Page 34 • The HERALD • 8th October 2026 v SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES v • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates SOLENT SKIP HIRE LTD FOR ALL YOUR COMMERCIAL AND DOMESTIC WASTE MINI ~ MIDI ~ MAXI SKIPS ALSO CUBIC YARD BAGS OWN BAG COLLECTION AVAILABLE 023 8066 0123 01590 619700 • 01962 588288 Email: office@solentskiphire.co.uk The Murder of Lily White in Mullins Lane, Hythe by Marc Heighway Marc is available as a guest speaker to deliver local history talks. Find out more at: marcheighway.co.uk The information in this article describes the true account of an event that took place in Hythe in the 1930s. The facts relayed are in the public domain having originally been reported in the national and local press as well as being held for public access in the UK National Archives. Minutes before midnight on 21st July 1937, a distressed man walked into Hythe police station and made a shocking confession to the o cer at the front desk. “I want to tell you that I have murdered a girl in the wood in Mullins Lane. I have been courting her for some time. She is going to have a baby. I am diseased and so is she, and so I strangled her.” Six months later the man would be sentenced to death by hanging. But this was to be no ordinary murder case. e strange and tragic tale of Frederick John Corneby and Lily White is one that still has reverberations to this day. e lead-up to this fateful night started ve years working at the oil re nery and was compensated £150 by AGWI. is wasn’t his rst serious injury. Years earlier as a child he’d been knocked over by a horse and cart in School Road, su ering a traumatic head injury a er he ran out of Hythe School. e adult Corneby had problems in his life which At 9pm Corneby asked pregnant Lily to go for a walk with him in Hythe. He would later explain how they reached a corner in Mullins Lane and then they stopped. During his murder trial he told the court: “Something seemed to seize me, and I seemed to lose what self-control I had left. I said to her, I can’t marry you Lil. I can’t tell you why.” He then explained how he grabbed her around the throat with his right hand, there was a struggle, then a er a time realised what he had done and dragged her into the bushes. He said he became distraught and made attempts to kill himself at the scene with a razor blade. e court in Winchester heard how his suicide attempt was unsuccessful as he could not properly cut his wrist on his right arm, due to the le hand being arti cial. He sought to mitigate the killing during trial by saying he had worries about money due to the impending marriage and parenthood. He also said he thought he still had syphilis and was convinced he had given it to Lily and her unborn child, thus being of unsound mind. Corneby pled not guilty to the o ence of murder. e jury found him guilty, and he was convicted and sentenced to death in December 1937. He appealed his sentence on the basis that he hadn’t known what he was doing at the time of the murder. e Court of Criminal Appeal rejected this and he was set to be executed by hanging on 2nd February 1938. You might think that would be the end of this tragic tale of the one handed man who killed his partner in Mullins Lane. If it wasn’t for the intervention of the Hythe vicar and local villagers, it might well have been. Reverend Horace Molyneux of St. Johns Church lived in the vicarage at the end of South Street in Hythe. He believed the death penalty to be unjust and created a petition that was circulated in large numbers around the village. Newspapers from the time report how the petition for clemency was signed in large numbers. e vicar explained his actions by stating that as the parish priest, grounds of compassion came to his knowledge, and so he was prompted to appeal to the local public. He was supported in his petition by a member of the original jury who said they all had sympathy for Corneby but had no alternative but to nd him guilty. e vicar’s petition was a success. Just days before included being treated for syphilis, gambling issues, and thoughts of suicide. His mother would later tell a newspaper that “he had several things to worry him, and they affected him”, and none more so than his arti cial le hand. By April 1937 the couple were both aged 24 and in the h year of their courtship. Lily was pregnant with Corneby’s child, and they were discussing marriage. But just three months later she would be dead, and he would be charged with her murder. e tragedy unfolded on 21st July 1937. earlier in 1932. Lily White of Roughdown met Frederick Corneby who lived in Alexandra Road, Hythe and they became a couple. Corneby would nd employment with the AGWI Petroleum Corporation in Fawley and later worked as a storekeeper. Lily would become a house servant in Black eld. at same year, Corneby lost his le hand in an industrial accident whilst Lily White Continued on page 35
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