(Dorothy Myrtle Thurburn at the time of the trials)
Sheringham, Norfolk, in the early 1920s. A quiet town, with an interesting and diverse population consisting of fishermen, tradesmen and ordinary folk on one side, and a fair sprinkling of the well-to-do on the other.
Into this mix came Dorothy Myrtle Thurburn, a young lady in her early 20s, and her mother, Ada. They were very well off and lived on the right side of Cromer Road – the side where the richer folk lived. How they came to be in Sheringham is unknown as there is no obvious connection to the town: but by the autumn of 1920 they were living in Abbey Road, just south of the main town.
When poison pen letters began to be received by members of the Girl Guide troop and the hierarchy of Sheringham, the finger began to point very firmly in the direction of the girl. She was eventually arrested and charged with sending a huge number of defamatory and libellous letters and postcards and, after a committal trial in Cromer, she was formally charged with sending them and was committed to trial at Norwich Assizes.
What follows is a story of intrigue, mystery, bungled police investigations and fascinating court appearances. The arrival of Sir Edward Marshall Hall (left – still considered to be Britain’s greatest defence lawyer) representing Dorothy, added to the interest and the story was widely reported around the country as well as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and America.
It became a front-page sensation (along with a similar case: The Littlehampton Letters which the film Wicked Little Letters is based on). It is extremely likely that, for at least some part of the trials, residents going to court regretted that decision, as press coverage snowballed.
The addition of some very colourful characters including a worthy, if naive, local bobby; an absent, enigmatic father, a large number of distinguished lawyers and judges, not to mention the reading out in court of some scurrilous letters sent to local people, makes for a very interesting local story.
There was a huge amount of newspaper coverage, full of fascinating observations and detail as the case consisted of no less than five trials (the committal proceedings, three trials in Norwich and, after the first trial at Norwich, a contempt of court trial in London).
There is a wonderfully amusing, if somewhat irreverent, description of the Cromer committal hearing as reported by a Belfast newspaper. It is well worth reproducing in full.
“The Cromer court – more like a school-room than a magisterial chamber – has this peculiarity – it loses its prisoners. There is no dock, nothing to distinguish by position the accused person from casual visiting members of the public. Miss Thurburn, in a wool coat, short black costume, wearing Shetland stockings and brogue shoes, sat between her mother and brother. As the witnesses were called they made their way to a place on the same wooden bench, and Miss Thurburn had to move along to make room for them. It was curiously informal.
At one stage the principal in this remarkable case was hidden from the Bench by people who stood in front of her. Mr H de Vere Stacpoole, the famous novelist, was present, and for a period sat next to Miss Thurburn. It was possible to deal only with a part of the charges against Miss Thurburn in one day, and the court adjourned for a fortnight”.
The book The Unknown Hand is based on this true-story, puts the reader in the jury box and asks the question: if you were on the jury would your verdict be guilty or not guilty?
The book is available from Jarrolds in Cromer, City Bookshop in Norwich and All Natural, Sheringham Museum and NNR in Sheringham.
Time and Tide Museum 