Margery Wren (1850 – 25 September 1930) was a sweetshop owner and former maid who was murdered at her premises in Ramsgate in 1930.
She continued in this profession until the 1890s, when a relative named Mrs Wroughton, died and bequeathed her sweetshop at 2 Church Road, Ramsgate, to Margery and Mary Jane.
[1][2] Albert Williams, a 69-year-old man from Dover, visited her about 1pm to complain to her about his nephew, who was leaving to find lodgings elsewhere.
Children from the local school bought sweets from the shop at lunchtime and coal was delivered by Reuben Beer about half an hour afterwards.
[2] Shortly after 6pm, Ellen Marvell arrived to buy blancmange powder for her mother and, found the shop shut, began knocking on the door.
[1] On regaining consciousness, Margery told Mr Marvell that she had fallen and hit her head, but Richard Archibald, her doctor, saw she bore signs of multiple blows of a blunt instrument.
[1] Hannah's son Arthur Cook was investigated, but he was a police constable with a perfect record and there was no evidence of blood on his clothes.
[1] John Lambert, a prisoner, confessed to the murder, but when Hambrook questioned him, he made many untrue statements and could not describe the landscape of Ramsgate.
[1] Albert Williams was one of those named by Margery in her inconsistent ramblings, but nothing emerged to link him to the murder.
[1] A man of that name in Dene Road was found, but he was aged 84 and his sons were in Tunbridge Wells at the time of the murder.
[2] The police file on the murder indicates that their main suspect was one Charles Ernest Hope (1 October 1910 - January 1983) of 88 Church Road.
[1] He claimed that bloodstains on his clothes and kit bag were from cutting himself during the train robbery, but this was contradicted by the police inspector who arrested him.
[1] Bernard Spilsbury and Dr. Gerard Roche Lynch testified that Margery had been held very firmly by the throat in an attempt at strangulation, then beaten repeatedly with the tongs.