Florence Campbell was born in 1845, the second child of a family of seven. Florence had quite a privileged childhood; her father, Robert, had made a substantial fortune in Australia and when the family returned to England, he was able to purchase a country residence in Berkshire and a house in Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge.
In 1864, when Florence was just nineteen, a trip to Canada led to a meeting with a dashing Grenadier Guards Captain, Algernon Lewis Ricardo. The two appeared to be besotted with each other and even Florence’s father was impressed by Ricardo’s background. His father was a Liberal MP and his mother, a sister to the Duke of Fife. The liaison was encouraged, with the result that within three months, Florence and Algernon were married. So pleased was Mr Campbell, that he settled an income of £1,000 on his newly married daughter.
There were, however, problems in the new relationship. Ricardo was dedicated to his life in the army, but Florence had no ambitions to be an army wife, possibly involving travel to the far-flung corners of the Empire. After much discussion, she persuaded her husband to leave the army and take a position in London.
Algernon Ricardo did try to make a success of civilian life. At various times he took positions with both his father and Florence’s father, but neither worked out. He could not settle into such a sedentary life and took to drink. There were also rumours that he spent much of his free time in the company of other women. What is certain, is that there were many arguments between man and wife.
Things came to a head one Christmas, when Ricardo insulted one of Florence’s sisters. Florence remonstrated with him and Ricardo retaliated by striking her in the face three times. A tearful and rather angry Florence left the marital home and returned to her parent’s house.
Perhaps Florence expected that her parents would support her in her plans to obtain a legal separation from Ricardo, but they were appalled at the idea. For them, marriage was forever and if she had made a bad match, then she would just have to live with it. They encouraged Florence to return to her husband and sort matters out, but she would have none of it. After a furious argument, a compromise was agreed upon. Florence would take some time to think things over, by taking a brief holiday at the Hydro, a spa in Great Malvern.
The Hydro was chosen because the Campbells knew that it was run by Dr James Manby Gully, an old family friend. Florence had known Dr Gully since she was a child, so who better to offer her friendly advice. Unfortunately for the Campbells, though, Dr Gully agreed with Florence and said he would support her in seeking a legal separation from her alcoholic husband. He even arranged for her to rent a house in Great Malvern and the two spent a good deal of time together. At one stage they even took a holiday together, in Bavaria, and it was there, despite the fact that Dr Gully was much older, the two became lovers.
In April 1871, Algernon Ricardo died from alcohol abuse, in a hotel room in Cologne. Since he had not made a new will after his separation from Florence, all of his estate now became hers. Florence inherited the considerable sum of £40,000. Now she could do whatever she wished. Without delay, Florence moved back to London, buying the Priory, a large house in Bedford Hill, Balham. Dr Gully was persuaded to leave Great Malvern and move down to the capital too. He also bought a house in Balham, some five minutes walk from the Priory.
In addition to buying the house, Florence was now able to take on whatever servants she wished. One of those, Jane Cox, became a very close friend to Florence and soon became more of a personal companion. Florence was now perfectly happy. She had a fine house, good servants, a close companion in Jane Cox, a lover in Dr Gully, and a place in respectable society. Unfortunately, it was not to last.
On one occasion, Florence and Dr Gully were invited to spend a weekend with her solicitor and his wife, who lived in a large house in Surrey. One afternoon, the family were all out, leaving Florence and Gully alone in their house. When they returned, they found the couple making love on the settee. Shocked and appalled, the solicitor asked Florence and the doctor to leave his house immediately. The matter became common gossip amongst the servants, who passed the details on to other servants and in this way, polite society in general got to hear of the scandal. Eventually, even Florence’s parents heard, with the result that they cut off all contact with their daughter. Society in general began to shun both Florence and Dr Gully.
To escape the gossip, Florence and Gully took a holiday in Austria. It was there that Florence found herself pregnant. There was no alternative; Dr Gully had to perform an abortion on her and Florence almost died during the process. From that time on, Florence’s relationship with Dr Gully was to be a purely platonic one. The physical side of their relationship was at an end.
Back in London, Jane Cox, the faithful companion, grew ever more concerned about Florence’s unhappiness over being ostracised from society. Surely there was a chance that Florence might be forgiven and accepted back into that society, if she was a respectable married woman. With this in mind, Jane engineered a meeting between Florence and an old family friend, Charles Bravo.
Bravo had been born Charles Delauney Turner in 1845, the son of Augustus Charles Turner and his wife, Mary. When Charles was still quite young, his father died and, in due course, his mother married again, this time to one Joseph Bravo. Charles eventually took his step-father’s surname, studied law, and became a barrister.
