Bessie Cross

Bessie Cross was shot by her 27-year-old husband at Temple Meads Railway Station at 12.54am on Monday 15 October 1917.

She was taken to hospital where she later died.

Her husband was tried for her murder at the Bristol Assizes on 25 November 1917 but it was said that he had shot her accidently and he was acquitted.

She had been unfaithful to him whilst he was at the front but they were said to have made up. He shot her as he was about to return to the front and it was heard that he had behaved strangely after shooting her.

Bessie Cross's husband had been in the Gloucestershire Regiment.

They had lived at 5 Henry Row. Her husband had previously been a painter and decorator.

It was said that Bessie Cross had been unfaithful to her husband whilst he was fighting in France, having associated with another man. However, it was said that when he returned that he had forgiven both her and the married man and that during the period of his furlough that he had been on terms of unbroken affection with her, and that the shot fired at the station was an accident due to the careless use of a weapon that was believed to have been unloaded.

However, his inquest found that Bessie Cross's husband wilfully murdered Bessie Cross under great provocation, and expressed the opinion that the other man's conduct was reprehensible.

The prosecution at his trial noted that after shooting her, that her husband had stood stolidly, and not moving to Bessie Cross's assistance, and that when an officer came up, he said frankly that he had shot his wife and that she had been misconducting herself and that she had been in a certain condition by another man.

At the trial the judge told the jury that they could not judge a man used to the grim side of the war as they would an ordinary prisoner.

A letter that Bessie Cross's husband had written to her was read out in court:

'Just a line to your letter confessing your misconduct and your condition. Well, Bes, you know I have not got a hard heart, but I must look after the welfare of my little boy. You say I might be happy when you are gone. Bess. I still love you dearly, more than I can tell you. Have I not told you, when we have been talking quietly, how these dirty blackguards go hunting for women who have got their husbands away and what they do when they get tired of them? I was hoping it was not true, but you confess it is true. I have taken seps to have my children taken away, and you must know I have shed many a tear as well as you and the children. You see, Bess, my love, you have brought sorrow on us all'.

After then saying that he was going into action and that God alone knew if he would come out alive, he went on to say:

'If you knew what we had to go through, you would have gone straight, but the damage is done now'.

The jury acquitted Bessie Cross's husband after considering their verdict for an hour and a half.