Cyril Victor Tennyson Saunders

Cyril Victor Tennyson Saunders was convicted of the murder of his 16-year-old cousin Dorothy May Saunders and sentenced to death.

He stabbed her to death in a shop at 30 Percy Terrace, Lipson, Plymouth on 23 September 1920.

Cyril Saunders had been a lance corporal in the Royal Engineers. He had joined the army as a boy and served for six months in the North Russia Relief Force as a wireless operator. He had born an excellent character in the army and at the date of the murder had been serving as a regimental policeman in the camp at Crowborough where he was stationed.

Dorothy Saunders, who had been 16 years and 11 months old had been Cyril Saunders's cousin. Her father, who had been a retired officer in the Indian Army, died in May 1919, and her mother died some months before that. Since her father's death she had lived at Plymouth with another cousin who kept a small tobacconist's and confectioner's shop.

For some time, according to Cyril Saunders, two years, they had been keeping company, and had certainly for some months been upon terms of intimacy.

The correspondence showed that in August 1919 Dorothy Saunders had feared that she was going to have a baby as a result of what had happened upon Cyril Saunders's last leave when they were together, however, it was noted that that danger had passed off by the date of the murder, as she was not then pregnant.

Cyril Saunders's letters showed that he had been jealous of Dorothy Saunders, apparently because she had mentioned that on one occasion she had been out with someone, and on 14 September 1919 he wrote her a formal and threatening letter.

In an undated letter postmarked 20 September 1919 Dorothy Saunders wrote, 'I do not feel at all now as though I could get married. You have spoilt all my trust in you, dear. Don't think, Cyril, there is any other boy, for there is not. If it's God's will that I must have a baby I will let you know, but I must bear the brunt myself. Do not do anything rash, Cyril. Look after yourself, and please answer this'.

A friend of Dorothy Saunders's however, stated that she thought that that letter had been written earlier and might have been put into an envelope of later date.

However, it was thought that Dorothy Saunders had by then made her mind up definitely not to marry Cyril Saunders because when he turned up on 22 September 1919 at the shop in Plymouth, she greeted him with the remark, 'It is not a bit good your coming down here, Cyril, I am in the same mind'.

Cyril Saunders tried to persuade her, and to both her and the woman with whom she was staying, he threatened suicide, and that he might put his head on the line or fill his room with gas.

Dorothy Saunders's cousin advised him not to do anything silly and allowed him to sleep that night in her spare room whilst she and Dorothy Saunders slept together.

Earlier in the day Cyril Saunders and Dorothy Saunders had spent a couple of hours at the cinema and later kissed each other when they parted for the night.

The next morning Cyril Saunders went out at about 11am and tried at two gunsmith's shops to purchase an automatic pistol, however, he found that it was necessary to get a CMA permit and so at the second shop he bought a sheath knife which he took away. He then returned to the shop in Percy Terrace.

However, Dorothy Saunders had gone out, evidently to avoid seeing him, and her cousin tried to persuade him to return to his camp by an earlier train, but Cyril Saunders said that he wanted to say goodbye to Dorothy Saunders and promised her that he would harm neither her nor himself. Dorothy Saunders's cousin then sent for Dorothy Saunders and she returned.

Cyril Saunders then waited until he was alone in the front shop with Dorothy Saunders and drove the sheath knife four times through her left lung, two of the blows penetrating to the ribs of the back.

After that, quite calmly, Cyril Saunders lit a cigarette and waited in a neighbour's house for the police to come.

At his trial his only defence was one of insanity, based principally upon a blow on the head that Cyril Saunders had received on 24 July 1919 when trying to arrest a rioter in the camp. However, the wound had in fact been a superficial one, and although Cyril Saunders was detained in hospital for some days, he was playing rugby football about six weeks afterwards.

It was noted that witnesses had spoken of his changed manner after the injury, but that it was probably more likely that he had been a good deal worried at that time by the fear that Dorothy Saunders had been pregnant and his jealousy of her.

It was further noted that the prison medical officer found no trace of insanity or abnormality.

He was convicted with no recommendation to mercy. However, there were many applications on his behalf for a reprieve with a large petition got up by house to house canvassing in Plymouth which was noted for having been strongly objected to by one resident.

The police report to the Home Office, in consideration of the possibility of a reprieve, made a list of comparable cases, both in which the person had been executed and reprieved, for reference. However, the police report concluded, 'This appears to me to be a peculiarly bad case. The prisoner had apparently seduced an innocent girl before or shortly after she was 16 years of age, and when it was not unnaturally borne in upon her that she would be unwise to marry him, he deliberately murdered her. I doubt if there is any use sending the petition to Lord Coleridge, but he should be consulted if there is any question of commuting the sentence. Personally, I think that girls in these circumstances should be afforded all the protection that the law allows, and I think the sentence should be carried out'.

It was noted that in 12 collected cases of murder of sweethearts from 1893 to 1900, eleven prisoners were executed, their average age being 24 and the average of six of them being 20.

A list of more recent cases  was also compiled.

Cases where the prisoner has been executed:

1. 1905: Heal (20), no recommendation.
2. 1906: Griffiths (19), recommended.
3. 1906: Reynolds (23), no recommendation.
4. 1908: Collins (24), no recommendation.
5. 1909: Elliott (19), strongly recommended.
6. 1909: Hampton (24), recommended.
7. 1910: Perry (27), no recommendation.
8. 1911: Martyn (23), strongly recommended.
9. 1911: Newton (19), recommended.
10. 1912: Beal (20), strongly recommended.
11. 1912: Birkett (20), no recommendation.
12. 1912: Galloway (27), no recommendation.
13. 1913: Palmer (23), no recommendation.
14. 1913: Fletcher (28), no recommendation.
15. 1914: Bindon (19), strongly recommended.
16. 1914: White (22), strongly recommended.
17. 1915: Thornley (26), no recommendation.
18. 1917: Bakerlis (23), no recommendation.

Cases where the prisoner was respited:

1. 1907: Wyatt (28), strongly recommended.
2. 1907: Page (20), strongly recommended.
3. 1910: Jones (21).
4. 1911: Mason (21), strongly recommended.
5. 1913: Truman (39), strongly recommended.
6. 1914: Brown (19), recommended.

Cyril Saunders was executed at Exeter on 30 November 1920.