Arthur Robert Boyce

With special thanks to Richard Hodge for researching and writing this guest article.

Until 2016, my interest in Arthur Boyce had been purely as a family historian and the information I had managed to find on him through various genealogy sites. I knew nothing else about him, or various other goings on in my family as he and other people were not discussed for now obvious reasons. The only family members I knew when growing up were those who I actually met and they said nothing. Those people would have known all about him. What prompted me to look deeper into Mr. Boyce’s past was the mention by one of his grandsons that, at a party, someone had been led to believe that Arthur had either been murdered or was a murderer. As we now know, it was the latter which proved to be the case.

That chance remark was to lead me to investigate more deeply and I am now in possession of transcripts of both the murder investigation and the trial which I obtained from the National Archives. Added to that, because of an entry in the investigation papers, I was able to trace his Army Service Records which I also have a copy of.

This, then, is the story of Arthur Robert Boyce (photo) made up from family history data and information from the National Archives and Military Service material. There were many press reports on the incident at the time and also on his victim, Elizabeth McLindon. Some reports on her were, I believe, unfounded. Many articles have also been written but may well have been from the information which was written in the various press reports at the time. I’m hoping that, with the information I now have, a more accurate account of the man and his life is what I have now written.

Arthur Robert Boyce was born on 12 January 1901. He was the youngest of six children of James and Martha Boyce. The family originated from the Poplar area of London. Arthur himself continued to live in Poplar until at least 1940 when he joined the Army. It would appear that he and his wife separated at around this time. He started school in September 1904 but we are not sure how old he was when he left but was quite common in those days for the leaving age to be around 14. His oldest brother, James, married in 1907 and moved away for work to the Guildford area. In 1911, Arthur’s father died leaving Martha with five children of varying ages to bring up. As we well know, World War 1 broke out in 1914. Arthur’s two oldest brothers, James and Albert, signed up and went off to fight. We don’t know how much contact Arthur had with them or other family members, but I suspect that the absence of any kind of “father figure” in his life at this stage was the start of his undoing.

Arthur’s first conviction was in November 1917 when he was charged for the theft of a watch. On this occasion he was “bound over”. This obviously was not a deterrent as in January of 1918 he was again convicted of stealing a watch and sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.

In February of 1920 Arthur married Emily. Their first two children were to die in infancy, Emily in 1920 and Arthur Robert in 1921. This would also undoubtedly affected both him and his wife. In February of 1923 another daughter, Eileen was born, she was to live for many years.

Marriage and the need to support a wife and child did not, however, prevent Arthur from offending again, even though it would appear that he was in work as a labourer. In April 1924 he spent 6 weeks in prison for stealing a bicycle.

In September 1925 another child was born, this time a son. Still Arthur had not reformed as in January 1926, he was to spend another month in prison for “leaving his wife chargeable”. Yet another spell in prison was spent in January of 1927 having been convicted stealing lead. This time it was 3 months with hard labour.

Even the birth of another child in March 1927 was not enough to keep Arthur out of the bad books, as in September of that year, he was found guilty of stealing money from a meter and received a 6 month prison sentence with hard labour. Here is a newspaper article on the case. The magistrate was clearly proved right with his comments.

The next thing we are led to believe about Arthur, is that at some time in 1929, he was struck on the back of the head by a piece of timber, possibly when working in the docks, and was admitted to the Dreadnought Hospital which was actually a Seafarers Hospital near or in Greenwich. He alleges that he was admitted there in an unconscious state, remaining so for 24 hours. He further alleges that he was hospitalised for some 18 months and spent the next 3 years wearing a spinal jacket. This information is taken from the Medical Examiner’s report whilst he was awaiting trial in 1946. With regard to his admission to Dreadnought Hospital though, it is fortunate that the admissions for the hospital up until 1930 are available to search and Arthur Boyce’s name is not shown at all. His daughter was also to make a statement to the press that he has suffered injury and had received some form of compensation as a result of it which allowed him to start a business as a greengrocer on Poplar High Street It is certainly recorded that he was living/working as such for a few years although in 1939, he is shown as working as a “Pneumatic Driller (Heavy work). His wife and daughter were shown as “assisting in shop”. He was still shown as being at that address until 1942 which can be contradicted by the fact that he was, by this time, serving in the Army. It has also been confirmed that the property did not exist after 1942.

