Investigating the unusual disappearance of Mrs Agatha Christie
This weblog article is a part of the 20sPeople season – a season of exhibitions, actions and occasions from The Nationwide Archives that explores and shares tales that join the folks of the 2020s with the folks of the Twenties.
With as we speak’s launch of the brand new movie adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel, Loss of life on the Nile, I’m taking one other have a look at probably the most weird occasions within the well-known crime novelist’s life. On the night of Friday 3 December 1926, Agatha Christie left her residence in Sunningdale, Berkshire, received into her automobile and disappeared into the night time. Her disappearance sparked a manhunt involving the police, members of the general public and well-known figures and was lapped up by the tabloid press. This unusual collection of occasions was worthy of her personal works of fiction; nonetheless, not like the mysteries solved by Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, this one was by no means totally defined. Information held at The Nationwide Archives give us a singular perception into the unusual occasions of December 1926.
Agatha Christie’s profession was at its top on the finish of 1926. Her sixth novel, The Homicide of Roger Ackroyd, had been printed earlier that yr and her first assortment of quick tales that includes the character of Hercule Poirot had been printed two years beforehand. Christie’s private life was much less completely happy, nonetheless. Her husband Archibald Christie (Archie) had been having an affair with a lady known as Nancy Neele and in August, he requested Agatha for a divorce. Following an argument between husband and spouse on 3 December, Archie left to spend the weekend with mates. Later that night time Agatha kissed her daughter Rosalind goodnight as she lay sleeping, left the home and drove away in her Morris Cowley. The subsequent day, the automobile was found deserted above a chalk quarry at Newlands Nook, and a few of her garments had been discovered inside. The police reported that:
‘The automobile was present in such a place as to point that some uncommon continuing had taken place, the Automotive being discovered half-way down a grassy slope nicely off the principle highway with its bonnet buried in some bushes, as if it had received uncontrolled. Within the Automotive was discovered a Fur Coat, a Dressing Case containing varied articles of girls carrying attire, and a driving licence indicating that the proprietor was Mrs. Agatha Christie of Sunningdale, Berks.’
The Nationwide Archives, Agatha Christie: search by police and civilian volunteers when her automobile was discovered deserted, 1927. Catalogue ref: HO 45/25904
Many assumed the worst, and a police investigation started to seek out the lacking girl. A person who had seen Agatha Christie that night time reported that she was ‘sparsely dressed for such an inclement morning, and that she appeared unusual in her method.’
The disappearance was additionally broadly reported within the newspapers, and anxious members of the general public joined the search. Journalists put ahead a spread of theories to clarify her disappearance. Some instructed she had drowned herself, others that she had been murdered by her husband. And nonetheless others claimed the entire flip of occasions was nothing greater than a publicity stunt to advertise her novels. Some distinguished figures joined the efforts to seek out her. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was a eager spiritualist, even consulted a medium to try to resolve the thriller of her disappearance.
Lastly, 11 days in a while the 14 December, a member of the general public recognised her staying on the Swan Hydro lodge in Harrogate. She had checked in below the title of her husband’s mistress. She was struggling with reminiscence loss and will give no account of the previous 11 days or any causes for her actions. Her biographer Andrew Norman argues that she was in a ‘fugue’ state attributable to trauma or despair ; nonetheless, others nonetheless believed that her actions had been deliberate and maybe designed to trigger misery and embarrassment to her husband.
Following Christie’s reappearance, there have been issues in some quarters that the police response had been extreme and that money and time had been wasted on the seek for her. This was partly attributable to inaccurate press reviews that aeroplanes, divers and a number of police forces had been concerned. On 25 February, Mr Neil Maclean, MP for Glasgow Govan, put a query to the Residence Secretary asking for data on ‘the variety of the Metropolitan police specifically detailed for the seek for Mrs Agatha Christie; the time occupied; and the overall price, together with the wages of the officers so detailed.’
Paperwork regarding this query might be present in a Residence Workplace file held at The Nationwide Archives. The written reply from the Residence Secretary was that ‘No members of the Metropolitan Police had been specifically detailed for the aim, and no price was incurred by the Metropolitan Police. An outline of the lacking individual was printed in Data within the traditional manner.’
This response was knowledgeable by a letter from the Deputy Chief Constable of the Surrey Constabulary, William Kenward, dated 9 February 1927. In it, he detailed the actions taken by the police in response to the disappearance and made clear that press reviews had exaggerated the precise police response.
‘The variety of police stated to have been engaged has been significantly exaggerated, and I obtained invaluable help from the general public usually. The aeroplanes that are stated to have taken half within the search are nothing to do with the police. There isn’t any doubt that a great deal of press matter circulated in reference to the case was with out basis.’
He additionally defined why the actions taken had been justified by the potential hazard that the lacking girl might have confronted following her disappearance.
‘The girl disappeared below circumstances which opened out all kinds of potentialities – she may need been wandering with lack of reminiscence over that huge open nation round Newlands Nook, or she may need fallen down one of many quite a few gravel pits that abound there and are lined in most situations with undergrowth and mendacity helpless in agony, or she may need been as was strongly instructed to the police, the sufferer of a severe crime. Certainly not might the police of this district have justified any inaction within the matter.’
Agatha’s husband, Archie Christie, responded to enquiries about his spouse’s way of thinking by explaining that she was affected by a nervous dysfunction and reminiscence loss. The police approached him to request a contribution in the direction of police prices, however he refused saying it was ‘fully a police matter’.
It could by no means be identified whether or not Agatha Christie’s disappearance was because of the psychological results of the despair she was affected by, or whether or not there have been different causes. Nonetheless, the breakdown of her marriage to Archie Christie was little question a traumatic expertise. The couple lastly divorced in 1928 and Archie went on to marry his mistress, Nancy Neele.
The sudden disappearance of Agatha Christie in December 1926 gave the British public a real-life style of the sort of thriller she had shared with them in her tales. And this most likely explains why the incident caught the creativeness of so many on the time.
Regardless of this dramatic episode in her life, Agatha Christie went on to continued success in crime fiction, happening to publish over 60 extra novels and quite a few quick tales. She remains to be as we speak the best-selling novelist of all time, having bought over a billion copies of her books within the English language . Her fantastic tales, together with their many tv and movie adaptions, have introduced pleasure to tens of millions all over the world.
20sPeople at The Nationwide Archives
20sPeople at The Nationwide Archives explores and shares tales that join the folks of the 2020s with the folks of the Twenties. Accompanying the discharge of the 1921 Census of England and Wales, 20sPeople exhibits what we will study by connecting with those that have gone earlier than us. Discover out extra at nationalarchives.gov.uk/20speople.
