1870-1892
Following his visit to England in 1870 [PAGE5110] the next time we hear about James in George’s diaries is in an entry dated 18th July 1873. George is serving in Resistance at Plymouth. The following account describes the events that occurred after James returned to India with his new wife Elise. He visits a Miss Joll (who is “the fair and fickle Elise”) and her sister, who tell him that James is coming back to England in August. On this visit the “fair Elise” ceased to be fickle. James and Elise are married on the 1st October. Unfortunately George was not able to attend the ceremony as his ship was in Lisbon, but he heard all about the occasion from his family. In his diary he adds “they seem to be well suited to each other and I hope they may live as long and happily as my dear Parents Have”.
Sadly this was not to be the case. Within six months their world had fallen apart. On his return to India in November James set up home with his new bride in the city of Baroda and returned to his previous duties. We do not know exactly how he spent the next few months except that Elise became pregnant and at some time in March, James, accompanied by Elise, set out on a survey expedition that led directly to the tragic events that are about to be described.
For the last few days of March James Hall’s surveying party camped in the village of Barjoree in the Tanawada zilla. The party consisted of ten people; five sowars who provided a mounted escort; two puttawallahs of the Guzerat Survey Dept; Gool Mahommed, James’ manservant, who had been with him for 17 years; James Hall and his wife Elise.
During this period James had not felt well and on the 31st he gave orders that they should leave the next day for Baroda, some 60 miles to the south. Other members of the party noticed that during the last night James was in a very agitated state and spent most of the night walking up and down outside his tent with a gun on his shoulder.
At 7 o’clock the next morning the party struck camp and set off for Baroda. To start with James and his wife travelled in the shigram, but when they reached a ravine they both got out. After passing this obstruction Elise got back into the carriage but James continued to walk ahead of it. At about 11 o’clock the party stopped under a mohur tree near to the village of Pundwa. James asked for a brandy, but when it was brought to him by Gool Mahommed he refused to take it. He then said he was tired and wanted to return to Barjoree, from where they had just come. Gool Mahommed said that this was impossible, but that they could pitch the tents where they were. James did not reply but went on to say that the brandy was poisoned and that he would not touch it. Gool handed the brandy to one of the puttawallahs who turned and walked away with it towards the carriage.
At that moment James raised his gun and fired four shots. The first took no effect, the second killed one of the sowars, who fell from his horse and died. The third grazed a sowar and struck one of the horses, this sowar died of his wounds nine days later. The fourth killed another sowar, the owner of the injured horse.
It has not been possible to discover exactly what happened after these terrible events. It seems clear that the immediate reaction of the rest of the party was either to flee the scene or, if far enough away, take cover behind trees. Later when they felt it was safe to move, they went to the village of Pundwa to inform the Thanadar of what had happened. This official convened an on-the spot inquest known as a Punch, the findings of which formed part of the evidence at the subsequent trial.
What is not quite so clear is what happened to James and the unfortunate Elise. They had been left by all their native Indian support, with the possible exception of the faithful Gool Mahommed, whose movements it is not possible to trace. By the time the Thanadar had arrived at the site of the crime they had left the area and the next we know about them is from the evidence Captain William Latouche the District Superintendent of Police, Kayra. In his evidence he states that he learnt on the 2nd April that James and his wife were at the Travellers Bungalow at Tassa, some xx miles S of the scene of the crime, Travelling overnight he and Mr Scannel of the Broach Police arrived at Tassa at 6 am on the 3rd. Having consulted with the local police and surviving members of the Survey party, Captain Latouche sent to Baroda for some soldiers and to the engineer at Dakore for a lorry or a railway ballast engine. He then wrote a letter to James asking him to come and stay at his camp, or if James preferred, for him to visit James. James replied that Captain Latouche should visit him.
On approaching the bungalow Captain Latouche and Mr Scannel found James standing with a large shikar knife in his hand and a rifle leaning against the wall beside him. When they were about 30 yards from James he told them to come no closer or he would kill himself. He then told them of all his fears namely “that he was to be seized by the natives and taken to the temple at Dakore, where he was to be sacrificed by being trampled to death by an elephant, painted red, then packed in an ice machine and sent home”. While these events were taking place Elise was standing beside her husband. Taking advantage of his agitated state she suddenly seized the rifle and ran towards the policemen. James ran after her with the knife, but Capt Latouche ran forward to meet her, took possession of the rifle, and led her to safety. James returned to the bungalow. The next three hours were spent trying to calm James down. These attempts were ultimately successful. Having got into the bungalow Captain Latouche persuaded James to have a meal, during which he managed to obtain possession of the shirkar knife and also the rifle cartridges. There were tense moments. At first James refused to wash unless his rifle was returned to him. Later his butler (was this Gool Mahommed?) entered the room with a hammer to open a box. James ran towards him and threatened to kill him, but again was calmed down. At 7 pm reinforcements arrived in the form of Mr Rupert, the District Magistrate and Captain Seagrave, Superintendent of Police at Ahmedabad.
