This is Tamworth --SHORTLY before midnight on Saturday, December 6, 1913, market gardener William Allsopp "stumbled against something" as he made his way home across Amington's unlit village green.
He struck a match, and, peering down, saw the lifeless body of a young woman.
She was lying in a pool of blood on a pathway near the graveyard fence of St Editha's Church – she appeared to have been shot.
He dashed home for a lamp and called out a neighbour before returning to the spot.
The pair noticed that the victim was fully dressed and that her hat was on her head.
Her face was covered with a white scarf, which they thought had been put over after she had died.
There appeared to have been no struggle.
At 8am the following morning, the dead body of a young man was discovered in the rick yard of a nearby farm. He had been mortally wounded by a shotgun blast.
During the run-up to Christmas, it was a double tragedy that shocked Tamworth and made national headlines.
The circumstances all indicated that 19-year-old Reginald Hinds, a coal miner who lived with his parents at Alvecote, had shot his 20-year-old girlfriend, Ada Perry, and then killed himself.
But the full horror of what happened on that dark, fatal night was not immediately apparent.
At around 9.50pm several residents heard shots similar to those of firearms, but they paid no attention as they were accustomed to hearing fog-signals from the nearby railway line.
A scream was also heard, but no notice was taken. It was thought someone had been frightened by a firework.
When village 'bobby' Pc Linder arrived on the scene, he too almost fell over the body, no one being about.
He struck a match and found blood all over the victim's face.
There was also blood under her head.
Her clothes were perfectly straight, and a handbag and an umbrella were close at hand. The bag contained a pair of new slippers and some oranges.
Pc Linder left the two men in charge and went for his Sergeant, and then fetched a doctor from Tamworth.
Dr Lowson arrived at the scene at about 1.30am.
He examined the body, which was still on the Green, and found a superficial wound on the shoulder with ragged edges, and another large wound about two inches in diameter with ragged edges just below the right ear.
The base of the skull was shattered and the upper jaw was fractured. He surmised that death was due to gunshot wounds and haemorrhage.
As there was no charring, he estimated that the distance from which the gun was discharged would be about three yards.
At Amington Green Farm, residence of the Sillito Bros., it was realised that Ada Perry, a live-in servant, had not returned from her trip to Tamworth.
Maggie Patrick, a fellow servant, gave a description of the clothes she was wearing. They corresponded with those of the dead girl.
Pc Linder told her that he suspected Ada had been brutally murdered, and asked if she had any idea who could have done it.
Maggie replied that Ada and Reginald Hinds had been courting, but had had a quarrel two or three days previously. Ada had told her she was not going to meet Reg again.
"I don't think she cared for him", she added.
Pc Linder immediately set off to Hinds's parents' cottage at Alvecote, about a mile away, and discovered that their son had not been home, and that they had sat up for him until after 1am.
He returned to Green Farm, and a search was made for Hinds.
At daybreak on Sunday a soft hat was discovered on the Green, near to where the body was found. It was identified by Maggie Patrick as belonging to Reginald Hinds.
Around 7am on Sunday morning, Harry Cope, another employee at Green Farm, discovered a shotgun on a heap of swede turnips. It belonged to his master, Mr Adam Sillito.
Although usually kept in the sitting room, an apartment which opens immediately opposite the kitchen in which Hinds used to visit Ada, it had been left in Mr Sillito's trap after a recent shooting trip.
The firearm was handed over to the police. Mr Sillito said two cartridges, one a live one, and one spent, had been found in the barrels.
The body of Hinds was discovered about eight yards from the door of the barn.
There was a gaping wound under his heart, and the shirt was saturated with blood.
His coat and waistcoat were open. A belt was discovered nearby. In his pockets were 20 live cartridges, 1s 10½d in money, and a letter and a telegram from Ada.
The spot where Hines was lying was about 60 yards from that where Ada was found.
It was supposed that he had crawled out of the barn after discharging the gun at himself.
The bodies were taken to the nearby Pretty Pigs Inn to await an inquest which was held at the pub the following Wednesday.
The jury heard that Ada had been given permission to have the night out on Saturday, and went to visit her mother at Glascote.
