Newspaper article - the Bucks Standard, April 1971.

(Transcribed from a photocopy of original, held by Hanslope & District Historical Society)

EYEWITNESS TO HANSLOPE MURDER William Green of Tathall End, 80 this month, puts to print for the first time his eye witness account of the cold blooded murder of one of the local elite. The Green family between them were represented at the brutal scene from start to finish, consequently William is the only person alive who is in the position to relate this amazing incident comprehensively. William remembers vividly that summer morning of July 21st, 1912. His father George, coachman to the squire Watts, had made his habitual Sunday visit to The Green Man at Hanslope, while his mother was preparing dinner. On this, as every Sunday at this time, the Green children had learned to stay inside their home (the lodge to Hanslope Park) to ensure they did not disturb the squire and his wife who would pass this way on their walk back from the village church. At about 12.45 p.m. on this particular day the squire and his wife had reached the spinney about 20 yards from the lodge, and stopped to observe some trees on the opposite side of the road. Suddenly, a shotgun was fired from the spinney so close to the road that the leaves on the opposite hedge were scorched with powder burns. The squire fell with mortal wounds in the head, his wife screamed. William, looking from the window saw the squire prostrate with his wife kneeling supporting his head. He ran from the lodge telling his family to stay inside. On reaching the couple it registered to him the awful truth of what had really happened, the woman her face and clothes stained with the blood of her dead husband, and the terrible head wounds of the squire. Mrs. Watts saw William, "go for a doctor," she said. He turned and ran towards his home to fetch his bicycle, but just before reaching the lodge he heard the woman cry out "he is going to shoot again". The gun was fired again, the shot hitting the body of the squire in the side, narrowly missing his wife. We will never know if the assailant tried to kill Mrs. Watts with that second shot. William rode his bike to the village like a man possessed, and panted the tale to his father George who told his son to go for the doctor and policeman while he ran to the scene. What passed between George Green and Mrs. Watts on his arrival was never revealed, but looking over the style to the spinney he saw the undergrowth trampled, following the trail he came across the body of the squire's game-keeper, William Farrow. He was lying with his gun partly on his stomach pointing towards his shattered head which has swollen to twice its size, indicating he had turned the murder weapon for his own destruction. This would have been the third shot heard by William Green's mother as she ran across the fields to fetch help from Manor Farm. Bt the time William arrived back on the scene on foot (the policeman having taken his bicycle), several others had gathered. He, with Arthur Ditum, Fred Garratt (two Hanslope men) and a Mr. Clifton of Bradwell, carried the body of the squire to the park house. Mrs. Watts who would not leave her husband's side, stopped them from entering by the servants door insisting they walk around the house to the main entrance. The subsequent inquest revealed that Mr. Watts had given Farrow notice to quit, and it is supposed this enraged him to the point of killing his master, and then under fear of retribution taking his own life. The remains of both men were buried at Hanslope, and on Farrow's gravestone which stands on the edge of a ditch his wife had put the following epitaph:- Waiting until all shall be revealed. William recalls that after burial of her husband Mrs. Watts could often be seen clad in black, standing at the scene of the crime. Members of the villages of Hanslope and Tathall End still talk of this crime which attracted the attention of the nation, but none can relate the story in such detail as personal involvement has allowed William Green to do.