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Harold Wilfred Hand

Age: 65

Sex: male

Date: 11 Jul 1958

Place: Towan Headland, Newquay, Cornwall

Horace Hand was battered with a rock in the public toilet at Towan Headland in Newquay at around 11.35am on 11 July 1958 and died about five hours later from his injuries.

He was on holiday with his family who were on the beach and had wandered off to use the toilets, never to be seen alive again.

His head had been battered in. Horace Hand was described as a frail old man and only about 5' 5'' tall.

A man in a green shirt was seen bending over him and to then run off, but he was never identified despite road blocks around the area. He was described as:

  • Aged about 25 to 26.
  • About 5' 6'' or 5' 7'' tall.
  • Medium to good build, stocky build.
  • Broad shoulders.
  • Round face.
  • Fair complexion.
  • Dark hair greased and brushed back.
  • Wearing a green open-neck shirt with sleeves rolled up and medium grey trousers or slacks.

It was also reported that an anonymous telephone call for an ambulance was made a few minutes after Horace Hand was attacked, but it was never determined who had made it. The call was made from a telephone box not far from the Headland and it was reported that the caller had said, 'Come quick. There has been an accident'. The police later commented that the 'accident' was in fact 'a particularly vicious and brutal murder'.

Horace Hand was a retired milk roundsman and had lived in Heron Street in Oldham. He had been spending a quiet holiday in Newquay with his wife, daughter and son-in-law with a couple at 38 Pentire Crescent. It was said that they were due to leave for home on the Saturday and on the Friday they had driven to Towan Headland for a last look at the North Cornwall coastline and to relax in the sunshine.

It was heard that when they got to the Headland that their daughter and son-in-law went into town to do their last bit of holiday shopping whilst Horace Hand and his wife relaxed and watched the breakers from their car.

Horace Hand was described as a frail old man of 65 and his wife was said to have suffered from heart trouble.

His wife said that a little after 11.30am that Horace Hand decided to go for a stroll and that she watched him as he walked slowly across the grass sward and entered the public lavatory on the Headland about 80 yards away. She said that it was only a few yards from where they were seated in the car, but that she never saw him come back out.

Horace Hand was attacked by someone with a rock inside the lavatory. It was noted that the lavatory block was within sight and sound of hundreds of holiday-makers.

It was said that within a matter of seconds after the attack that three young men that had been on holiday from the North went to the lavatory and that as they were about to enter, at about 11.35am, that someone ran out, making some remark as he passed them before running off towards the Headland Hotel. It was said then that the first of the three young men then went into the lavatory and then ran back out to call his friends after seeing Horace Hand with his head battered and bleeding.

It was said then that they looked about for the man that they had seen run out but could not see him, however, it was noted that they had all got a good look at the man and had been able to give the police an accurate description of him.

Following the discovery of Horace Hand he was taken to Royal Cornwall Infirmary in Truro where an emergency operation was performed, but he died soon after 5pm the same evening.

His post mortem showed that he had had a gaping wound on the back of his head and that his skull was fractured and his brain severely damaged. It was said that the first blow would have at least temporarily rendered him unconscious and that he was then struck with at least four other blows on the head. It was said that not all of the blows could have been self-inflicted or caused accidentally.

When the police summed up the course of events at the inquest, they said that Horace Hand and his wife had gone to the Headland at about 10.45am on 11 July 1958 and that at about 11.30am Horace Hand had gone into the public lavatory about 80 yards away. The police said, 'It is estimates that Mr Hand entered it at about 11.33am. There he was assaulted by being struck over the head with a rock, receiving fatal injuries. At about 11.35am three young holidaymakers saw Mr Hand lying face upwards. There was another man leaning over Mr Hand, and at first it was thought he was rendering assistance'. The police then said that the man leaning over Horace Hand said to the three holidaymakers, 'Quick there has been an accident. Follow me, let's phone for an ambulance' and that he then hurried out of the lavatory and that the three holiday makers followed, with one of them running after him for some 40 yards but he was soon out-distanced.

It was noted that after a while Horace Hand's wife started to become concerned that Horace Hand had not returned from his stroll. Then when her daughter and son-in-law returned from their shopping trip the son-in-law enquired about the reason for the commotion around the lavatory and then learned what had happened and when he was given a description of the injured man he realised that if was his father-in-law, Horace Hand.

Horace Hand's wife and the daughter and son-in-law were then rushed to the Royal Cornwall Infirmary, but Horace Hand never regained consciousness and was never able to give any information about his assailant.

It was additionally noted that it was believed that he would have known little about the attack as he had been hit from behind with a heavy rock which was thought would have probably rendered him unconscious with the first blow.

It was noted that an urgent message was flashed to police headquarters at Bodmin and that within an hour police from all parts of Cornwall had arrived in Newquay and had formed a cordon round the town and the search for the man in the green shirt was started.

It was said then that after the detective superintendent arrived in Newquay by fast car to take charge of the operations that he realised that more than half of Newquay’s holiday population would be leaving for home early the following morning and that he had to complete the colossal task of contacting them all in the course of a single afternoon and night. It was said that the police determined that they had to contact every holiday maker in Newquay while they were still in town or alternatively ascertain their home addresses for later checking and all exits from the town were covered by police cordons.

The police conducted house-to-house inquiries in Newquay during which they asked every householder:

  1. Do you take summer visitors?
  2. Who was staying here on Friday?
  3. Did they leave on Saturday morning?
  4. Were you or they on Towan Headland between 11.30 and noon on Friday?

