It is always fascinating to know what happened to the actors and actresses after the footlights and the limes went out. Endings are not, alas, necessarily as neat and tidy as one would wish. Sometimes they straggle away to nowhere; they become, and remain, hidden. But here, to satisfy, as far as I am able, the reader’s very proper curiosity, are accounts of what the Fates held in store for such of the principals and bit-players in our long-drawn-out drama as we have not previously followed to their destinations.

At the time of the Slater trial, Archibald Hamilton Charteris was 35, was a lecturer on Public and Private International Law at the University of Glasgow, and a partner in the firm of Charteris & Hill, writers, of 19 St Vincent Place, Glasgow. He was joint-author with James Bone, under the twin-headed pseudonym, ‘James Hamilton Muir’, of a very well thought of book, Glasgow in 1901, published by William Hodge & Company1 to coincide with the Great Glasgow Exhibition of that year. He also wrote a very nicely fashioned study of Scottish literary humour, When the Scot Smiles, which displayed his wide reading of Scots literature. He had, in fact, quit Scotland in 1920, taking up the chair of the Challis Professorship of International Law at the University of Sydney. Before leaving his native shores, he had married Margaret, daughter of Mr H B Rossiter, of Paignton, Devon. She bore him a son, John Hamilton Charteris, who was still a schoolboy when, on 4 October 1940, Archibald died, aged sixty-six, at Turramurra, near Sydney, New South Wales.

Archibald and Francis’ mother, Elizabeth Greer Gilchrist or Charteris, died on 29 September 1921, in her eightieth year. Some time before her death she had left No. 4 Queen Margaret Crescent, at Hillhead, in Glasgow, to reside for a time at Edgecumbe, Sydney Road, Guildford, Surrey, but latterly she had moved into the home of her daughter, Mary Greer Gilchrist or McCall, at 33 Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, where she died, leaving estate valued at £459 4s.

Margaret Dawson Birrell, spinster, of 61 Rupert Street, Glasgow, married, on 7 November 1916, at St Aloysius’ Roman Catholic Church, Glasgow, at the age of 52, Henry Kerr, 61-year-old widower, a wine merchant, of 24 Blythswood Drive, Glasgow. The marriage was sadly short-lived. He died, aged 67, at Hunter’s Quay, Dunoon, on 13 August 1922, away from his usual Glasgow residence, at 61 Rupert Street. His widow survived him by a quarter of a century, dying, aged 82, on 16 May 1947, at Cubrieshaw Hall Nursing Home, West Kilbride. She is remembered as a very nice old lady, about 5 ft 6 in tall, rather wizened, who spoke with an attractive, educated accent, and displayed precision in thought behind all that she said. She left £13,697 19s 5d. She was especially fond of her grand-nephew, James Wingate Sellars Birrell, the son of George Gilchrist Birrell, junior. A sergeant in the Royal Air Force, he was killed, aged only 20, on 30 May 1943, in the course of air operations at Ennepe Dam, near Breckerfeld, Germany.

It was just over 33 years after the murder of Miss Gilchrist upstairs, that Arthur Montague Adams, still living at 51 West Princes Street, was, on 3 January 1942, found dead in his home. He was 73. He had last been seen alive at Hogmanay. His death was from natural causes: influenza and heart failure. Another of the celebrated Slater case coincidences: Arthur Adams’ death certificate was signed by Dr John Smith McLaren Ord – none other than the late Superintendent John Ord’s son. Adams had married, on February 11th, 1922, Annie Amelia Martin, the 40-year-old daughter of Sir William Martin, a shipping agent. She was employed as a health visitor. Although there was 13 years’ difference between them, she died only two months after Arthur, of rheumatoid arthritis and acute and chronic nephritis. Arthur Adams left estate amounting to £4,293 12s 5d.

He was survived by his sisters, Laura and Octavia, who kept the sweetshop in Lanark. Laura died on 26 March 1943, in St Mary’s Hospital, Lanark, of cardiovascular degeneration and fracture of the neck of the femur. She was 76. Octavia also reached the age of 76, dying, on 6 May 1948, in Lockhart Hospital, Lanark, of carcinoma of the large intestine.

