The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-12-03 00:00:00

The MURDER of LIEUTENANT ROPER.

The facts relating to the murder of Lieut. Roper
may, in the time which has elapsed, have become for-
gotten, and our readers may be glad to refresh their
memory by the following recital, which we take from
the Daily Telegraph of Monday :
Lieutenant Percy Lyle Ormsby Roper, a young officer in
the Royal Engineers, was found on the stairs just outside his
quarters in Brornpton Barracks, Chatham, shot through the
breast, and in a dying and perfectly insensible condition.
Only a few minutes previously he had returned from mess,
where he had been dining with his brother officers,
and he was then in his accustomed health and soirits.
The rooms he occupied were on the first floor of
No. 9 house, which, like all the ether adjoining
houses, has a stone staircase for the common use of the
officers therein quartered, their friends, visitors, and ser-
vants, like the staircases in the Inns of Court. At the time
of the discovery all the officers occupying that block of build-
ings were away; and their absence was accounted for by the
fact that an evening entertainment in barracks had just begun.
The only persons in the house were some of the servants who
waited on the officers. One of the former was a woman
named Gerside, whose husband attended on Lieutenant
Stotherd, an officer occupying quarters contiguous to
those of Mr. Roper. Her story, which there seemed no
reason whatever to doubt, was that she heard some dogs
barking upstairs, and supposing- that they were shut
out of the room of some officers to whom they belonged,
went up to open the door to let them in. While
ascending the first flight, she heard a groan, and
then saw the unfortunate officer lying partly on the
stairs and partly on the lauding. She hastily called
Lieutenant Roper's servant, William Gallagher, who, with
his own wife and Mrs. Gerside, bore the still breathing but
apparently unconscious gentleman into his room, and laid
him on his bed. Gallagher then ran out to fetch the sur-
geon,-and had scarcely left the house when he met Lieu-
tenant Colonel Duff, the Assistant-Commandant of the School
of Military Engineering, who was on his way back from the
mess to his own quarters, in the honie next to that of the
deceased. The man's exclamation was, Oh, sir, my master 1
Someone has stabbed him 1'
•

" Colmel Duff's evidence, before the coroner, showed that
Mr. Roper had dined at the officers mess, and that the
greater number present rose from table at half-past eight, a
few remaining behind, among whom was the witness, he
being one of the last to go. After spending some
time in the ante-room, reading, he set forth towards his
quarters, which were only about forty yards distant.
Then it was that he met Gallagher, Lieutenant Roper's
servant, and heard the man's alarming tidings. He followed
Gallagher back to the house, went up to the room, without
particularly noticing anything on the stairs, and found the
young lieutenant —he was only twenty-one years of age—
lying on his bed, insensible, and bleeding from the wound
in his breast. Then Gallagher was sent to bring Dr.
Weekes ; and an officer of the Royal Engineers, who came
in, went away directly to fetch other medical assistance.
While Colonel Duff was alone with the dying man, one
of the women brought into the room, first, a leathern
pistol-case, which she had found on the stairs, with a
single cartridge in it; then several cartridges, which the
colonel put into the pouch; and finally a revolver, having
five undischarged cartridges in it, and one exploded case.
By this time Dr. Weekes had come; and when he had taken
the place of Colonel Duff at the bedside, the latter officer
went outside the room, when Isis foot struck against some-
thing which he found to be a purse containing a few
shillings. He also saw some articles of clothing in the pas-
sage ; and Gallagher, the servant, brought and handed him
a watch and case.
"After the evidence of Lieutenant-Colonel Duff came that
of Gallagher, who deposed that at twenty-five minutes past
eight his master sent for him at the mess, and gave orders
to be called the next morning at the usual hour.
The man then went off immediately to the house in
which were Lieutenant Roper's quarters, and began
changing, his mess clothes in the kitchen. He heard
a noise, as if one of the bath tubs had fallen down,
but took no notice, as he thought some of the young gentle-
men had returned from mess, and were larking.' As soon
as he had changed his clothes, he went to get his supper-
beer, but met Mrs. Gerside, who told him something had
happened on the stairs. He then went up to where Mr.
Roper was lying, with his face towards the iron banisters,
and he turned the poor young officer over, and asked
him what was the matter ; but though he was breathing
heavily he could not -speak or understand. The hapless
officer's death-wound was, indeed, of such a character that
Isis continuance to breathe so long as he did was an unpre-
cedented fact in the experience of the surgeons who attended
him. The bullet had entered between the fifth and sixth
ribs, tearing away the left ventricle of the heart, and leav-
ing an orifice large enough for the insertion of two lingers,
before proceeding in its course through a part of the liver,
and embedding itself in the ninth rib. The waistcoat of
the murdered mass was charred and torn on the left side,
where the ball had entered, and so were his shirt and
merino under-vest, it being thence evident that the muzzle
of the revolver had been placed close to the breast of the
deceased ; and, from the course which the missile took, it
was impossible that the weapon could have been fired by
Mr. Roper himself, supposing the theory of suicide to
have been for a moment entertained.
"Attention was of course directed to the revolver, which
was identified as one that belonged to Mr. Stotherd, and
usually hung in his room, that apartment being behind
Mr. Roper's. The pistol must have been taken from its
peg, where it had certainly been hanging a very short
time before it was used upon Mr. Stotherd's friend. As it
was of the regulation pattern, of course the cartridge that
fitted it was also of the military type, and such as wouldbe
dealt out to officers from the ammuniticn stores. But it so
happened that Lieutenant Stotherd had no cartridges in his
possession; and the pistol, which was either a prize or a
present, had figured on the wall of the room more by way of
ornament than with any immediate thought of service. It
therefore became necessary to make strict inquiries regard-
ing the ammunition, which was stored in a distant
part of the barracks; and here, again, the investigation
into this terrible mystery received a check ; for
the officer in charge, who had not looked at that part
of the stores for a long time, found not only that it
was undisturbed, but that the quantity was a little in excess
of his calculations. Among the articles found outside Mr.
Roper's room, on the night of his undoubted murder, was
one that suggested a baffled attempt at robbery. This
object was a poker, which might have been seized from its
place on the hearth by the Lieutenant himself to use as a
weapon of defence. Ile had, on leaving the mess,
told his fellow-officers who did not intend going to
the entertainment that he should only walk across
to his quarters and finish writing a letter, after doing
which he would return to them and join them in a game of
cards. His purpose of writing was only in part fulfilled.
The letter was found on his table, still incomplete. From
day to day the police pursued their search for fresh evidence,
and from week to week the coroner adjourned the inquest,
but with no further approach to a result. Something
was said by the sentry about a stranger who wore a dark
moustache, but the shrewd suspicion that several strangers
might have been inside the barrack gates that evening de-
prived the man's statement of nearly all its significance at
that time. There was, as already intimated, ass entertain-
ment going on, and this involved of neces,sity the employ-.
merit of extra servants and the intrusion of a few hangers-
on. Perhaps it robbery had been projected by a wary
thief, he would have fixed upon that very night of erre-
ordinary bustle as a time when he had the best chance of
moving about' unnoticed. There was, indeed, little doubt
as to the motive of the crime. Drawers had been opened
and their contents turned over; and, although nothing had
actually been missed, the removal of clothing and valuables
from the room to the passage was plainly indicated."

