Wiltshire Police have handed over the mummified arm of a felon to the National Funeral Museum.
The history of the arm is rather gruesome and dates from when George Ruddock, aged 20 and George Carpenter, aged 21, murdered William Webb, a farmer, and his maidservant, Mary Gibbons, at Roddenbury Farm, near Longleat, in December 1812.
They were tried and sentenced to death and then brought from Salisbury to Warminster in an extraordinary procession to the place of execution where they were publicly hanged on a gallows erected on the downs above Warminster. The procession consisted of detachments of the Yeomanry, two thousand Peace Officers and gentlemen on foot with white wands, the Magistrates of the division, and one hundred gentlemen on horseback.
The execution took place on 15th March 1813. Ruddock jumped from the cart and death was instantaneous. Carpenter held on to the cart and suffered greatly in dying. The bodies were removed to Salisbury and dissected by surgeons. The mummified arm of George Carpenter was in the possession of local surgeon, Dr Charles Kindersley, until it was donated to Wiltshire Constabulary in 1938.
Between 1938 and 2005 the arm was on display in the Wiltshire Constabulary Museum at the Police Station in Marlborough; however, due the recent closure of the museum, an alternative home needed to be found for the arm. PC Emma Brown works part-time for David Hunter, from Thomas Free & Sons Ltd of Marlborough. David, who is also President of the Southern Area of National Association of Funeral Directors and Chairman of the British Institute of Funeral Directors Wessex Region, took Emma to London earlier this year, where she was met John Harris, from T Cribb & Sons Funeral Directors.
John told Emma about the National Funeral Museum, which is currently under development and a totally unique venue, as it will be the only funeral museum open to the public in the country. A two-storey building has been designed to house the museum, which will exhibit everything from historic horse-drawn hearses, music manuscripts and jewellery, to coffins, clothing and other memorabilia.
