CONVICT’S DEATH LEAP

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 January 1931, Page 9

CONVICT’S DEATH LEAP

DARING JUMP FROM TRAIN.

A convict bound for Dartmoor Prison was killed in a daring lump for liberty from a fast travelling train on the Southern Railwav near Romsey, Hampshire, on November 18. His attempt to escape followed a desperate fight between four prisoners and two warders in the corridor of the train. The dead man was Thomas fern, aged 32. He was an ex-Guardsman, a house-breaker, a motor bandit, and a man whose record of convictions classed him—in Police language —as a “dangerous criminal. Railway officials and passengeis helped the warders in the violent struggle which led to Fern’s attempted escape. The train, as it sped through the quiet countryside of Hampshire, was in a turmoil. Fern and three other prisoners, Who had been sentenced with him at the Hampshire Quarter Sessions, were on their way from Winchester Gaol to Dartmoor —the most dreaded of all prisons. Two warders accompanied them as escort, and, as is usual, the four convicts were handcuffed to the warders. The prison party were in a tram from Eastleigh to Salisbury, where a change would have been made for the West of England and Dartmoor. They were in a reserved third-class compartment near the front of the train. A request was made by the convicts that they should be allowed to leave the compartment. Fern was the first man released from his handcuffs for this purpose, while the remainder of the party stood in the corridor. Suddenly Fern hit the warder nearest a blow which sent him reeling backwards, sprang for a moment on the footboard, and then jumped as the train was travelling at a speed of more than forty miles an hour. Immediately the other convicts set upon the warders. They struggled and fought in the narrow corridor. One of the prisoners slipped his handcuffs and made a dive at an open window. He was half-way through when George Watts, the guard of the train, hearing the commotion, came on the scene, grasped his legs, and hauled him back. They rolled together on the floor of the corridor until George Watts proved the stronger and the convict gave up. Passengers ran from adjoining carriages to assist the warders, and at length the convicts were overpowered and locked in their compartment. “I have never seen anything like it,” said a woman passenger who was travelling to Salisbury. “We were in the train going along quietly when all at once there were shouts and bangs and a terrible noise from the corridor.

“I went to the door of my compartment and saw a mass of struggling men. I saw one man who was in a curious dress open a door and drop , out of the train, while a man in uniform —whom I now know to be a warder —made a grab at him. “Another man was half-way in and half-way out of a window with the guard holding his feet. The man was kicking out, but the guard pulled him back, and they fought together. “A soldier in the next compartment to me ran out to join in Jthe fight, but some one hit him, and he was knocked over.” When the train reached its next stop, Romsey, the convicts had been subdued and were safely manacled together. Information was given to the local police of the man who had tried to escape, and an inspectoi- with two constables set off along the line on a trolley-car, accompanied by railway officials, in a hunt for the missing man. KILLED INSTANTLY. At a level crossing near Chandler’s Ford Station, searchers came on the body of Thomas Fern. He was lyingin the permanent way with a fractured skull and other injuries, and had been J killed instantly, as, jumping, he hit the I track.

The wife of the gate-keeper at the crossing actually saw the convict take his death leap. “I was in my garden,” she said, “as the train went by. I noticed a man hanging on the footboard, and then he gave a dive forward and out, as though he were trying to reach the grass side of the line, but he fell on the track and lay still.” Passengers pulled the communication cord of the train while the fight was taking place, but as the train was nearing Romsey, the driver did not stop until the station was reached. The three other convicts were safely conveyed to Dartmoor. There a special inquiry will be held by the governor. Extra punishment will be ordered the convicts who attacked the warders.

It v the theory of the prison officials that the attempted escape was planned by the four men while in Winchester Gaol. They had all hoped to gain freedom by a concerted onslaught on their guard. When the four - men were sentenced at the Hampshire Assizes, one of them, who reiceived five years, shouted back at the chairman: “I will never do it. I will top myself”—which means commit suicide.

The four were charged together with housebreaking, and pleaded guilty. It was stated in court that they had stolen a motor-car belonging to Lady Winifred Renshaw, in Harley Street, and were traced to Plymouth, where they were arrested. They committed the offences at Christchurch, on the way to Devonshire.

It was proved that Thomas Fern had thirteen previous convictions against him, endinsr in 1928 with three years’ penal servitude for housebreaking and assaulting the police. Police records, which were given in court, show that his real name is Henry James Lawley. He was a native of Wolverhampton, having lived in Parkfield Road there. Some years ago he enlisted in the Grenadier Guards. He was discharged having inflicted injuries on himself 1 - pricking his ear-drums.