Melksham Times Past

A column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis

“It’s a Pity It Did Not Kill Him”

Sometimes these old newspaper articles will hint at a nugget that reeks of “there’s a bigger story here…” And indeed, there was with the reporting of a lawsuit for non-payment: Missen v Franklin in 1914.

Jesse Missen had previously been awarded a judgement of £8 from James Franklin for a debt owed.

Franklin was to pay 2s 6d a fortnight, but he hadn’t paid the debt. In a judgement summons, Judge Gwynne James asked why the mason’s labourer had not paid his debt. Franklin responded that when he was in work he made £1 a week but he’d left his job the previous Saturday. He also stated that he no longer had a pension because he’d been convicted of a felony. In lieu of payment, Franklin was sent to gaol for eight days.

It was that latter excuse that got me curious. Franklin was only 26; what pension?

I looked further into Franklin’s background and discovered he’d signed up for Short Attestation in 1905 at the age of 18 and served his full term of seven years, at one point serving in India, then South Africa. He was then put on reserve. In 1914, Franklin was tried for stealing and this is the point it appears he lost his pension. That was in April; he appeared for the Judgement Summons in July.

But I soon discovered that the real story would emerge over time and culminate in an attempted murder conviction 26 years later.

Franklin returned to the military but in 1918 was listed as “released”, having been a prisoner of war in Germany, serving in the Wilts Regiment during World War I. A year later, Franklin married Gladys Bertha May Bush.

These days we might look to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and returning soldiers would receive treatment. Even though the treatment isn’t always successful, at least we have sympathy and better understanding. But, after the Boer War, after World War I, we didn’t understand how a personality could flip. And the men never talked about it.

I haven’t seen a great deal about Franklin’s past before then; he joined the military at age 18 and kept, presumably, “out of trouble” for the next seven years. I did uncover an article from 1895, that at age seven, Franklin was gored by a cow.

Several cows and calves belonging to John Flower had arrived by train and were heading into town when they encountered children on their way to school. One of the cows, presumed to be irritated by heat and thirst, made for Franklin, threw him down and gored him so severely in the leg that flesh was torn off the bone. It’s possible he would have been killed if it hadn’t been for the intervention of the manager of Mr W Fyfield, who had been passing on his bicycle.

The goring incident, the loss of military pension, serving in two horrific wars, having been a Prisoner of War in Germany, I see a great potential for undiagnosed PTSD, and this might explain what happened later.

“It is a pity it did not kill him. I have been wanting to do it for a long time and I am not the only one.”

Those words were spoken by Franklin’s 18-year-old son to a judge in 1940. James Roy Franklin was on trial for the attempted murder of his father.

The elder Franklin had been found with severe wounds on his head. He was bleeding freely and conscious and was conveyed to the hospital. The police found a hammer in the garden of his home in the city.

The motive for the son’s behaviour might be answered in a newspaper article 17 years before the attempted murder, when his parents had been married for only four years.

Quoting the Western Daily Press, Thursday 7th June 1923, “At Devizes yesterday, Mrs Gladys B M Franklin applied for a separation order against her husband, James Richard Franklin. The parties are natives of Melksham, where they now reside with their respective parents. Complainant stated that the marriage took place on November 15, 1919, and that her husband had persistently cruelly treated her, the cause being his uncontrollable temper. Gladys’s mother proved seeing bruises on her daughter’s body and limbs which she alleged were caused by her husband. Defendant characterised his wife’s story as a lot of filthy lies. He admitted having smacked her face on one occasion. The trouble was due to his wife’s mother. The Bench granted a separation order with custody of the children and ordered defendant to pay 15s per week and the costs, 10s 6d.”

(NB – in 1939, the Franklins were separated but the accused son and his older sister are living with their father in 9, the city. At the time of the trial, the son was living on Kimber Street.)