A Murder Mystery Interlude : Frank Barson not involved

When Frank Barson left Villa for United in the summer of 1922, his successor in the Villa team was a young man called Tommy Ball.

Born in County Durham in February 1899, Thomas Edgar Ball had been playing for a local colliery team when he attracted Villa's attention and was signed in January 1920 as cover for Barson. After Barson's departure, Ball took his place and quickly became recognised as one of the league’s best centre-halves.

While Ball was never destined for great things on the pitch he does still hold a unique place in footballing history. For as far as can be discovered, on the evening of Armistice Day, 11 November 1923, Thomas Ball became the only professional in the Football League ever to have been murdered. At least, on this occasion, even rumour does not suggest Frank Barson was involved.

The Murder Story

Ball and his wife lived at Somerville Cottages, Brick Kiln Lane, Perry Barr. Their immediate neighbour was a 45 year old former Birmingham policeman called George Stagg.

On the evening of Sunday 11 November, Mr and Mrs Ball returned home by bus at about 10.30, after a few drinks in the Church Tavern, Perry Barr. Ball had played for Villa in Nottingham in a 1-0 victory over Notts County the previous day.

Soon after their return home, close to his house, Ball was shot in the chest. By the time a doctor arrived he was dead, the body lying on a couch, a wound in his chest "about the size of a half a crown".

A Police Sergeant Davenport attended the scene and arrested Stagg, who was waiting in his own house for his former colleagues. Stagg proceeded to make a long statement to the Police.

On the Monday morning, Stagg was accordingly remanded in custody on a charge of wilful murder. He was described as a tall man, with grey hair and moustache, wearing a long mackintosh. The Police evidence suggested that Stagg had fired one shot from a "single barrelled gun", then reloaded and fired a further shot which had hit Ball in the chest and killed him. On 28 November, Perry Barr Magistrates committed George John Alan Stagg for trial on the charge of murder.

Stagg had served in the army for many years, leaving to join the City of Birmingham Police Force for a time but returning to the army when war broke out. Wounded, he was invalided out in 1916 and worked in several local factories. In 1921 he bought the two cottages in Brick Kiln Lane, letting one to the newly married Balls in October 1922.

The case came to trial at Stafford Assizes on 19 February 1924. Stagg pleaded "not guilty".

The prosecuting counsel, C.F. Vachell, suggested a history of bad relations between the neighbours.

Beatrice Ball testified that her husband had left the house on the night of 11 November to look for a dog. She said that almost immediately, before her husband could have got any further than the gate, she heard Stagg shouting, and immediately afterwards the sound of a shot. She went out and saw her husband staggering from the direction of Stagg's gate, holding his hands to his chest. He said to her, "he has has shot me".

Mrs Ball also stated that her husband was a moderate drinker who had been perfectly sober on the night of his murder. They had been happily married, she said, and he had never struck her. Ball's excellent character was further emphasised by the Aston Villa trainer Alfred Miles.

Medical evidence was that Ball had been shot through the heart.

Stagg stuck to the statement he had made to the Police following the murder. His story was that Ball had been drunk and had tried to climb over the bolted gate into his garden. Stagg said that he had fired his gun to scare Ball away. When this didn't work, he prodded him in the chest with the gun. Ball caught hold of the gun and tried to wrench it away from him. He in return tried to wrench it back. Ball fell back and there was an explosion as the gun went off.

In the witness-box, Stagg added to his original statement, saying that his foot had slipped during the struggle and that he was "almost certain" that the gun-trigger caught on the gatepost. His defending Counsel, Sir Reginald Coventry, argued that it was a pure accident and there was no conceivable motive for his client to murder Ball. Coventry was described as a slight, stern man, the son of a Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, notable in later years for his opposition to the abolition of judicial flogging for punishing the "professional garotters of Liverpool and Cardiff".

Stagg also alleged that Ball was a violent man who often attacked his wife, something which she herself had firmly denied.

The Judge summed up quite clearly. He pointed out that there was a conflict of evidence, However, he said the substantial thing was that, if the gun had been fired deliberately, it was murder; if the gun had gone off accidentally in a struggle, it was manslaughter.

The jury retired for an hour and forty minutes, before returning with a verdict of guilty of wilful murder. At the same time, they recommended the prisoner to mercy.

Mercy was not, of course, the prerogative of the Judge, who put on his black cap and sentenced Stagg to death by hanging. Trials were quick in those days; it was all completed in the same day.
On 18 March, the case was considered by the Court of Criminal Appeal. Sir Reginald argued that the Court should substitute a verdict of manslaughter for the one of murder.

However, the Lord Chief Justice indicated there was no ground on which the Court of Appeal could intervene. The summing-up had been unassailable, the verdict was clearly one which a jury could reasonably have reached on the evidence.

The question of mercy had to be left to "those who dealt with such matters", who would no doubt give the jury's recommendation "all the weight which it demanded".

And indeed Stagg was lucky. On 26 March, the Home Secretary announced his advice that the death sentence be commuted.

It seems strange that, even in those days, no-one appears to have been particularly surprised that the inhabitants of Birmingham patrolled their gardens armed.

Ball was described by the Birmingham press as, "a player of considerable achievement and even greater promise".

A stone football marks the grave of Tommy Ball in the graveyard of the church of St John the Evangelist in Perry Barr. It sits on a plinth with the inscription “A Token of Esteem from his Fellow Players of Aston Villa FC.” They say that "items are frequently left as gifts on the grave when Villa are having a good season". Perhaps a misuse of the word frequently, of course.


Sources

The Times
The Best of Heroes and Villains, 1994
I am told that Paul Lester has written a small book on the murder, which I haven't yet read, but which may well have more detail. I do wonder if Stagg ever emerged from prison, for instance.