Alma Rattenbury

Alma Victoria Rattenbury (née Wolfe, also Clarke, Radclyffe Dolling and Pakenham; 1897/8–1935) was an English-Canadian songwriter and accused murderer.

Born and educated in Canada, she was a talented musician and played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She married for the first time to Caledon Robert John Radclyffe Dolling in 1914, a relative of the Earl of Caledon. With the outbreak of the First World War, her husband joined up. He was initially stationed in Prince Rupert, where she involved herself in entertaining the troops. In August 1915, they moved to England and her husband was posted to France in October 1915. She worked at the War Office. Her husband was awarded the Military Cross for bravery before being killed in action during the First Battle of the Somme. Following her husband's death, she volunteered with the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, and served with distinction in France. Having been wounded twice, she was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for her war service.

In 1918, she began a relationship with the then-married Compton Packenham. He divorced his wife in 1920, and the couple emigrated to the United States. He was employed as a lecturer, wrongly claiming to hold a doctorate, and she worked as a piano teacher. They married in 1921 and had a son. However, the relationship failed, and she took her son and returned to her native Canada in 1922; they formally divorced in 1925. She continued to give music lessons, and also composed song music with the pen name Lozanne.

While in Vancouver, she met Francis Mawson Rattenbury, a noted architect, and they began a relationship. In 1925, he divorced his first wife and married Alma. The scandal that followed the affair and divorce meant that the couple chose to emigrate to England to start a new life. They settled in Bournemouth and had a son in 1928. Following the birth, they lived a celibate life with separate bedrooms on separate floors of their home, Villa Madeira. In September 1934, they employed George Stoner (born 1916) as a chauffeur and handyman, and he moved in to live with them. Stoner and Alma began an affair; Rattenbury was aware and tolerated it.

On 24 March 1935, Rattenbury was attacked with a wooden mallet while sleeping in an armchair in their drawing room. A local doctor was called and Rattenbury was transferred to a nursing home, but he died five days later. The morning after the attack, and having been heavily sedated the night before by the doctor, Alma admitted to attacking him. After Rattenbury died, both Alma and Stoner were arrested and charged with having murdered him alone. The sensational trial took place between 27 May and 31 May 1935, and was heavily covered in the press. Alma was found not guilty, while Stoner was found guilty and sentenced to death. Days later, on 4 June, Alma committed suicide by stabbing herself in the chest six times. Stoner's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but he only served seven years before being allowed to join the British Army during World War II.