Cause Celebre - IdeasTap

CAUSE CélèBRE – TEACHINg RESOURCES
The ‘True’ story
Alma Pakenham (her maiden name) met her
husband Francis Rattenbury in Canada, where
Francis had emigrated and built himself a strong
reputation and fortune as an architect, designing
several landmarks, perhaps most notably in Victoria.
Alma herself was well known as a child prodigy,
a singer, piano player and song writer, gaining
notoriety throughout her adult life.
The first public stir the couple caused was when
Francis left his wife and two children for Alma, 29
years his junior. Francis fell out of favour in Victoria
when he flaunted his affair with Alma and treated
his ex-wife, Florence, badly; apparently turning off
the heating and lighting in the home after he left.
The pair left Canada for England in 1929 after the
birth of their son, John. That was the year Florence
died.
Francis Rattenbury
In England the pair began to struggle financially.
Rattenbury was semi-retired and his financial
investments turned sour, such was the economic climate of the time. The marriage was
beginning to collapse. It was about this time that Francis advertised in the Bournemouth
Echo for a chauffeur and hired George Percy Stoner (Wood in the play). Alma began an
affair with Stoner who eventually moved in to the Rattenbury home.
In 1935, Francis Rattenbury was murdered in the family home by repeated blows to
the head with a mallet. Alma confessed to the crime. Stoner, however, confessed to the
housekeeper that he, in fact, had committed the murder. Both Alma and Stoner were
arrested and charged, although Alma later retracted her confession. Stoner was found guilty
and sentenced to death. Just a few days after the trial, Alma repeatedly stabbed herself on
a riverbank in Christchurch, Dorset. Poignantly, due to public pressure claiming that Stoner
had been led astray by his lover, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.
Stoner served seven years before being released to serve in the army during World War II.
He died in 2000 in Christchurch Hospital.
Alma Rattenbury
George Stoner
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