Tuesday 21st November 1911
(First published in the Warminster Wylye Valley And District Recorder, No.3., December 2005)
Strange But True – A One-Armed Man’s Fear of Premature Burial
Bishopstrow House, on the eastern outskirts of Warminster, is now a luxury hotel, but was built in 1815 for William Temple, the lord of the manor of Boreham, as a grand residence for himself and his family.
During the latter years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, the house was let by the Temples to Captain Burchall Helme, who was fatally struck by a steam train while walking across the railway line, north of Bishopstrow House, in 1893. A regular guest of Captain Helme at Bishopstrow House in the late 1800s was Thomas Douglas Murray, of Iverplace, Iver, in Buckinghamshire. His wife was the sister of Captain Helme’s wife. Mr. Murray, who only had one arm, died on the 21st of November 1911, leaving £28,288 gross, £23,652 nett.
Murray was obviously worried about the possibility of premature burial, because he left some explicit instructions in his will.
“He directed that on his apparent death his body shall be kept in a well-warmed bed for 36 hours thereafter. His body shall then be placed in a coffin in a warm room with the windows partly opened, and watched for four days and nights or until definite signs of decomposition have set in. During this period the tests given in a pamphlet by Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Signs And Proofs Of Death, shall be applied, and during this period a bell shall be attached to his wrist which can be easily audible within and without the room. When decomposition has set in, a surgeon shall completely sever the spinal cord high up in the body, and the coffin may then be lightly fastened but shall not be screwed down until the twelfth day after death. His remains shall then be cremated either on the downs near Stonehenge or the downs near Battlesbury Hill or Scratchbury Hill, Warminster, or if impracticable, then at Woking, the ashes to be scattered to the four winds of heaven.”