Within the space of a year, in the late 1920s, three members of the same family from Croydon died from arsenic poisoning. On 27th April 1928, retired colonial officer Edward Creighton Duff died after returning home from a fishing trip; his death was ascribed to a weak heart. On 15th February 1929, Edward’s unmarried sister-in-law, Vera Sydney, died suddenly; her death was also put down to a weak heart, even though she was a robust woman who took part in many sports. However, when Vera’s widowed mother, Violet Sydney, died on March 5th 1929, there was no mistaking the signs of arsenic poisoning; the other two bodies were exhumed and were found to have died of the same cause. Edward’s widow Grace Duff, Violet’s other daughter, and Vera’s brother Tom Sydney, something of an entertainer, lived in the same neighbourhood but were unaffected.

The Riddle of Broadhurst Rise by Richard Whittingham-Egan (Harrap 1975, Penguin reprint 1988), the best account of the case, points the finger at Grace Duff. The author’s theory is that Grace had grown tired of her husband and was having an affair with a local doctor. Apparently the deaths of her sister and mother were for monetary gain.

Very recently however, the actor, writer and director Julian Fellowes, in the last of his BBC1 series Julian Fellowes Investigates, took the view that Tom Sydney was the guilty party. Certainly, he was able to carve out a career in America shortly afterwards with some of the money he had inherited from his mother, and never came back. But I agree with the book’s theory. Grace Duff lived the rest of her life in obscurity and died on 24th June 1973. One of the reasons why the poisonings were never solved was because all three inquests were held separately instead of together.

The aforementioned book gives birthdates for the five protagonists in this domestic tragedy:

VIOLET SYDNEY: 13th August 1839; Sunbury

EDMUND CREIGHTON DUFF: 24th April 1869; Mandla, India

GRACE DUFF (nee SYDNEY): 27th August 1886; Carlton Lodge

VERA SYDNEY: 16th February 1888

THOMAS SYDNEY: 16th June 1889

 

Mark Oaten has been the Liberal Democrat MP for Winchester since 1997, but his entry into national politics was rather unusual. After several recounts on 1st and 2nd May 1997 he was declared the winner by only two votes, but the Tories took the matter to the High Court; the Court declared the election invalid and ordered a by-election to take place in November 1997. On this occasion, Oaten won by more than 21,000 votes. Following the recent resignation of Charles Kennedy as Liberal Democrat leader, he announced that he would be a candidate for the leadership, but revelations of his associations with rent boys forced him to drop out of the running.

MARK OATEN: 8th March 1964; place and time not known. Source: The Times Guide to the House of Commons June 2001, p.279