Edwin Preece

Edwin Preece was found shot in the garden of Shandwick in St Albans on Wednesday 9 July 1902.

Shandwick  was the residence of a Lady and Edwin Preece had been an attendant to her son. 

Edwin Preece had taken two guns into the garden to clean them and a few minutes after a report was heard and Edwin Preece was found with a shot wound in the rear of his right side. 

After that the Lady came out and took the guns away. 

Expert evidence suggested that the guns had been put away loaded and that one of them had been cocked and that as Edwin Preece had taken it out of the box that he had knocked the hammer, exploding the weapon. 

The inquest heard that the Lady's son had no homicidal tendencies.

The jury returned an open verdict.