A murder trial that left Scotland hooked on the details surrounding the shooting of a young aristocrat on an Argyll estate more than 100 years ago has been revisited by modern crime experts. The death of Windsor Dudley Cecil Hambrough in 1893 became a ‘cause celebre’, with the High Court in Edinburgh hearing from almost 100 witnesses in just under 100 days. There was not a spare seat in the courtroom as Alfred John Monson took to the dock accused of the murder of the young military man on the Ardlamont Estate at Kames near Tighnabruaich, first unsuccessfully by drowning after a hole appeared in a rowing boat and then, the following day, with a shotgun wound to the head, which was discharged during a private hunt in the woods.
Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to our History and Heritage newsletter Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. The trial – which saw an array of exhibits brought into the court for examination by the jury, from a large piece of Rowan tree that held several shotgun pellets to several models of Hambrough’s head – ultimately ended with a ‘not proven’ verdict delivered against Monson. Monson had been hired to tutor Hambrough in military ways, with the two becoming “excellent friends”.
But the prosecution claimed Monson was motivated to kill given the p.
