At our July meeting we welcomed our speaker - Steve Herra, a former QE2 Purser and a tour conductor aboard both P & O and Cunard shipping lines. He recounted the true story of the disappearance of a young actress named Eileen ‘Gay’ Gibson, whilst voyaging between Capetown and Southampton on 10th October 1947 aboard the ship the ‘Durban Castle’.
It was initially surmised that she must have jumped overboard when they couldn’t locate her anywhere on the ship. However, upon further investigation, a steward named James Comb was interviewed by the police and accused of murdering her by strangulation having unexplained scratch marks on his body. He admitted having illicit ‘hanky-panky’in her cabin but maintained she suddenly became inexplicably limp and believing her dead he panicked and pushed her through her cabin port hole into the sea!
The facts of the matter were presented to our members who were invited to play the role of a jury and a majority vote of guilty was found. In reality in 1948, the trial was held at The Great Hall, Winchester where the jury therein took just 45 mins to also pass a unanimous vote of guilty! A very interesting evening was had by all and it created much discussion amongst our sleuthing members!
Next month our meeting is to be held at the Kings Somborne Working Men’s Club on August 12th, where we will be hosting a delicious Afternoon Tea event at 3pm, raising funds towards The Beacon, Winchester and WI Funds.
Everyone is welcome and tickets are available priced £5 and can be purchased from our Secretary, Linda Aucock by 3rd August..
On September 9th we are back in the Village Hall for our meeting with a talk on Andover Young Carers with Sam Saxby.
New members and visitors are always welcome and we meet on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7.30 pm at King’s Somborne Village Hall.
Tina Heffernan
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