After a few meetings between the two, Florence could see that things were getting serious between her and Charles. Fearful that some of the gossip might reach his ears, she decided to come clean and confess her affair with Dr Gully. To her surprise, Charles took the news well and confessed that he had had his own affair and a child had been born to the union. They agreed to sever all emotional ties with their respective lovers, and concentrate on their new relationship. That relationship developed rapidly and, on 14 December 1875, the couple were married.
What should have been a possibly perfect match, was actually nothing of the kind. Florence was an independent woman with a large fortune. Charles was an old-fashioned type of man who believed that he should rule the household and expected unflinching obedience from his wife. He was furious when Florence refused to settle all her money on him, deciding instead to keep her fortune under the Married Women’s Property Act. He was slightly mollified, when she agreed to sign the Priory over to him, in order to keep the peace.
After a honeymoon in Brighton, Charles and Florence Bravo returned to London where she found, to her delight, that Jane Cox had been correct. Society now began to open its doors once again and Florence enjoyed the dinner parties and functions, which she and Charles were now invited to.
Once again, though, what appeared to be the ideal match, was nothing of the kind. Charles had debts of some £400, a large sum at the time, but Florence held a firm grip on the purse strings. In retaliation, he demanded that she fire her personal maid and one of the gardeners, and get rid of all her horses in order to save money. Florence refused and reminded Charles that she ran the household, not him. Many arguments followed and about the only place that Charles could be as dominant as he wished, was in the bedroom. He demanded his conjugal rights and often forced his wife to have sex. There is also the possibility that he forced her into practices she found abhorrent, including sodomy.
It wasn’t long before Florence found herself pregnant again but she miscarried after a few weeks. She suggested to Charles that she might like to have a short holiday in Worthing, in order to recuperate, but his reply was to strike her. Another pregnancy soon followed, only to end in another miscarriage. With each event, Florence’s health grew ever weaker and she managed to convince herself that one more pregnancy might kill her.
In April 1876, Charles returned home badly shaken. He had been for a ride but his horse had bolted and it was with some considerable difficulty that Charles got the beast under control again. At the time, Florence was also feeling rather unwell so, for once, there were no arguments, when it was decided that they would sleep in different rooms that night. It was the night
of 18 April.
In the early hours of the morning of 19 April, Charles Bravo appeared on the landing, shouting for hot water and his wife. He was attended to by Jane Cox, who roused Florence. She in turn insisted that Charles should drink a mustard emetic and also have a mustard foot-bath. This had little effect and over the next few days, Charles grew sicker. He was attended by a host of doctors, one of whom was the Queen’s surgeon, Sir William Gull. All agreed that Charles had taken some sort of irritant poison, but without knowing what that poison was, they were unable to treat him. Asked what, if anything, he had taken, Charles refused to give any details.
The severity of Charles’ condition increased and, on 21 April 1876, he died in his bed. A later post-mortem finally revealed the cause of his condition. Charles Bravo had ingested a massive dose of tartar emetic, which contained antimony. The question was, who had administered that poison?
An inquest was opened, during which Jane Cox testified that before his death, Charles had confessed to taking the poison himself. Knowing some of the history of Florence Bravo and keen to avoid a public scandal, the coroner tried to rush through the proceedings and urged the jury to return a verdict that Charles had taken his own life. The jury were having none of it, and returned an open verdict.
That verdict, and the subsequent revelations in the press, led to a public outcry and a demand that the case be reinvestigated. Such was the pressure that, eventually, the Attorney General ordered that a second inquest be held. At that inquest, Jane Cox withdrew her claim that Charles had confessed to her and, in the course of the hearing, all the details of Florence’s past were revealed. Her affair with Dr Gully was now public knowledge, plastered over the newspapers of the day. The public revelled in the sordid stories of sex, affairs, miscarriages and possible poisonings.
Doubt, however, still remained and there was still the possibility that Charles had indeed taken his own life. Some people, of course, suspected that Florence had poisoned Charles. Others thought it might have been Jane Cox, who Charles wanted to dismiss. Still others felt that Dr Gully, a medical man with access to antimony, might have killed Charles, in the hope that it might lead Florence back into his
bed.
In the event, it was for the jury to decide and, eventually, they returned the verdict that Charles had been murdered but added: ‘…there is not sufficient proof to affix the guilt upon any person or persons’. Florence Bravo was a free woman, and no charges were ever brought against her, but in the eyes of the press and the public, she had already been found guilty of wilful murder.
This time, Florence Bravo did not regain her position in society. Two years later, in 1878, and at the age of just thirty-three, she drank herself to death in Hampshire. Five years later, in 1883, Dr James Gully, possibly the only man who had ever made Florence truly happy, died in London. He was seventy-five years old.