The Leicestershire Mystery of the Green Bicycle Murder of 1919

[Kate Wills]

It's the festive season, so I turned away from duty reading, for a good old-fashioned murder story; a true one. However, it is difficult to desert the Great War altogether, and I chose The Leicestershire Mystery of the Green Bicycle Murder of 1919. Author H R Wakefield produced this account of an apparently motiveless murder and its sensational trial in 1930, now republished by the Reprint company of Loughborough, whose motto is "keeping local history alive".

Bella Wright was very much alive as she set off on her bicycle on the morning of 5th July 1919. She came from a close family, had ditched domestic service for better wages in manufacturing, and was engaged to a naval stoker. She posted some letters, and rode on to her uncle's home in the next village. On the way, she encountered another cyclist, and journeyed with him to her uncle's door. Bella stayed awhile with her uncle and cousin, who asked her about the man who rode in with her, who appeared to be hanging around outside. "…He's a perfect stranger. Perhaps if I wait awhile he will be gone". She waited, he wasn't; and they rode off together through the summer lanes. Within an hour, Bella was found lying dead by the roadside. She had been shot through the head.

Suspicion quite naturally fell on the stranger last seen riding alongside Bella on his green bicycle. It would be some months hard work, and sheer luck, before the police could identify him. The luck came when a bargeman's rope caught on a submerged object, which turned out to be a green bicycle which matched the description of the stranger's machine. A little further along the canal, the police discovered a damaged revolver holster and cartridges. All these items were eventually traced to Ronald Vivian Light, recently demobbed from the Army and by now a schoolmaster in Cheltenham.

I am not depriving future readers of any enjoyment of the story by relating the fact that Light was acquitted. It is what made the trial sensational, and frankly the verdict seems a bigger mystery than the crime itself. I did feel short-changed by Mr Wakefield's account. The first forty pages contain his Introduction to the crime, the characters and the trial. The rest (to page 152) is an edited transcript of the trial. The whole is very workmanlike, though Mr Wakefield's allows himself one foray into sensationalism "the murder of Bella Wright presents a fascinating puzzle, but it was also a bloody infamy, and it is most shocking and grievous that she was never avenged, and never will be". The 'puzzle' would have been more fascinating as a good read had Mr Wakefield been a more companionable guide in relating the trial, and had he delved deeper into the personality of Ronald Light. There are other books on this subject, which seem to probe dark corners unvisited by Mr Wakefield. Perhaps this is a book of its time, more cautious, dispassionate and accepting of face values. As a Great War scholar, I'd like to know more about Light's army service. As a buyer of books, I simply want to know more about the main character.

For the record Ronald Light's medal card shows:

Light, Ronald, Honourable Artillery Company 625440 Gunner; Honourable Artillery Company 283313 Gunner

In his evidence, Light says he purchased the revolver, a Webley-Scott, from his CO, Major Benton. It was "taken from me with all my other kit at Corby" (sic). Light was evacuated home as a stretcher case with shell-shock and deafness in August 1918. He was a patient at Wharncliffe Hospital Sheffield for over a month, then sent to a convalescent camp at Worksop, and finally joined a reserve unit at Ripon (probably the Northern Command HQ) until his demob.

[Dolphin]

Kate

There's an account of the Green Bicycle Murder which starts at: http://www.aftermathww1.co.uk/bicycle1.asp and continues on from there.

It's interesting reading.

Regards

Gareth

[marina]

It was an interesting case. Light was ceratinly a very fishy character.

Marina

[zoomer]

Can I just parp that my great grandfather was an analytical chemist in the leather industry in Leicester and was given the saddle to analyse?

Not a massive claim to fame I know!!!