Pte Alfred Rouse Queen's Regt

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Some of those on the Forum may be more familiar with this man for his notorious actions in 1930, however I am interested in his military service in WW1.

The only information I have is that he served in the Queens Regt and was discharged in 1918 as a result of a shrapnel wound to the head recieived in a bombardment when he was in the trenches at Givenchy.

Has anyone else any information or point me in the direction of an appropriate book?

Ian

[Guest Hussar]

Ian,

Very little, and you've probably already got it.

According to Northamptonshire Police site he was a Territorial and served with distinction in the war up till his injury. He was wounded in the head, thigh and leg by a shell burst in France in 1915 and, apparently, didn't recover consciousness untill the hospital train was passing through Bedford(!) This experience seems to have affected his personality and changed Rouse into a promisuous rake with an enormous sexual appetite. His doctors noted: "[He] is easily excited . . . and laughs immoderately at times." (One of the articles about him describes him as a shell-shocked serial philanderer )

You might try The Galleries of Justice,the UK's only Museum of Law, opened to the public in April 1995, http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/museum/EM000078.html as they hold the defence papers and Rouse's attaché case, along with a transcript of the trial and commentary (oral information) gathered from one Crown Counsel (Mr Norman Birkett KC, M.P.).

This article http://www.mda.org.uk/info24le.htm#Contents raises the question of his mental state, as a result of his injuries, and questions wether he could/should have pleaded diminished responsibility.

There is also a book - 'Trial of Alfred Arthur Rouse'

see here http://antiqbook.com/books/bookinfo.phtml?o=law&bnr=15845

[Robert Dunlop]

The alteration in sexual proclivity and emotional incontinence are both signs of residual brain damage, probably involving the frontal area of the brain at least. Similar signs are sometimes seen in other forms of degenerative brain disease.

Robert

[Guest Ian Bowbrick]

Thanks guys. I found his story in a second hand book, which included a photo of him in uniform. I suspect the cold-bloodiness of killing a total stranger in such a premeditated way could result in no other sentence than the gallows.

Ian