was, in fact, blood running from a gaping head wound. One of the workers, George Clout, raised the alarm at Bexhill Station. Harry Duck, a guard, rushed to Florence. She was in the corner of the compartment, her book still on her lap, and her glasses had slipped off. Harry asked Florence what had happened, but all she could do was swivel her eyes.
Harry signalled for the train to carry on to Hastings at once, which was the quickest way to get Florence to the hospital. At the station, the ambulance was waiting to rush her to Hastings Hospital.
From Harry’s experience, he believed that the attack most likely took place about an hour before her discovery in Merstham Tunnel. A mile-long stretch of track that plunged the train into pitch-black darkness. Two previous murders had occurred there.
From examining the crime scene, it was concluded that the suspect must have stood over Florence and beaten her unconscious before arranging her to seem like she was asleep.
Blood was found on Florence’s petticoats, meaning a sexual assault was likely attempted, but upon examination, it was found to be unsuccessful.
Back at Carnforth Lodge, Mabel received news of Florence’s attack. She drove through the night, arriving at her friend’s bedside at 3 am. She stayed for the next 4 days. Florence passed away on the 17th of January.
Dr Bernard Spilsbury, Home Office pathologist, carried out the post-mortem. It was concluded that Florence received 3 separate blows to the head, possibly by the butt of a Webley Service revolver, fracturing her skull. One left an H-shaped indentation on her skull, this was despite her wearing a thick fur hat.
Mabel was able to confirm that a lot of Florence’s jewellery was missing. In particular, a gold necklace and a diamond ring. Plus 3 £1 notes, which were all the money she had on her.
It appears the motive was robbery and sexual assault. Florence was 55 years old; if the attack was to subdue her, the level of violence was disproportionately harsh.
First suspicion fell on Mabel, as the last known person with Florence, and she was the beneficiary of her will, totalling £1000. Her friend was devastated by her loss, and she was interrogated at the inquest. She was financially stable and not in need of the money, and Florence had been hit very hard by something heavy. All Mabel had with her that day was an ivory-handled umbrella.
The police quickly moved on the more likely perpetrator- the man in the brown suit.
Mabel described him as around 27 years old, 5ft 7, clean-shaven. He had brown hair, a pale complexion and wore a light cap.
Harry Duck recalled a man hurriedly leaving the train at the first stop after the tunnel, Lewes. No one could leap from a train whilst it was moving as it was going full speed – 30 miles per hour- for the whole journey.
Lewes has a short platform, and the train had 12 carriages. Anyone getting off at that station was to walk to the front of the train to disembark. But Harry spotted a man leap down from one of the rear carriages onto the track – a drop of about 4 feet. He yelled out to him to admonish him. But he just scurried past him and left. However, he couldn’t be sure he was wearing a brown suit; he thought he had a tatty mackintosh on – it is possible the man could have put on the coat to disguise himself as he left.
One more unlikely suspect that came into the frame was Percy Toplis. He was an army deserter nicknamed the Monocled Mutineer; he was hunted for murder whilst he was evading the military police. He was creating a one-man robbery crime wave across England.
It would be 10 days after the attack that the first proper suspect was identified.
On the 22nd of January at around 10.30 pm, William Earnest Clements broke into a house on Arlington Road, Eastbourne. He was caught by the cook, parlourmaid and nursery maid who put up a fight. He did escape but dropped his revolver. Police apprehended him in the vicinity of Orchard Road and arrested.
He matched the description of the man in the brown suit, and when his revolver was examined, it had traces of blood on the butt. A search of his lodgings revealed a bloodstained suit.
The blood was found to be human but could not be matched to Florence’s blood group. Obviously, there was no DNA analysis in 1920.
William couldn’t remember where he was on the 12th, and investigations couldn’t place him on the train. Harry Duck and Mabel Rogers were also unable to identify William as the man they saw that day.
The police believed they had caught their man, but they just couldn’t prove it. The investigation slowed.
Then, in November 1920, George Leonard Cockle confessed to the murder. He was under the care of Shirley Warren Infirmary in Southampton when he asked to speak to the police.
He described attacking Florence and taking her money and jewellery before leaving the train at Lewes. Police immediately had doubts about his story, which was basic, like he had lifted it from the newspaper reports.
But they did investigate. Mabel was scheduled to identify George, but in the end, it was not needed as it was confirmed that he was being treated in a military hospital in London on the day of the attack and couldn’t have been the murderer.
This was the last suspect investigated for the murder.
With her furs and diamond ring, Florence would have given the appearance of a wealthy woman. Following the war, there were a lot of traumatised and damaged soldiers who returned home, unable to work, who turned to crime to eat. Florence was likely killed by an opportunistic robber.
It seems Dame Agatha Christie was aware of the mystery of who killed Florence Nightingale Shore, in 1924 she published the book The Man in the Brown Suit