Harry Budgen (1879-1944).
My 2nd great-uncle.
Harry was born on 1 April 1879 in Reigate, to Thomas Budgen and Maria Dolamore. He was baptised on 25 May that year at St Mary’s parish church.
Harry never married and for many years lived with members of his family. In 1901 he was working as a water works clerk and living with his parents and sister Clara at 76 Lesbourne Road in Reigate. Ten years later he was living with his widowed mother in a six-room house in Eversfield Road, Reigate.
As well as working for the East Surrey Water Company for many years, he was an estate agent for a time. He went on to live in Kenley, elsewhere in Surrey, before returning to the town of his birth, according to his obituary in the Surrey Mirror of 17 March 1944. He cropped up in several newspaper reports over the years as a keen sportsman, and as his obituary stated: “A familiar figure for many years in local cricket and football circles… he played on the left wing for Reigate Priory in the days when that club was in the zenith of its fame, and had a remarkable sequence of successes in winning the Surrey Senior Cup. He played for the club in the 1896-7 season, when the Priory won both the Surrey Senior Cup and the Surrey Charity Shield, and in partnership with Sir Charles Kirkpatrick, he played in the diamond jubilee match, on April 12, 1930, in which many notable old players took part.
“His prowess was also demonstrated on the cricket field. A deceptive flight, accurate length and capacity to make the ball break both ways made him for many seasons one of the mainstays of the Priory Cricket Club’s attack, and he had many notable performances to his credit.” The report also noted that he was a significant force behind the water works’ cricket club.
Harry was clearly a well-known figure in the borough and during the Great War was appointed a Special Constable. He was key to solving what became known locally as the ‘threatening letters case’, work which led to an innocent woman being pardoned and granted compensation.
In the summer of 1914 greengrocer Albert Johnson and his wife Mary, formerly of Redhill but then living at 135 Old Town, Croydon, had been charged with feloniously sending a near neighbour, Eliza Ellen Woodman, more than 100 letters, threatening her with murder. Mrs Johnson had previously served two prison sentences, one with hard labour, going back to 1912 for sending similar letters to Woodman. Another conviction had been overturned on appeal. Others in the district had also received threatening letters.
Woodman, the wife of a railway worker, claimed to have received these threats on an almost daily basis, but the handwriting proved difficult to identify. The prosecution described them as sickening and full of abuse. One threatened that Woodman would have her brains blown out and told her to prepare to meet her late father. Some contained details that implicated the Johnsons, such as the printing of initials MJ. At the trial at Kingston Crown Court, in August 1914, the defence pointed out that the Johnsons would hardly give away details that would identify them, and stated that Mrs Johnson was away at a convalescent home in Hanwell at the time the letters were being sent. In addition, Mr Johnson couldn’t write. On this occasion, the jury found the couple not guilty.
Early in 1915, thanks to the efforts of Harry and his colleagues, Woodman was convicted of perjury and of being the one who’d been sending threatening letters to people, including a police officer and a local JP. She was sentenced to 18 months hard labour. Mrs Johnson couldn’t explain why she was a target of Woodman, claiming never to have been in dispute with her. The jury didn’t judge Woodman insane, although her family gave evidence that she’d suffered bouts of mental instability and ‘hysterics’ over the years.
The details of Harry’s role in unmasking the true villain of the piece, and proving that Mrs Johnson should never have gone to prison, were laid out in detail. He described the process involved in trapping the culprit, which involved him buying notepaper and envelopes, samples of which were then placed inside larger envelopes that were distributed as free samples to homes in Woodman’s street. He marked hers with invisible ink. Some time later, the prisoner was seen posting some letters at a postbox. These were then recovered as evidence, shown to be marked and abusive. The trap had worked. Harry’s ploy, along with other evidence from some marked stamps arranged by a PC Spain, helped ensure that Woodman was convicted.
The efforts of Harry, who was described as an officer on Beat 9 (Earlswood), and his assistant Special Constable Gale were applauded by members of Reigate Town Council. During a meeting of the Watch Committee, Harry was presented with a gold watch, the gift of Mrs Johnson, in recognition of the prominent part he played in vindicating her character. She had subsequently been granted a pardon and paid compensation of £500 for her periods of imprisonment. The committee had also presented him with a “handsome” dining room clock, while the Rev C G Gale, who had taken up a commission in the army, received a field kit.
The mayor hoped the gift would remind Harry of the many pleasant days he had spent in the borough, and that he would have an extremely useful life before him. Harry, according to the Surrey Mirror, “expressed his thanks in modest terms, and said if it had not been for the great assistance which the Head Constable had given them they could not have brought the matter to a successful issue”.
There was also praise for his work from Whitehall. The Director of Prosecutions, Sir Charles Mathews, wrote to the council: “…the matter became one of considerable mystery and perplexity, and then it was that Mr Budgen, who apparently suspected Mrs Woodman to be the author of the libellous letters, conceived the idea of delivering sample packets of notepaper to every house in the street in which she lived.” He said that “the execution of this plan” led to the discovery of the evidence that convicted Woodman. He added: “There can be no doubt that Mr Budgen devoted both time and pains to the solution of the mystery, and I have felt that his services in the interests of justice have been such to deserve some expression of recognition and gratitude from his fellow townsmen.”
Other committees joined in the praise of Harry and his colleagues. One went so far as to suggest that Harry should be appointed chief of the intelligence division in order to ensure they could retain his services.
Harry was also secretary of the Pilgrim’s Fayre and Pageant, held over Easter 1914 in aid of Colley Hill, the local beauty spot that had been handed over to the nation. His obituary went so far as to say that he “was largely responsible for the success of this unique event”.
He died in March 1944, a resident of London Road, Redhill, following an operation. He left effects worth £840 to Florence Lilian Nice, a widow whose house he was living in in London Road, Reigate at the time of the 1939 Register. He asked to be cremated and for his ashes to be scattered without ceremony on the cricket square at the East Surrey Water Company sports ground.
Sources: Ancestry.com, Findmypast.com, Surrey Family History Centre BMDs and census records. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966. British Newspaper Library – 16 July 1915 Surrey Mirror, 30 April 1915 Surrey Mirror, 31 December 1915 Surrey Mirror. Plus other sources quoted in the text.