Henry Kimberley

Henry Kimberley and Harriet Stewart lived together for seventeen years until Christmas 1884, when they agreed to separate. They consulted solicitors and it was agreed that she would keep the house while he got twenty pounds and a piano. They signed forms but almost at once Kimberley wanted it cancelled and for her to come back to him. On 27th December he saw Harriet and a friend, Mrs Emma Palmer, and followed her to a public house that was run by Mrs Palmer's husband. Kimberley entered and asked Harriet to come back to him, but she again refused. He turned to Emma Palmer and asked her to persuade Harriet to come back with him, and when she refused he pulled out a gun and shot them both. Harriet Stewart was only wounded but Emma Palmer received a fatal wound and fell dead on the floor. A barman tried to arrest the gunman and was fired at. but with the aid of other customers he managed to detain Kimberley until the police arrived. He was hanged on the scaffold at Winson Green Prison by James Berry on the 17th March 1885. It was the first execution in the city for over eighty years.