What next then? Come 1931 and he is in trouble again. His offence on this occasion was the theft of a large quantity of whisky (22 1⁄2 bottles), 5000 cigarettes, 200 cigars and 5 1⁄4 lbs of tobacco. This was to earn him another 6 months imprisonment with hard labour. The fact that hard labour was part of the punishment does not give much credence to his story about wearing a spinal jacket for three years.

It would seem that Arthur managed to stay out of trouble again and, in April 1940 he joined the Pioneer Corps Territorial Army. He was shown as being a “Labourer” on enlistment. Also, in June of 1940, another son was born. It also seems that around this time, he and his wife separated. Again, in his statement to the examining Medial Officer before his trial he claims that he was sent to Europe and came back through Dunkirk in 1940. After that, in 1943, he was sent to the Middle East where he was “blown up by a mine and admitted to a hospital in Alexandria”. From there he was sent back to the UK and spent some nine months in a hospital near Sheffield recovering from his nerves.

These statements to the Medical Officer can easily be refuted. We know that he spent no time at all in foreign lands but served his time in the Army in various places in the UK. On 6 September 1942 he deserted and was caught in Fakenham, Norfolk, by the Civil Powers. He appeared in Court once again in October 1942 and was handed a 3 month sentence for stealing a wallet and contents, false representation of an Identity Card and forging an Identity Card. He was then returned to his Unit in Worksop. He was discharged from the Army in June of 1943 as being unfit for any form of further Military Service. It is interesting that this was at about the same time as he was “blown up by a mine”.

It is unclear whether he returned to Poplar at all following his discharge but it is doubtful as we next find him working in an Aircraft Factory not far from Bournemouth. It was whilst working at this factory that he met, and on 12 January 1944, married a fellow worker On his marriage certificate he states that he is a bachelor and was employed as an electrician. In October of 1944, Arthur was charged with bigamy and sentenced at the Dorset Assizes to 18 months imprisonment. On this occasion he was said to have been a “cook”. We don’t know how his new wife found him out but he had certainly deceived her by telling her that his wife had died in an air raid and he was a widower as a result of this.

It would seem that he may have been released from prison before he had completed his full jail term as we next find him in October 1945 renting a room in Fulham. This was confirmed in a witness statement prior to his trial and was by a former fellow inmate in Bristol.

In March of 1946, Boyce was to pay In a cheque for £75 to the branch of a bank in Walham Green, Fulham. I would appear that he then went on a spending spree between March and June and that in order to impress others, he altered the paying in slip to read £2075. During that time he issued cheques to the total value of £1100 to various people but in every case they were referred to Drawer for a variety of reasons. Whilst living in Fulham he was, for a short period, employed by a local firm for about two weeks as a labourer but was sacked due to his inefficiency.

It was around March of 1946 that Boyce was to move to Brighton where he was employed as a painter by a firm working on the Brighton Pier. At some time during April of that year he was to meet Miss Elizabeth McLindon (photo) who was in the employ of a local doctor at the time. Over the next few weeks they were to become quite close and Miss McLindon left the doctor and gained employment as the Housekeeper to the exiled King of Greece who had taken property in London. It has been suggested that Boyce even forged references for Miss McLindon in order that she could get that position. No proof of that has ever been found. Boyce stayed in Brighton until early in June 1946 but handed in his notice to his employer and his then landlady. He and Miss McLindon had, in the meantime, made visits to each other in the interim period. They had also exchanged frequent letters and phone calls. He was to move back to London to live with Miss McLindon after he left Brighton. It is of interest that Miss McLindon mentioned on a number of occasions to others, including Boyce’s landlady and her husband, that she was very worried about the fact that Boyce was in possession of a “gun” and that he had seemingly threatened to use it against her. Boyce, however, denied owning a gun as he claims to have thrown in to the sea off Brighton Pier. What is of interest at this point is that he was seen on Brighton Pier by a witness after the murder had been committed. Miss McLindon seems to also have had concerns about Boyce’s apparent “wealth”, especially since a number of the cheques he had returned were concerned with items he had bought for her. He seems to have allayed any fears though and they continued their arrangements to be married.

This seemingly happy life was not to last though as Miss McLindon was found dead in a locked basement room in the house she was working in. There then ensued a full scale murder investigation. It was to prove difficult but through perseverance and very careful detective work, Boyce was finally apprehended, firstly on a forgery charge and then later on a charge of murder. Throughout the Police Investigation and his subsequent trial he maintained his innocence and on more than one occasion, attempted to lay the blame on others. The only charge he would admit to was the one of forgery.

