Edmund Reid

Portraits in connection with the Ramsgate explosion, from the Illustrated Police News, 7 March 1903
and the knockers had been blown off the front doors of many houses in Flora Road. In the ruined scullery of No. 14, full
of debris from the explosion, a large framed portrait of Queen Victoria rested on a ledge, its glass perfectly unharmed.
Old Mrs Gardener at No. 12 described how she had helped rescue the lodger Wells. Mrs Newby at No. 16 said that at the
time of the explosion, her children had screamed, and she had been too terrified to venture outdoors. She had several
times heard Samuel Henson quarrelling with his wife, who was 14 years younger than him, and accusing her of consorting
with other men when he was away working at the building sites. No. 10 Flora Road had a henhouse in the garden, and the
hens had been blown off their perches by the explosion, the wretched birds remaining on the ground all morning, like
if paralyzed. There was grief among the many friends
of young William Henson, who worked as a bricklayer,
and also in Ramsgate Town football club, where he
was centre-forward in the ‘A’ team. Rather ironically,
William Henson left all his effects, value of £100, to
his father Samuel the railway-ganger. “The Ramsgate
Horror! – Terrible Triple Tragedy! – Attempted Wife
Murder and Suicide! – Heroic Son Killed by Dynamite!”
exclaimed the breathless headline of the Budget,
accompanied by lurid illustrations of the bomb
exploding, and the two injured Hensons found in the
half-destroyed house.
In hospital, Samuel Henson expressed regret that
his son had been killed, and dismay that his wife, the
intended victim of his murderous attack, had survived.
The coroner’s inquest on William Henson returned a
verdict of wilful murder against his father Samuel,
and the Ramsgate desperado was committed to stand
trial at the Kent Assizes at Maidstone on July 18. The
A postcard showing the rear of No. 14 Flora Road, after the explosion
Ripperologist 147 December 2015 37