The Goatfell Murder – or was it?
Once again, the much loved and interesting Stuart Gough stepped in at the last minute to talk to the Arran Antiquarians at their September meeting, reports Norma Davidson.
Stuart used a talk he had delivered to an audience of 150 in Ayr Town Hall just a week ago. The subject, on the surface, was well-known to us all, but how wrong we were. The 47 members present were appointed as a jury to make our own decision on the culpability of the accused, John Watson Laurie.
The facts:
In July of 1889, Laurie, a 25 year old joiner and pattern maker who worked at the Atlas Locomotive Works in Springburn, Glasgow, decided to pursue a former girlfriend who was holidaying in Rothesay. He went to Bute and obtained lodgings with a Mrs Currie in Port Bannatyne, using the name John Annandale of Cambridge Street, Glasgow. Although this might seem suspicious to us, it was common behaviour of young men of that day to invent and use a superior persona.
While in Bute, he took a trip on the PS Ivanhoe (inciden- tally, a temperance boat), to the Kyles of Bute and, eventually, Arran. On board, he was approached by one Edwin Robert Rose, a 32 year old clerk from Brixton, who was holidaying at Rothesay Hydro. Much taken by the Arran hills, they decided to return to Brodick the next day to do some hill walking. While Rose went up the glen to spy out the lie of the land, Laurie sought out lodgings from the proprietor of Woolley’s tearoom. As it was Glasgow Fair, very little was available, but he eventually accepted a ‘leanto hut’ in Invercloy at the rent of £1 for a week. When they returned to Rothesay, Laurie accompanied Rose to the Hydro and he was introduced to Francis Mikel and a man surnamed Thom, both from Linlithgow and both acquaintances of Rose. The next day, Laurie and Rose walked up Glen Rosa, planning to climb Goatfell the following day. Mikel and Thom had to leave on the 3.30 p.m. ferry, but advised Rose not to go with Laurie as they had taken a dislike to him. After seeing them off at the ferry, Rose and Laurie started their climb, a very late start. The last sighting of them was at the summit towards North Goatfell. A young local man, David McKenzie, who was with two girls near Sannox cemetery, saw a man coming down the glen at 9.30 p.m. Laurie was later seen at Corrie Hotel just after 10 p.m., where he bought a drink and filled his whisky flask.
The Invercloy landlady found next day their room vacated and their bags gone.
Laurie had been seen on the first ferry of the day by the eye witness of the previous night, David McKenzie.
Laurie made his way back to Bute and was seen in Rothesay wearing Rose’s distinctive striped blazer.
As time elapsed, Rose’s family became worried by him not returning from holiday.
His brother made enquiries and eventually came to Arran. A search was made by the police in the Goatfell area, but with no result. The papers became involved and the disappeared climber became headlines.
Laurie’s workmates eventually put two and two together and worked out that the John Allandale who the police were trying to trace was none other than John Laurie.
The Englishman, Rose, was the first to be found, when 200 police, locals and volunteers scoured the Goatfell area. On 4th August, Francis Logan’s dog found a body under a huge boulder, semi-walled in with stones and rocks.
Six days later, Laurie wrote to the North British Daily Mail from Liverpool proclaiming his innocence to the accusation of murder, but admitting theft. Police later found three of Rose’s monogrammed shirts.
Twelve days later, Laurie was in Aberdeen writing to the Glasgow Herald saying he had left Rose at the top with two others. On 3rd September, he was recognised at a small station on the Hamilton-Lanark rail- way line and, after a chase he was arrested.
The Verdict:
The trial took place in the High Court in Edinburgh. It took only two days and, at 10.35 p.m. on the Saturday night, a guilty verdict was returned by the Jury of 15, with 8 votes for a conviction and 7 against. (In those days there was no such thing as a ‘not proven’ verdict).
Despite a death sentence, there was unease about the hasty trial, the circumstantial evidence and conflicting ‘expert witnesses’, and a petition for clemency was put before nueen sictoria. Two days before the execution, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.
Laurie serve his sentence in Peterhead and Perth Prisons. He died in Perth Prison after 41 years’ incarceration.
Stuart then told us many facts that had emerged later and the members had the opportunity to question him. The injuries were consistent with an attack or a fall. Laurie did not give evidence in his own defence. The expert witness for the prosecution was known to all the parties and so should have been discounted as an impartial witness. Was there a homosexual element to all to this? Only Rose and Laurie knew what really happened, and Rose still remains here on Arran, under another granite boulder in Sannox cemetery.The facts died with him.
Our Verdict:
We had 8 guilty votes, 6 not guilty and 33 not proven. Stuart himself, after much research, was a not guilty vote.
What a sad outcome - two young men’s lives wasted.