The Daily Telegraph of Tuesday further said :
in addition to the facts recapitulated, we may now con-
skier the purchase of ammunition, on the afternoon of Feb.
11, the date of the murder, at the shop of Mr. Edward
Palmer, a gunsmith in Rochester. This mitness, who gave
his evidence on the last day of the coroner's inquiry,
which was March 1, more than a fortnight after the
event, said he should be unable to identiry his cus-
tomer, but he had the appearance of being a military
Mall, between thirty and thirty-five years of age. Lefroy,
it may here be remarked, is supposed to have disguised him-
sell by means of the false whiskers and moustache which he
had in his possession at that time. When yesterday inter-
rogated, Mr. Palmer said that, judging from the photo-
graphs, the purchaser's profile was not unlike that of
Lefroy, but he wore a black military moustache. The re-
volver with which Mr. Roper, presumably, was shot, had been
taken from his brother officer's room, behind his own. It
would therefore seem that the assassin must have known
of its existence, and of its usual place in Lieutenant
Stotheril a quarters, before buying the ammunition. This
is rendered tolerably clear from the fact that the car-
tridges were purchased between four and sir o'clock,
and the weapon would have been missed if it had been
taken away from its peg at.so early a period of the evening.
"Regarding the entrance to and escape from the Brompton
Barracks, by the murderer, whoever he may have been, we
have only to look back at the published evidence in order to
see that there was no difficulty about either movement.
Respectably-dressed persons were never interrogated when
entering the gate, and their egress was as free as their
ingress. Not until ten o'clock was it the duty of the
sentry to challenge any one he did not know. The
man by whom Mr. Roper was slain could, nay, must,
have got away from the barracks immediately after the deed
was committed; and that was between half-past eight and
a quarter to nine. If thoroughly composed, and master of
himself, he could as easily have gone out by the ordinary gate
as he could have entered by it. . . . limit if he dreaded to go

i;LL4J; -

out by the gate, there was still the alternative of departing
by the back of the officers' quarters, where there is a lane
which leads into the Dockyard extension road, a thoroughfare
little frequented at night. As a matter of fact, some pistol-
cartridges were afterwards found concealed near this lane.
Lefroy's statement that he returned to London the same
night is quite consistent with possibility. The murder was
committed shortly after half past eight o'clock. The last
train left Chatham about twenty-fivp minutes past nine, and
the barracks are less than twenty minutes' walk from the
station.