(The following description contains excerpts from several newspaper accounts
of the Murder of Thomas Edwin and Barbara Louise Holloway of Wimborne in
Oct 1930)
A frightful tragedy took place at Watsford Farm House
near Wimborne early on Wednesday morning when Mr. Thomas Edwin Holloway
age 61, of Watsford Farm, a well known agriculturalist and his wife, Louisa
Barbara, were shot dead in their bedroom.
A son-in-law of the Holloways, Frank Hawkenwood (?)
Burdett, a retired Army Captain, of Handcraft House, Dogdean, Holt, near
Wimborne was seen by the son leaving with a double barrelled gun. The
son challenged him and was threatened. Burdett ran out of the house
and the police later found him sitting in a hedge in a lane about
100 yards away with terrible wounds in the face and a gun by his side.
He was conscious but died about three hours later in the Poor-law Infirmary.
Burdett left an envelope addressed to his wife containing his will but this
was not discovered until after the shooting had taken place.
Captain Burdett,who was about 55, married the Holloway’s
19-years- old daughter, Trixie, at the beginning of this year. Burdett
was not a native of the Wimborne district, but came to live there shortly
after the end of the Great War.
In an interview one of the sons, Mr. Maurice Holloway,
referred to the family troubles which led up to the tragedy. “My sister,
Trixie, married Captain Burdett, who was nearly 60, about a year ago”, he
said. “My parents were all against it, for she was only a girl of
18. A summons for abduction was taken out against him but it was afterwards
withdrawn. Father and Captain Burdett had not spoken to each other
since the marriage but Mother helped him several times for Trixie’s sake,
giving him 18 pounds on one occasion. He and my sister lived in a
cottage called Handicraft House, near here and he did fancy leather work
for a living. We knew that lately he had been in low water, and I
believe he was nearly penniless.”
Both Mr. and Mrs. Holloway came from well-known Dorset families.
Mrs. Holloway, who was about 5 years of age, was a daughter of Mr. Edwin
Harris, of North Farm, Horton. Mr. Holloway’s father was also
a well-known local farmer, and at the advanced age of 90 years he is living
in retirement in Weymouth.
INQUEST
The inquest on the three bodies was held at the police station on Wednesday
morning by Mr. R. Neville Jones (Coroner of East Dorset). In the inquiry
as to the death of Mr. and Mrs. Holloway the jury returned a verdict of
‘Wilful Murder’ against Captain Burdett, and in the inquest on the body
of Captain Burdet, the verdict was ‘Suicide’.
The funeral of Mr. and Mrs. Holloway is fixed for today
(Thursday), the first part of the service being at Wimborne Minster, and
the burial afterwards at Wimborne Cemetery.
NOTE: Other newspaper accounts of the two funerals told how "Many
places of business in Wimborne were closed and blinds of private houses were
drawn. Hundreds of people watched the cortage as it passed to the Minster,
where the Rev. Canon A. L. Keith, R.D. (vicar), conducted the funeral service......So
large was the crowd at the graveside that it had to be controlled by police."