The murder investigation was hampered by a number of things but mainly the fact that no murder weapon was ever recovered. What Boyce had failed to do on that fateful day though, was to recover a spent cartridge case from the floor of the room that Miss McLindon had been found in. This was to ultimately prove to be his undoing. Why ? He had previously shared a room with another man who legally owned a .32 calibre pistol. Boyce had offered to buy this weapon but the offer had been declined. The man who owned it was called up for military service and left the lodgings he shared with Boyce to go home to Wales. Before he left though, Boyce was to steal the pistol from the man’s already packed bag. The man later informed the police of the apparent theft and also sent Boyce a letter and packaging to return the pistol to him. This was never done. Witnesses at his trial though, did recall Boyce having shown them a pistol. How then did the cartridge case on the floor spell Boyce’s demise? Fortunately, the owner of the weapon allowed the police to search his room and his belongings at his home and another cartridge case was found. Detailed examination by a forensics specialist was able to prove that the two cartridges had, in fact, been fired from the same weapon.

Boyce’s trial at the Old Bailey before Mr. Justice Morris started on 16 September 1946 and three days later an all male jury was to find him guilty of murder, for which he was sentenced to death. An appeal was launched but dismissed on October the 17th. Arthur Robert Boyce was hanged at Pentonville on Friday the 1st of November by Albert Pierrepoint and Henry Critchell.

A motive for the murder has never been put forward but, it is more than possible the Miss McLindon had finally discovered the truth about Boyce and was about to confront him with it or even report him. She was found at a table fully clothed, with her back to the door and with the telephone receiver in her hand. She had been shot from behind. Some reports suggest that the phone directory was opened at the page which contained the numbers of local police stations.

Boyce was also to attempt to cover his tracks by sending letters and making phone calls to Miss McLindon after he knew of her demise. At one point, he was even to contact a sister of Miss McLindon, to ask if she knew where she might be as he could not contact her. He was, if nothing else, very devious.

What is abundantly clear though, is that Boyce had become an accomplished story teller and was very much a man able to turn on the charm when he wanted to. Apart from the statements he made about his military service at his medical examination, there are witness statements which were made during the investigations prior to his murder trial which claim that he had told various people that has served with “Monty”, had served in the Commandos, had had operations on his eyes, was a Sergeant Instructor in the RAF and had been blinded for some months, his family had been “wiped out” by enemy action and so it goes on. As well as all this, he alleges on his Attestation papers in 1940, that he had previously served with the London Regiment and was discharged in 1920. No record of that service has yet been found. It was something which he also mentioned at his medical exam and again embellished it by stating that he had served for seven years and finished his time as a Sergeant. As a former serving soldier myself, I find this extremely hard to believe. As mentioned previously in this piece, his former dwelling in Poplar was not listed after 1942 but was a “multiple occupancy” building and careful research has led me to find out that none of the other occupants of the same building died during the War which was something one might have expected had the property been destroyed by enemy bombing.

One of the other interesting things about the whole “saga” is that of all of his family members, the only two who seemed to be supportive of him in any way were his two older sisters. They also were supportive of his appeal and wrote letters to that effect. Neither his brothers or his wife and daughter seemed to have any sympathy for him and appear not to have been in contact with him. His daughter however, did make a statement to a press reporter after the trial and seemed to back up the story of the bomb. This is also odd as she was apparently already deceased.

I mentioned previously that there were a number of reports about Miss McLindon which I thought were unfounded. One of those reports even classed her as a “High Class Prostitute”. Miss Elizabeth McLindon was born in Bathgate, Scotland, in 1905 of Irish parents. She had a number of siblings and at some stage the family moved to Liverpool. She apparently moved to London for work but remained in regular contact with family. She did have a relationship for a number of years with an older man and it seems that they may have lived together as man and wife for a while. In 1939 we find that Elizabeth had gone back to Liverpool and taken up a position as housekeeper. She was to return to London again and it seems that for about a year she had been a member of the ATS. She applied for and was granted her discharge and then went on to work with the American Red Cross until just after the end of the War. She then went back to becoming a housekeeper for a variety of people. When she and Boyce became “engaged” he was to write and send worthless cheques to various member of her family in order that they might travel to London for the proposed wedding. As with almost all of the others he wrote out, they were returned “refer to drawer”.

I shall leave you to make up your own minds as to whether Arthur Robert Boyce actually deserved the ultimate sanction of death by judicial hanging or was it just his “bad luck”.

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