On This Day in Wembury – 19 July 1932
At Devon Quarter Sessions, Percy Trengrove, a 32-year-old labourer, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment with hard labour for assaulting Mrs Edith Edna Hamilton-Jenkins at Wembury Bay.
Mrs Hamilton-Jenkins, aged 26, was staying in a hut near the bay with her mother and children while on holiday from Middlesex. On the evening of 19 July she went walking along the cliffs, where she encountered Trengrove. After a short conversation, he suddenly grabbed her by the arm and a struggle followed. She resisted fiercely, biting him on the lip, but he attempted to silence her by covering her mouth and threatening her life.
The attack ended only when Mr and Miss Roper, returning from fishing, heard screams and came upon the scene, giving her the chance to escape back to the hut in a state of collapse.
Trengrove at first denied ever being at Wembury Bay, later claiming he had merely been “skylarking.” He said the cut on his lip was from galvanised iron, not from Mrs Hamilton-Jenkins’s resistance. The jury rejected his account, and Lord Merrivale, presiding, imposed a custodial sentence.
The case caused local alarm, highlighting the dangers of isolated coastal paths that were otherwise a popular attraction for visitors.
Source: Western Morning News, 7 Oct 1932.