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Robert George Clements
Robert George Clements
Born	1880; Belfast, Ireland
Died	1947 (aged 66–67); Southport, England
Cause of death	Suicide
Details
Victims	1–4
Span of crimes	1920–1947
Country	England

Robert George Clements (1880 – 30 May 1947) was a physician and a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons from Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Clements is suspected of the murder of his fourth wife, who died of morphine poisoning. His first three wives also died before him, raising suspicions that he murdered them as well.^[1] Clements carried out suicide by an overdose of morphine before the police came to arrest him.^[2]

Life

Clements was born in 1880 in Belfast, Ireland. He graduated in 1904, aged 24.^[3]

Marriages and deaths

Clements married four times, three of his four wives were heiresses. His first wife, Edith (or Edyth) Annie Mercier, who was active in the Ulster Women's Unionist Council^[4] and the daughter of a wealthy Belfast grain merchant, Dufferin Flour and Meal Mills owner William Turpin Mercier,^[5] died of "sleeping sickness" in 1920, aged 40. His second wife, Mary McCreary, was the daughter of an Irish industrialist based in Manchester;^[5] her 1925 death was ascribed to endocarditis, at aged 25.

His third wife, Sarah Kathleen Burke (known as Kathleen),^[6] died on 27 May 1939, which was ascribed to endocarditis, and was quickly cremated,^[5]^[7] though the police had made an attempt to halt the cremation.^[8] By all accounts, Clements' had genuine affection for Burke.^[5]

His last wife, Amy Victoria "Vee" Barnett, (often written as Burnett)^[6] was the daughter of one of Clements's few patients, Reginald W. G. Barnett, the wealthy managing director of the Liverpool Cartage Company, who had died suddenly in January 1940, six months before to his daughter's wedding in June.^[9] The last Mrs Clements died on 27 May 1947, under suspicious circumstances, in Southport. The previous day, Clements had called in another doctor when his wife fell ill. She was taken to the Ashley Bank Nursing Home, where she died the next day.^[10]^[11] Both Clements and the other doctor diagnosed myeloid leukemia, which was confirmed by a botched post-mortem carried out by another physician, James Houston.^[12]

The circumstances of this latest death caused people at the time to question the deaths of Clements's first three wives, of whom the first and second were wealthy women when he married them and were almost penniless at the time of their deaths. Clements had signed the death certificates himself,^[1] and although there had been some suspicions voiced following the death of his third wife, there was no opportunity to perform a post-mortem, as by then her body had already been cremated.^[13]

A second autopsy was conducted on Mrs Clements by a Dr Grace, who deduced that she had died from morphine poisoning. This was confirmed by Dr J.B. Firth, Director of the Home Office Laboratory in Preston.^[14] Clements is thought to have murdered his wife in order to inherit her money.^[15]

When the police came to arrest Clements, they found that he had committed suicide, by way of an overdose of morphine.^[2] Clements was found to have died on 30 May 1947, at 20, Promenade, Southport. He left an estate valued for probate at £18,047, on which probate was granted to Robert George Wilson Clements, a farmer.^[16] Amy Victoria Clements was found to have left an estate valued at £56,180,^[11] equivalent to £2,776,427 in 2023.

When Houston learned that his post-mortem had missed the presence of morphine, he, too, committed suicide.^[1]^[17]^[18]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Kinnell, HG (2000). "Serial homicide by doctors: Shipman in perspective". The BMJ. 321 (7276): 1594–7. doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7276.1594. PMC 1119267. PMID 11124192.
^ ^a ^b Briend, Bernadette (2 February 2000). "Trust me, I'm a doctor". Health Service Journal. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
^ The collected works of Max Haines, Volume 4, Max Haines, 2000. Page 571
^ Urquhart, Diane (2007). The Ladies of Londonderry: Women and Political Patronage. I.B.Tauris. p. 123. ISBN 9780857714190. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Evans, Colin (2007). Killer Doctors. Penguin. p. 47. ISBN 9780425216019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ ^a ^b Hayhurst, Alan (2012). Lancashire Murders. The History Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780752484211. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ The People's almanac presents the book of lists, David Wallechinsky, Irving Wallace, Amy Wallace, 1977. Page 70
^ "Tried to Forestall cremation". Burnie, Tasmania, Australia: The Burnie Advocate. 3 June 1947. p. 1. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ Wright, Geoff (2008). Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths Around Southport. Grub Street Publishers. ISBN 9781783408498. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ The new murderers' who's who, page 86
^ ^a ^b "CLEMENTS Amy Victoria of 20 Promenade Southport Lancashire (wife of Robert George Clements) died 27 May 1947 at Ashley Bank Nursing Home… Resworn £56180", in Wills and Administrations 1947 (England and Wales) (1948), p. 248
^ Seddon, Peter (2016). Law's Strangest Cases: Extraordinary but true tales from over five centuries of legal history. Pavilion Books. p. 123. ISBN 9781911042310. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
^ John Camp, One hundred years of medical murder, 1982, p. 5
^ The medical murderer, 1967, p. 150
^ "No. 38050". The London Gazette. 19 August 1947. p. 3926.
^ "CLEMENTS Robert George of 20 Promenade Southport Lancashire died 30 May 1947… £18047", in Wills and Administrations 1947 (England and Wales) (1948), p. 250
^ Haines, Max. "Crime Flashback – Practice makes perfect". Toronto Sun. Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine
^ The laboratory detectives: how science traps the criminal, Norman Lucas, 1972. Page 101