Police Constable Ernest Pike joined the force in 1895 and had since served at several police stations in Wiltshire. While serving at Bottlesford, he was promoted to sergeant and posted to Swindon police station. However, while he was undoubtedly popular within the communities that he policed, he had a quick temper, which frequently led to clashes with his superior officers.
This was the case at Swindon, where he was reported for a serious breach of discipline and brought before the Chief Constable. His wrongdoings brought about his demotion from sergeant to second class constable and an immediate transfer to the rather sleepy village of Enford, on the banks of the River Avon.
In spite of his demotion, life at Enford seemed to suit Constable Pike. He quickly settled in and got to know the community and the area very well, proving to be a very popular local ‘bobby’ and soon gaining back one of his stripes by being promoted to merit class constable. However, just as he had done several times in the past, he then fell foul of his superior officers, in particular Sergeant William Crouch.
Crouch was also an experienced police officer who had previously served at Bradford-upon-Avon, Swindon, Chilton Foliat and Ludgershall. A married man with two children, he now lived in the police house at Netheravon. When it came to his attention that Pike had been seen in a public house while on duty and had also lied to a superior officer, Crouch had no option but to report Pike, who once again found himself summoned to appear before the Chief Constable to explain his conduct.
The disciplinary hearing took place at Amesbury police station on 31 March 1913. Crouch presented the evidence against Pike and, although Crouch was later said to have spoken very fairly, Pike grew more and more angry as the hearing went on, eventually losing his temper and calling him a liar. When Crouch’s word was believed over his and he was demoted and informed that he would have to leave Enford and take a transfer to Colerne on the county border with Somerset, Pike was enraged.
Netheravon, c. 1910. (Author’s collection)
He cycled back to Enford in the company of a colleague, PC Slade, all the while fuming about the injustice of his situation, for which he placed the blame firmly on William Crouch. As the two officers reached the police house at Enford, Pike told Slade, ‘Well, I have done with the Force’.
Slade advised him not to be silly, telling him ‘keep yourself cool’, but Pike would not be placated. As Slade remounted his bicycle to continue riding home, Pike shouted after him, ‘I will make this county ring!’
Once at home, Pike appeared very dejected and sat alone brooding in the room where he kept his double-barrelled sporting gun. He left the police house to go on duty at nine o’clock that evening.
It was customary for Pike and Crouch to meet at Coombe Farm, Enford at eleven o’clock each night. On the night of 31 March, Pike apparently reached the rendezvous point first and concealed himself behind a hedge. As Crouch arrived, two shots rang out and the sergeant instantly fell to the ground, dead from gunshot wounds to his head. Mr A.L. Edwards, a doctor from Upavon, later noted that the left-hand side of Crouch’s skull was almost completely blown away by the gunshot.
Meanwhile, Mrs Amelia Pike waited at the police house in Enford, growing more and more concerned about her husband by the minute. Eventually, when he didn’t return home that night, she reported him missing.
While walking to work at 6 a.m. on 1 April, with a small group of farm workers, farm labourer James Cannings found the body of Sergeant William Crouch lying face down in a field known as Long Ground, close to the footpath to Fittleton. One hand was in his pocket, holding his keys, while the other was slipped into the opening of his tunic as if he had been trying to warm it. His helmet lay on the ground just in front of his body. Two shotgun cartridges of a similar bore and make to those used by Pike were found near the sergeant’s body.
The High Street, Amesbury, in the 1920s. (Author’s collection)
Nobody could locate Ernest Pike. PC Slade, who was stationed at Upavon, was called in to help with the search for the missing constable. Having listened to Pike’s tirade of bitterness towards Crouch just the day before, Slade immediately felt that the Enford constable was responsible for the sergeant’s death. He enlisted the services of two bloodhounds, Moonlight and Flair, who belonged to the Chief Constable, Captain Llewellyn. An article of Ernest Pike’s clothing was obtained from his wife and the two dogs were taken to the site of Sergeant Crouch’s shooting.
Although initially confused by the early morning dew, the dogs eventually led officers about 500yds through nearby water meadows to a little wooden footbridge across the River Avon, where a double-barrelled shotgun was found in the shallow water containing two cartridges, one live and one spent. The police immediately began to drag the river and soon located Pike’s body, which had been carried downstream by the current for some distance before sinking to the bottom. He was dressed in his police uniform and he too had died from a gunshot wound to the head. Mr Edwards believed that Pike had placed the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. In his opinion, both officers would have died instantly.
An inquest into the deaths of both men was opened at Coombe Farm later that day before Mr F.A.P. Sylvester, the coroner for mid-Wiltshire. The jury heard that Pike had been broken hearted on his return from his disciplinary hearing and that he seemed to blame Crouch for his demotion and transfer. It was believed that Pike had managed to remove his gun from the house without his wife noticing and that he had taken it with him when he went to meet Crouch. Whether there had been any argument between the two men, or whether Pike had just ambushed Crouch was not known, but the shotgun cartridges found adjacent to Crouch’s body were identical to those subsequently found in Pike’s desk at the police house.
Upavon, 1917. (Author’s collection)
Having shot Crouch, Pike would have been only too aware that he had committed a capital offence for which he would undoubtedly be hanged when apprehended. Unable to face the disgrace, he had walked to the footbridge, placed the barrel of the shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The blast had toppled him off the bridge and into the river, where his body was later found.
The inquest jury found that Ernest Pike had wilfully murdered Sergeant William Crouch and returned a verdict of Felo de Se against Pike (a Latin phrase meaning ‘felon of himself’, used in the days when it was a crime to commit suicide – the suicide victim had literally committed a crime against himself). Tragically, it emerged at the inquest that, but for the fairness of Crouch’s presentation of the evidence against him at his disciplinary hearing, Pike’s punishment would have been much more severe.
As a mark of respect, the inquest jury donated their fees for serving to the widows of the two police officers. The funerals of both policemen were held a few days later. Sergeant Crouch was buried with full police honours, his funeral attended by the Chief Constable and more than 150 of his fellow officers. A band from the Third Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment played him to his grave. By contrast, Ernest Pike’s funeral was a much more modest affair. Even so, it was a testament to his popularity as a community policeman that several of the villagers joined his wife and children in mourning a man who had so tragically ended two lives in what amounted to a few moments of madness.