Guests and staff at nearly 100 hotels and larger guest houses were also asked to complete questionnaires, giving their names, home addresses and details of their movements on the Friday.

The guests and staff were given seven-point questionnaires which required:

  1. Name.
  2. Address in Newquay and address at home.
  3. Movements between 11.30am and noon on Friday.
  4. Name and address of people accompanying them.
  5. Whether they had been in the vicinity of the Headland Hotel, Newquay Golf Course, Fistral Bay or Pentire.
  6. Whether they had seen a man answering to the description given of the man with the green shirt.
  7. Whether they had seen any person running, and if so, in which direction and whether the man was known to them.

The police also called at cinemas, theatres and cafes as well as touring the town and scouring the beaches for the man in the green shirt.

The search included the use of a helicopter and reports were made of a man being seen in the vicinity of the Newquay Golf Course and another of a man that had been seen hiding in the sand dunes between Holywell and Perranporth.

On the Saturday morning troops from the Royal Leicesters joined in the search of the sand dunes whilst detectives flew over the areas of the Golf Course and Perransands in a helicopter from No. 22 Squadron of the Royal Air Force.

The Civil Defence organisation were also noted for lending a hand and a canteen was supplied by the County Fire Brigade.

It was said that the police scoured the town, open spaces and beaches and that no possible suspect was allowed to pass unchallenged and checked. It was also noted that men that fitted the description of the murder suspect were challenged on the spot and required to prove their identity.

It was noted that one man had been stopped in Bank Street after buying an evening newspaper and that when he was asked to prove his identity that he had said that he had no documents that would satisfy the police, but that just then a small girl popped up from the crowd and said, 'That's my school teacher'.

The police also toured the streets on the Saturday with loudspeaker cars asking anyone who had been on the Headland near the time of the attack to report to the police station and that as a result there had been an immediate response. It was said that the request, which was followed up by newspaper and radio appeals as well as appeals in cinemas and theatres, kept up a continuous stream of people going to the Newquay Police station, all anxious to help trace the murderer.

Members of the Bristol Forensic Laboratory were also called in and a detective later said, 'We have some very useful fingerprints and a number of specimens have been sent to Scotland Yard for examination'.

They also said, 'It is a case of a very vicious and brutal murder and we are making a very careful check of our records on crimes of violence of this kind. The rock which we believe killed this frail old man has been sent to Scotland Yard. But it is still most important that every person who was on the Headland, or in the vicinity on that morning between 10 o'clock and noon should come forward and let us talk to them. It matters not whether they saw anything or not. It is just as important that we should meet those who saw nothing as those who might have seen the killer himself'.

It was said that on Tuesday 15 July 1958 that the police decided to widen the appeal and they went to all cinemas in Newquay where a policeman's voice was heard to say, 'Five days ago in this town and old man was murdered. We want your help. He was brutally struck down in the public urinal near the old lifeboat house on the Headland at about 11.40am on Friday morning. We are appealing to anyone who was in the vicinity at that time to come forward, and this means even those who think they saw nothing of importance. We are particularly appealing to 'Greenshirt'. We call him 'Greenshirt' because he was wearing a light green open-necked shirt' He is a dark-haired young man of about 25'. It was added that anyone who was there or had any information which might be useful was then invited to tell a policeman about it as they left the cinema.

Similar appeals were made the following day at theatres in Newquay.

It was reported on Thursday 17 July 1958 the police had completed the task of making a personal call on every one of the 4,250 hotels and houses in Newquay in their search for evidence that would lead them to the murderer. It was said that the police were confident that they would find the murderer and said, 'The jigsaw puzzle is building up very nicely, but there are just a few pieces still to be found, and we are certain that they are somewhere here in Newquay itself'.

On Sunday 17 August 1958 the police appealed to relatives of the murderer, saying, 'It is your duty to come forward and tell us what you know, or have reason to suspect, even if the man is your husband, son or sweetheart'. The police said that they believed that someone near and dear to the murderer must know, or at least suspect, that he had something to do with it.

Within six weeks of the murder the police had interviewed over 30,000 people. The police made an appeal in most of the national newspapers after which a detective said, 'We know there have been results, because we have had a number of callers here at Newquay, some with photographs, but the extent of the response we shall not know for some days, because people were asked to call at their own police stations and they might be anywhere in the country. We have had mountains of stuff to sift through, and it might be some weeks yet before the job is completed. In the normal murder case, we are able to say at the end of a week, or even a couple of days that we have interviewed all the important witnesses, but not so here. There were between 30,000 and 40,000 people in Newquay on that day. There were probably only about 150 to 200 people on Towan Headland at the time, but we don't know who they were until we have interviewed the lot'.

It was later noted that 150 people were traced as having been on the Headland at the material time and that they had all been traced and had supplied personal photographs.

It was noted that a plan of the crime area was also prepared an circulated to all police stations in the country to assist returned holiday-makers in telling their local police what they knew.

The police said that they thought that the motive was robbery, but noted that no money was taken.

Harold Hand's inquest, which concluded on Friday 19 December 1958, returned a verdict of 'Murder by someone whose identity is not yet known'.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk

see Murder Most Foul no. 12 p43-46

see National Archives - HO 332/16 - STA 502/3/33, MEPO 2/9829, MEPO 2/9830, MEPO 2/9831, MEPO 2/9832

see Cornish Guardian - Thursday 21 August 1958

see Cornish Guardian - Thursday 02 October 1958

see Sunday Mirror - Sunday 17 August 1958

see Western Mail - Monday 14 July 1958

see Cornish Guardian - Thursday 25 December 1958