Ada's mother, Mary Ann Perry, of 433 Main Road, Glascote, told how she and her daughter had had tea and then gone to Tamworth.
She was with her daughter until about 8.30pm, when they parted in George Street. It was the last she saw of Ada alive.
Her daughter was in good spirits, said Mrs Perry, adding that she was in no fear that she knew of.
However, Ada had told her she had fallen out with Reg the previous Wednesday, and that someone had been telling tales about her.
Someone had warned her about becoming engaged to him, which she thought was the cause of the trouble.
Annie Lawrence of 361 Main Road, Amington, told the inquest that at 9.50pm on Saturday night, when she was on the bridge, she saw a girl later identified as Ada down by the post office in front of her.
She was swinging a bag as she walked along.
The witness explained that she had not got to her house door before she heard a shot, and immediately afterwards there was a second shot.
She did not think anything about them, because she had recently heard boys letting off fireworks.
The inquest heard that Ada had worked at Green Farm for about five months, having previously been employed at the Red Lion Inn, Lichfield Street, and at the Municipal Hotel, Corporation Street.
Described as smart in appearance and a good worker, she and Hinds had been courting for about four months.
Charles Hinds said his son Reginald had lived at home for most of his life. He left school aged 13, and went to work at Amington Colliery.
After he had worked there six months he suffered an injury to his head which required an operation.
During surgery he was trepanned to relieve pressure from a piece of bone depressed on the brain. A piece of his brain was cut off.
Mr Hinds said he did not see much difference in his son following the operation, but expected it interfered with his temper sometimes.
He did not quarrel at home, and always seemed happy.
Mr Hinds explained that his son had kept company with Ada Perry for about three months, but was upset after visiting the farm the previous Wednesday and seeing her through the window on the knee of another young man, who had his arm round her, kissing him.
Mr Hinds saw his son for the last time at 6pm on the night of the shooting, when he was going to Tamworth.
Samuel Naylor, of Bridge Street, Bolehall, said shortly before 9pm on the fatal night he saw Hinds in Bolebridge Street, Tamworth.
"He seemed quite cheerful, and asked me to have a drink", he told the inquest.
The pair went to the Red Lion where Hinds had two bottles of lemonade. They parted company about 9.10pm, but Hinds made no mention of what he was going to do.
In his summing up, the North Warwickshire Coroner, Dr C W Illife, said that Ada and Hinds had apparently kept company for some time.
Ada returned from Tamworth on Saturday night, and was walking to her master's house when she came up to that part of the Green where there was a tree.
Although they could not positively say Hinds was hiding there, it seemed very likely seeing that the tree was only three or four yards away from where she was found.
It appeared he lay waiting for her, and then fired.
The first cartridge grazed the back of her shoulder, and the second discharge was under the right ear, and went right to the base of the skull.
"With such an injury as was inflicted there could be no possible hope of her recovery", he said, adding that Hinds had met with an accident which was so serious that trepanning had to be performed and part of his protruding brain was cut off.
Although it might have weakened his mental capacity, the main cause, motive, and disturbing influence was the night's visit when he looked through a window and saw the girl he was engaged to sitting on the knee of another man and kissing him.
There seemed to be something to be bottled up, a condition of jealousy.
He then went and deliberately took the weapon from Mr Sillito's cart.
He possessed a couple of cartridges, and acquired others by going to Tamworth, and then committed the deed.
After a brief deliberation, the foreman of the jury, Mr Thomas Florendine, announced that they were all of the opinion that the unfortunate girl was murdered by Reginald Percy Hinds, and that the murder was premeditated.
Their verdict on Hinds was that he died from shock due to a self-inflicted injury, and that at the time when he did it he was temporarily insane.
The Coroner agreed with the verdicts, and said it was the only one they could find.
On the afternoon of December 13, a coffin bearing the earthly remains of tragic Ada Perry was conveyed on a wheeled bier from her mother's home in Main Road to St George's Church.
A large crowd assembled in the street and also at Glascote cemetery. Many onlookers were visibly affected.
The funeral of Reginald Hinds had taken place at Shuttington churchyard the previous week.
Although a century has now passed since that awful night in 1913, Ada's brutal death is still remembered as one of the most tragic events in Amington's history. Reported by This is 5 days ago.