Rowena Eliza Margaret Adams or Liddell had died back in 1915, only weeks after the death of her 83-year-old mother, Mrs Rowena Sophia Gambrill or Adams, who succumbed to cardiac disease while living at Roselands, in Lanark, on 31 October 1915. Rowena Adams or Liddell also passed away at Roselands, on 13 December 1915. She was 55. Her death was certified due to morbus cordis and syncope.

And what became of the Fergusons – Miss Gilchrist’s heirs? Maggie Galbraith or Ferguson lived until 1927, dying on 2 December of that year, at 27 Ballantine Drive, Ayr. Miss Gilchrist’s main joint-beneficiaries, Marion Gilchrist Ferguson and Margaret Galbraith Ferguson, are both dead.

Marion married, when she was 25, on 17 July 1918, at the Parish Church, Kilmarnock. Her husband was Hubert Frank Cresswell, also 25, described on his marriage certificate as an organist. He was a keen musician all his life, although he earned his living as an income tax inspector, working in Ayr until his retirement in 1958.

Margaret, who had a job as a clerkess, married when she was twenty-three. Her groom was a 25-year-old nurseryman, John G Gledhill, of Elmscott, St David’s Road, Llandudno. Their wedding took place at St John’s United Free Church, Kilmarnock, on 28 April 1920.

Such was the persuasive power of rumour that Margaret’s daughter, Mrs Margaret Land, and her brother truly believed that their grandmother (Mrs Maggie Galbraith or Ferguson) was Miss Gilchrist’s daughter. Mrs Land says:

Miss Gilchrist was in the habit of visiting my grandparents in Kilmarnock quite often, sometimes not saying when, just getting on the train by herself and finding her way to our house, usually with all her jewellery in a bag, much to their horror. But that was her way. The family spent a lot of time with her, both in Glasgow and in Kilmarnock, and they all went on holiday together every year, sometimes to Girvan or Oban, and very often to the Isle of Arran. My mother used to talk about those holidays a lot and would say how much they had enjoyed them. Unfortunately, the last one, in Girvan the summer before Miss Gilchrist died, was a sad one. It was during that holiday that my mother’s brother, David, died from peritonitis, and from then on my grandmother was not well, which was why the doctor was called in to see her during her stay with Miss Gilchrist later in the year. Then, after the murder which followed so quickly on the death of David, my mother said that my grandmother never really recovered from so much sorrow.

As regards the question as to why Miss Gilchrist changed her will so as to make equal provision for both Marion and me, I can only tell you what my mother used to tell me. Seemingly, it was one particular occasion in Kilmarnock, not long before Miss Gilchrist’s death. My Aunt Marion [that is Marion Gilchrist Ferguson, later Mrs Cresswell] didn’t want to stay and keep her company. She preferred to go out. So my mother [that is Margaret Galbraith Ferguson, later Mrs Gledhill] stayed in and looked after her, which was typical of Mum. And it was after that that Miss Gilchrist altered her will.’

Mary Barrowman died young. She was only 40 when, on 14 April 1934, carcinoma of the cervix and cachexia brought her life to a close in Stobhill Hospital, in Glasgow. Her career had been a chequered one. On 11 July 1914, Mary Sword or Barrowman, spinster, aged 20, stationer’s assistant, of 19 Windsor Street, Glasgow, married, after United Free banns, 22-year-old James Laurie, silversmith (journeyman), of 669 Garscube Road, Glasgow. On 1 March 1924, declaring herself a spinster, Mary Sword, charwoman, aged 30, of 21 Robb Street, Glasgow, married 33-year-old William Collins, steam crane driver. Mary had previously given birth to two children – Andrew Pollock Laurie, born 1 September 1914, and Margaret Laurie, born 17 February 1916. She is said to have proved an unsatisfactory mother, both of her children being removed from her into care. She is also said to have become an alcoholic and to have been sent to prison.

That other important witness in West Princes Street, the schoolteacher, Miss Agnes Brown, became Mrs Black on 13 July 1921, when she, age 44, married 47-year-old manufacturer’s agent, Peter Morris Black. She died, aged 87, at Collisdene, an old folk’s home at Strathaven.

