Roland Gwynne Lieutenant - Colonel Sir Roland Vaughan Gwynne , DSO , DL , JP ( 16 May 188215 November 1971 ) was Mayor of Eastbourne , Sussex , from 1928 to 1931 . He was also a patient and close friend of the suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams . Childhood . Gwynne ' s father made a fortune in the nineteenth century from an engineering business and bought estates in Sussex with the proceeds . Gwynne ' s mother , May , was 41 when he was born . He was the last of nine children ( though two had died ) . Until the age of 13 , he was dressed by his mother as a girl in frocks , with bows , necklaces and long ringlets . He was educated privately before being sent to Trinity Hall , Cambridge . The renowned harpsichordist Violet Gordon - Woodhouse was one of his sisters . One brother , Rupert , was Member of Parliament for Eastbourne from 1910 until his death in 1924 ; his daughter was the celebrated cookery writer Elizabeth David . Career . After university he served in the honorary post of Judge ' s Marshal . On 2 April 1904 he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Sussex Yeomanry and made Lieutenant on 1 April 1908 . In 1904 Gwynne aided Viscount Turnour in his maiden election campaign in the constituency of Horsham , which Turnour then held for the next 47 years . In 1910 Gwynne was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple , where he practised in the Probate and Divorce Division . The First World War broke out when Gwynne was 32 . He was sent a white feather , a symbol of cowardice , by a " friend of the family " and in September 1916 he volunteered for active service and won the Distinguished Service Order in Flanders in 1917 while attached to the Queen ' s Royal Regiment , much to the surprise of his family . He was wounded twice , leaving him with a permanent limp . On 8 April 1921 he was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Sussex . In 1922 his mother died , leaving most of her money to Gwynne due to a family disagreement . That same year , Gwynne put his name forward as a Conservative candidate for Lewes , East Sussex , but withdrew it when his brother Neville hinted to the selection committee that Gwynne was a homosexual ( around this time MP Noel Pemberton Billing was leading a witch hunt against homosexuals ) . John Bodkin Adams arrived in Eastbourne that same year . Rupert died in 1924 , just after being re - elected to Parliament . Gwynne inherited his estate but settled for local politics , being High Sheriff of Sussex in 1926 / 27 and then becoming Mayor of Eastbourne in 1928 . While he was mayor , in 1929 the town bought of land surrounding Beachy Head , to save it from development , costing the town around £100 , 000 . His term as Mayor ended in 1931 and on 9 November that year he was made the 8th ever Honorary Freeman of Eastbourne for his services to the borough . He stayed in local politics , being Chairman of East Sussex County Council from 1937 to 1940 . He constantly had financial problems , caused on the one hand by his extravagant lifestyle ( he was famous for the wild parties he held at Folkington Manor , attended by , among others , Freeman Freeman - Thomas , Viceroy of India and Rudyard Kipling ) and on the other , by his sexuality , which made him a prime target for blackmail . Indeed , his butler Wilde was known by those close to him to be one such person extorting money from him . After Gwynne ' s death , love letters from various local jockeys were found among his papers . During the Second World War he took to drink . In 1947 , burdened with debt , he was forced to rent out Folkington and move into the smaller Wootton Manor . John Bodkin Adams . Gwynne never married but he developed a close friendship with John Bodkin Adams , an Eastbourne general practitioner and suspected serial killer , with whom he went on frequent shooting holidays to Scotland and Ireland . He would visit Adams every morning at 9 a . m . During the police investigation into Adams , a note written by a journalist was uncovered linking Adams sexually to a member of the local police and a local magistrate . The police officer is strongly suspected to have been the Deputy Chief Constable of Eastbourne , Alexander Seekings , and the magistrate to have been Gwynne . Despite the illegality of homosexual sex in 1956 / 57 , the matter was not investigated further by police . In 1956 , Adams was arrested on suspicion of murdering two of his patients . Gwynne was Chairman of the Magistrates in Lewes , East Sussex , and had to step down from the committal hearing owing to a conflict of interest . During the proceedings though , Gwynne was seen dining with Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard and former Attorney General Hartley Shawcross at a hotel in Lewes . Goddard had by then already appointed the judge for Adams ' case , Patrick Devlin . After their meeting at the hotel Gwynne crashed his car while driving home . No evidence was adduced he had been drinking . The meal was seen by one of the investigating officers from Scotland Yard , Charles Hewett as further indication that the Adams ' trial was the subject of concerted judicial and political interference . During the actual trial , while the jury was out discussing the verdict on Adams ' first charge of murder , Goddard phoned Devlin to urge him in the case of Adams being found not guilty , to grant Adams bail before he was tried on a second count of murder . Devlin was surprised since a person accused of murder had never been given bail before in British legal history . A month after the trial on 10 May 1957 , Goddard heard a contempt of court case against magazine " Newsweek " and the shop chain W . H . Smith , which on 1 April during Adams ' trial had respectively published and distributed an issue of the magazine containing two paragraphs of material " highly prejudicial to the accused " , saying that Adams ' victim count could be " as high as 400 " . Each company was fined £50 . On 12 February 1957 , just before Adams ' trial began Gwynne was knighted . Adams was sensationally acquitted of one murder charge and another was withdrawn controversially by the Attorney General . Gwynne cooled his relationship with Adams and even admitted to police when interviewed in connection with the investigation into Adams , that he had given instructions to be buried in a lead - lined coffin . This unusual procedure was usually designed to protect the water table from contamination or to preserve evidence in case an exhumation might ever be necessary . Roland Gwynne died on 15 November 1971 . Adams signed his death certificate . Post Adams . Gwynne fell into depression and in 1963 suffered a stroke . He was made a ward of the Court of Protection in 1965 , which prevented him from controlling his own money and possessions . He died on 15 November 1971 in a nursing home aged 89 . His death certificate was signed by Dr Adams . His last will left his estate , valued at around £1 . 7 million to Sir Dingwall Bateson , who , in the event , predeceased him .