Jock Delves Broughton

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This British surname is barrelled, being made up of multiple names. It should be written as Delves Broughton, not Broughton.

Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, 11th Baronet, DL (10 September 1883 – 5 December 1942),[1] was a British baronet who is chiefly known for standing trial for the murder of The 22nd Earl of Erroll. The event was the basis of the film White Mischief.

Early life[]

Born at Doddington Hall in Doddington, Cheshire, 'Jock' Delves Broughton came into the baronetcy upon the death of his father in April 1914. He had married Vera Edyth Griffith-Boscawen (2 January 1894 – 21 August 1968)[2] on 8 July 1913; their daughter, Rosamond, married The 15th Lord Lovat in 1938. On the outbreak of the First World War, as a captain in the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, he was due to sail with his men, but was taken ill and had to be replaced.[3][4] He was forced to sell off most of the 34,000 acres (140 km2) of the family estate in the 1930s to pay gambling debts.[5] In the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was part of a consortium which owned the Ensbury Park Race Course in Kinson, Dorset, now a part of Bournemouth. In 1939, he was suspected of insurance fraud after the theft of his wife's pearls and some paintings, on which he claimed the insurance.[6] Months after he and Vera divorced, Delves Broughton married Diana Caldwell in Durban, Natal, Union of South Africa, on 5 November 1940, and the couple moved to the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya.[7]

Murder trial[]

Lord Erroll was found shot in the head in his car at a crossroads outside Nairobi on 24 January 1941. He and the Delves Broughtons were part of the so-called Happy Valley set living in Happy Valley, Kenya.

Erroll's former lover, Alice de Janzé, was initially viewed by the Happy Valley set as a suspect, but Sir Jock Delves Broughton – whose bride was very publicly carrying-on with Erroll – was arrested. He was acquitted at trial for lack of evidence, a conclusion that hinged on the identification of the murder weapon. Delves Broughton's pistol was a Colt with 6 grooves, and Erroll was killed by a bullet with 5 grooves. No pistol was produced by the Crown or by the defence. Delves Broughton claimed that two of his pistols, a silver cigarette case and 10 or 20 shillings were stolen days before Erroll's death.

Superintendent Arthur Poppy, a senior officer in the Kenya Police, claimed that Delves Broughton had stolen the guns from himself to give the impression that he had no .32 pistol at the time. Additionally, the bullet that killed Erroll was fired by a pistol with clockwise rifling; Colts use anti-clockwise rifling. Another bullet fired at Erroll also had 5 grooves and clockwise turning. On 11 May 2007, The Daily Telegraph writer Christine Nicholls described taped evidence she claimed was definitive proof that Delves Broughton killed Erroll.[8]

Aftermath[]

Delves Broughton was never accepted back into the Happy Valley set and returned to England alone, his wife having already taken another lover. In December 1942, a few days after his arrival, he was found dying from a morphine overdose at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. The inquest recorded a verdict of suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed, in relation to illness following a back injury from a fall, the official reason for his return to England.[9][10] The baronetcy passed to his son, Sir Evelyn Delves Broughton. After his death, Diana remarried twice, the first time to the Happy Valley's wealthiest settler, Gilbert Colvile, and the second time to The 4th Baron Delamere.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Major Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, 11th Bt." The Peerage 21 August 2010
  2. ^ "Vera Edyth Griffith-Boscawen" The Peerage 23 December 2016
  3. ^ The Irish Guards in the Great War Archived 10 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Vol 1, 1914 - Mons To La Bassée, Rudyard Kipling
  4. ^ Obituary, The Times, 7 December 1942;
  5. ^ "Obituary: Isabella Blow" Daily Post, Liverpool, 10 May 2007
  6. ^ empty
  7. ^ Evans, Colin (2003). A Question of Evidence: The Casebook of Great Forensic Controversies, from Napoleon to O. J. John Wiley & Sons. p. 75. ISBN 9780471462682. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. ^ Judith Wood. 'Revealed: the White Mischief murderer', The Daily Telegraph, 11 May 2007 online
  9. ^ Inquest on Sir Jock Delves Broughton, The Times, 15 December 1942
  10. ^ Red Strangers: The White Tribe of Kenya, Christine Stephanie Nicholls, Timewell Press, 2005, ISBN 1-85725-206-3
Baronetage of England
Preceded by
Delves Louis Broughton 		Baronet
(of Broughton)
1914–1942 		Succeeded by
Evelyn Delves Broughton
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