Over the years the police who had been concerned in the Slater case gradually died off. One of the first to go, Detective Lieutenant William Gordon, died, aged 65, on 10 March 1915.

The year 192l saw two deaths. On 1 September John Orr, who, with the rank of Assistant Chief Constable, had retired in 1917 to his home town, Ayr, died there at the age of 68. On 18 December, Superintendent William Miller Douglas, still in harness but having been off work for about two months, died, aged 58, of cancer.

Oscar’s old arch-enemy, Superintendent John Ord, died at his home, No. 2 Monteith Row, Glasgow, on 9 April 1928, nine days after his sixty-sixth birthday. He had retired on pension just under three years before. His granddaughter, Mrs Gertrude McLaren Ord or Stewart, said that Slater, after his release in 1927, would stand in the gaslight outside the house in Monteith Row, a haunting, accusatory figure. On his very deathbed, Ord continued to maintain that Slater was the murderer.

Detective Inspector John Pyper, who retired in 1920, lived on until 1932, when, on 17 May he died at the age of 77, at West Kilbride, Ayrshire. He had been promoted Detective Lieutenant in 1912, the style of which rank had, in 1913, been changed to Chief Detective Inspector.

Detective Sergeant James Dornan, feeling that he had been passed over for promotion, convinced that if he had had his rights he should have been Chief Constable, took early retirement with the rank of Detective Lieutenant. He was only 56 when he died of heart failure on 17 May l932, at Torhouse, Wigtownshire. His granddaughter, Mrs Margaret Button, remembers him with bitterness. He was, she says, very harsh with his wife, very tough, and what he said went. Mrs Button’s mother had been ‘an unpaid slave’ at Dornan’s Torhouse farm. According to Mrs Button, Dornan was convinced that Slater was guilty, and after his release became obsessed with the idea that Oscar would track him down – presumably to take revenge.

The demises of what may for this purpose be generally referred to as the ‘legal personnel’ started off in 1909, with, as we have already recorded, the sudden death of Ewing Speirs.

Slater’s leading defence counsel, Alexander Logan McClure, KC, was 72 when he died at his home, 16 Heriot Row, Edinburgh, on 29 July 1932.

Thomas Brash Morison of the prosecution team had gone from strength to strength – Solicitor-General for Scotland, Lord Advocate, elevated to the Bench – and died aged 76, on 28 July 1945.

The trial judge, Lord Charles John Guthrie, was seventy-one when he died of cancer at his home, 13 Royal Circus, Edinburgh, on 20 April 1920.

Craigie Aitchison became Lord Advocate in 1929, and four years later was appointed Lord Justice-Clerk. He died on 2 May 1941, at the early age of 59.

Lord Pentland, Secretary for Scotland 1905-12, died on 11 January 1925. The Rt. Hon. Thomas McKinnon Wood, Secretary for Scotland 1912-16, died on 26 March 1927.

The Reverend Eleazer Philip Phillips, Oscar’s unfailing champion, died in 1943.

Helen Lambie – as we have already seen – died in 1960. Her elder daughter, Margaret Balfour Gillon (Maisie) died, unmarried, on 17 December 1980, at 3 Lascelles Mount, Leeds. She left her house to her married sister, Marion (Mrs Jack Cook). She was living there when, in December 1982, I went to see her. Marion Cook – named, surely, after old Miss Gilchrist – was then 64. She looked remarkably like Helen Lambie and still spoke with a Scottish accent. She told me: ‘Mother never talked of the murder.’

Two of the longest lived players in the Slater drama were ladies. Lieutenant Trench’s widow, who died aged one hundred years, on 10 February 1975, and Oscar’s widow, who died half-way through her ninetieth year, peacefully, in that same Stobhill Hospital wherein, 58 years before, Mary Barrowman had died.

There is no one left now to mourn the spoilt life of the prisoner of Peterhead’s weeping granite.

1 Publishers subsequently of the Notable Scottish and Notable British Trials series.