The party sat up with James until about 2 am the next morning, during which time James paced around the room in an agitated manner. At about 2 am on the 4th the party left for Oomrut, a halt on a branch line that had just been completed and a distance of about ten miles from Tassa. At Oomrut the party embarked on a ballast train and set off for Anund some fifteen miles down the line and there caught the mail train to Baroda. At Baroda they spent half the day at the police station before taking James to his own house. There he spent the next few days under the care of Captain Latouche before being taken down to Colaba Lunatic Asylum in Bombay.
Not surprisingly the events that have been described created considerable interest in Bombay. The news appears to have reached the city on the 6th April and was the subject of leading articles in both the Times of India and the Bombay Gazette. The former journal, in a leader entitled SHOCKING OCCURRENCE IN GUZERAT, gave a factual account of what had happened and commented on the fact that he was a tall and powerful man and that considerable precautions had had to be taken for his conveyance from the Colaba Station to the Asylum. It then went on, not only to express sympathy for the relatives of the unfortunate men who were killed, but also for the accused who was described as being “well known to be kind hearted, inoffensive and amiable”. The leader in the Bombay Gazette did not take such a relaxed view of events. Having confirmed an earlier description of what had taken place, it then raised serious questions about the behaviour of those who had known and worked with James Hall. It disclosed that he had had several similar attacks and four years previously had been so seriously affected that he had gone about with a loaded rifle saying he was being persecuted and about to be poisoned by some emissary on behalf of the Government. The leader then went on to seriously criticise the incompetence of James’s friends and employers, whose well meaning, but dilatory behaviour, had led to the death of three innocent men. It concluded with offering its sympathies to “his poor wife in her present distressing circumstances”. James Hall finally arrived in Bombay on the 8th of April and was consigned to Colaba Asylum.
On Tuesday, June 23rd, James was brought before Mr Dosabhoy Framjee at the Fort Police Court, the proceedings of which are given in the Times of India of June 23, 1874. Mr Hearn appeared for the prosecution. James was defended by Mr Charles Langley, the husband of James’ niece. After hearing the evidence, the Magistrate administered the usual caution to the accused who apparently seemed perfectly composed and fully aware of what was going on. In reply to the caution he remarked that he had nothing to say. He was then committed to trial at the ensuing Criminal Sessions of the High Court.
The High Court trial took place on the following Saturday [PAGE5221]. After the evidence had been heard the defence asked the jury to find the accused Not Guilty on the grounds that he was not responsible for his actions. In his summing up the judge supported this view and the jury, without retiring, returned the following verdict – That the prisoner committed the act charged against him while of unsound mind so as to excuse him according to the law. The judge then ordered James to be returned to the lunatic asylum whence he was brought, till the pleasure of the Government was known. James was sent back to England and committed to Broadmoor, where he died in 1892.
There are two footnotes to this sad story. What happened to James’ wife Elise? A Notice in the Bombay Gazette of the 27th April 1874 showed that an unaccompanied Mrs Hall sailed that day for Southampton on board the P and O SS Mirzapore. We cannot be certain that this was Elise, but as she did not give evidence at either trial it seems very likely that she left India soon after her husband’s crime, if only so that she could have her child with her family in England. The Mirzapore arrived in England on the 24th May. On her return she seems to have gone to live with her parents near Plymouth. The 1881 census shows her living with her parents in Stoke Damerel with her daughter, Frances Louise, who by then was 6 years old. What happened to her after that is not known except that she died in Bournemouth in October 1923, aged 71, and was buried in Cambridge near her daughter, who had died there in the early 1890s. The second footnote concerns two meetings that took place in 1877 which are recorded in George King-Hall’s diaries [PAGE5400]. On Tuesday 26th September William and his son George visited James at Broadmoor. What makes this meeting remarkable is that William had only hoisted his flag as Commander-in-Chief, Nore the previous Saturday, yet had found the time to visit his unfortunate nephew. William and George paid another visit just after Christmas in December. Unfortunately there were two Wokingham stations, and they went to the wrong one. William returned to London, but George, after a five mile walk, paid a second visit to his cousin.