that afternoon, she decided to go to
a tennis match at Ferryside, some
five miles away. Her husband tried to
persuade her to stay and rest, but she
insisted that the outing would do her
good.
The Reverend Ambrose Jones, vicar
of Kidwelly, was going on the same
tennis trip. He left with Mabel and
they later returned by the same train,
Irene meeting her mother at Kidwellystation and accompanying her home.
One visitor that June evening was a
Miss Phillips. She later described Mrs.
Greenwood as “seeming bright and
with a vivid complexion. A lovely sort
of pink.’’
The next day the Greenwoods missed
church. Irene sat and read a novel in the
garden. Her mother wrote some letters,
while her father and his friend Tom Foy,
the local cinema manager, tinkered with
the car. The cook, Margaret Morris,
while preparing the lunch to be served
with the burgundy, noticed that Mrs.
Greenwood looked drawn and tired.
The lunch was the customary
joint with vegetables, followed by
a gooseberry tart with custard. It
was served at 1 o’clock, and Irene
afterwards went out with Foy for
a driving lesson. Foy next saw and
spoke to Mrs. Greenwood again at
around 3 o’clock, when she told him
that she was glad her daughter was
learning to drive. Half an hour laterPOISON DEATH OF THE
SOLICITOR’S WIFEGreenwood announced that his wife
had diarrhoea. At 4.30 p.m. Hannah
Williams, the maid, brought tea into the
drawing-room. At 5 o’clock Mabel and
Irene went for a stroll in the garden, but
Mrs. Greenwood suddenly complained
of suffocating pains. Her husband gave
her some brandy, which promptly made
her violently sick.
He and Irene carried her upstairs
to bed, and Greenwood went for Dr.
Griffiths, who lived across the street.
They returned to find Mabel sitting on
a couch and still vomiting in spasms. “It
must be the gooseberry tart,’’ she said,
shuddering. “It always disagrees with
me.’’
The doctor prescribed brandy and
soda and left her. He and Greenwood
then played several games of clock
golf. When the doctor departed, hesent from his surgery some medicine
containing bismuth, which he had
dispensed himself. Later that Sunday
evening he again looked in on Mabel
Greenwood and found that she had
stopped vomiting and seemed better.
Miss Phillips also called at about
8 p.m. After just one look at Mrs.
Greenwood she called in the district
nurse, who lived only a short distance
from Rumsey House. When the nurse
arrived she found that Mrs. Greenwood
had collapsed. She wrongly assumed
that the medicine by her bedside
was that previously given to her by
Dr. Griffiths, which was for a heart
condition. The nurse promptly gave the
patient a second dose, but there was no
noticeable improvement.
The medicine for this “heart
condition’’ later disappeared. It was
thrown away, together with the large
number of other empty bottles whichDr. Griffiths arrived to
find Mabel sitting on
a couch and vomiting
is spasms. “It must be
the gooseberry tart.
It always disagrees
with me”Mabel Greenwood – she was prone
to unaccountable fainting spells but
her sudden death at the age of 47
led to accusations of foul playelsh Puzzlerelsh Puzzler