The man who killed John W T Allee

A very busy December meant that I didn’t organise anyone to write the Grave of the Month. So, on 4^th January, I looked at Brian’s last list of suggestions, picked the first one, read everything that was on the website about John Allee, and hastily wrote the GOTM about him.

You will have seen that he was a local businessman who, whilst collecting his father’s cattle for sale at Guildford market, was knocked over by a car. There was an inquest, and the driver of the car was charged with manslaughter. But at the trial the jury found him ‘not guilty’ despite all the evidence being against him.

The accident happened at East Horsley, halfway between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, near the entrance to Horsley Towers, in front of the Duke of Wellington pub.

Gerald Garlick had dropped his father off at Horsley station and was on his way home to Rowbarns Manor (called Robarns Farm on this map). He was driving an Austin 15hp car.

All the witnesses said he was driving fast, and he didn’t sound his horn. He said he was driving at 20mph, and he did sound his horn.

Allee, his father and three stockmen were milling around a van, preparing to load cattle in. The cattle were kept on grassland belonging to Horsley Towers.

What interested me, a connoisseur of murder mystery novels, was why did Garlick’s father go to the expense of employing one of the most famous barristers in the country, to save his son from going to prison. Sir Edward Marshall Hall “the great criminal lawyer”, used friendly questioning to shake the testimony of all the witnesses, suggesting that the local ones had an historical axe to grind. His summing up lasted an hour talking at 200 words a minute! Poor jury!

So, I started to research Gerald Garlick’s life and family.

Gerald was born, 1896, in Llandudno, North Wales. His grandfather owned a carpet factory in Kidderminster, his father Thomas Jehu Garlick, became a chartered accountant and in the 1921 census was living at Rowbarn Manor and was a colliery proprietor -  in Surrey!

First, I discovered that Gerald had served in the Great War. His younger brother, Vivian, was killed in action in Italy in 1918. His mother was Ellen née Ingham but by 1921 his father’s wife was called Daisy, born in Brazil and much younger than his first wife.

I could find no death for Ellen, nor marriage for Thomas and Daisy, though I did discover her first name was actually Elizabeth.

I decided to look into coal mines in Surrey. Then I discovered that the mines that Thomas Jehu Garlick owned were in the Midlands, nowhere near Surrey. Maybe that’s why he caught the train so frequently?

From mining museums and web sites I was able to piece together the father’s story. When the sons were quite young, Thomas J Garlick was found guilty of fraud and went to Wormwood Scrubs prison for 9 months hard labour in 1913. His partner in crime was named Shackleton and lived in Angola, Africa. Shackleton went to prison for 15months.They had taken money for shares to a fictitious company and kept it for themselves.

To begin with, searching online for Shackleton at that time kept throwing up the arctic explorer, which was annoying. Then I discovered that the partner in crime, Frank Shackleton, was the explorer’s younger brother!

This was not his first enterprise with Shackleton. Ten years earlier they were involved in repatriating Russian troops from the Far East – goodness know how they expected to make money from that. Garlick was also involved in a swindle with the electrobus development in London[i] but seems to have got away with that one.

Thomas served his time. During WW1 he made a fortune from selling food to the Army in the trenches. His reputation restored, the last thing he needed was his son following him to prison.

Gerald Garlick married Blanche M. Timson in Berkhamstead in 1923. They had a son Thomas Vivian Timson Garlick in 1925.

Thomas Jehu had bought the Oxcroft colliery in Derbyshire and was the owner when a fatal accident happened in 1919. By 1940 both TJ and Gerald were directors of the colliery, Gerald staying on after TJ’s death in 1942, Gerald was still a director when Nationalisation happened in 1947.  

Gerald died in 1953 in Cheltenham.

In John Allee’s obituary it states that he was well known for keeping Newbury supplied with meat during WW1. When Allee’s wife sued the Garlicks for compensation it came out that despite Allee’s businesses having a turnover of over £60,000 a year, he was overdrawn at the bank. Why did Allee have cattle grazing less than a mile from Garlick’s house in Surrey? Did they know each other through WW1 procurement? Was it an accident?

See, too many murder mystery novels.

Ros Clow

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