IT was mid-morning on April 23, 1863, that Edwin Trest turned up at his brother-in-law's shop, his seeming good mood masking his murderous intent.

Within minutes he shot him, a member of his staff and a police officer.

Miraculously they all survived, unlike the troubled Trest who within hours cheated justice by committing suicide.

On his arrival, he politely asked how they were and when his sister replied she had not been well, he said he wanted to to talk to her and she invited him into their back room while her husband dealt with customers at his Botley business.

Presently he joined them whereupon Trest produced a statement of accounts about his father's property and a legacy left by his aunt to three sisters and some children.

Furious about the situation, he put a proposition to the grocer's wife which she refused to accept and he bridled: 'Oh, you won't? Then I shall know what to do.' She immediately feared he might harm her but he reassured her that was not the case. "Oh, no, what would I do that for."

Satisfied, she left the room, leaving her husband to ask why he and his brother were continually coming to their house. "I told him that unless he came in a proper manner, he had better stay away as I would not stand it any further."

With that, he went to join his wife in the kitchen when he heard what resembled the sound of a gun-cap that had failed to explode. Turning round he saw to his horror Trest with a pistol in his right hand which he fired three times and realised he had been shot in the head.

Elcock cried out and James Tolfre, a member of his staff who was about to leave the shop on a bread delivery, rushed into the kitchen.

"My master was coming out of the sitting room and I saw Trest standing at the table. I heard the snick of a cap and directly afterwards the report of a pistol and found something had struck me in the face and I was bleeding. I saw the pistol in his hand."

Tolfre ran outside and collared Pc Whittock who Trest immediately targeted.

"The door was shut but when I looked through the keyhole, I saw him standing in the room with two other pistols in his hand, one pointed at the door, the other down by his side. Several shots struck me just over the right eye, two in the shoulder, and one in the breast. My forehead bled very much but the other shots did not fetch blood."

Extraordinarily Whittock was able to reach a local surgery where his wound was treated before he returned to the house where Trest was waiiting, apologetic for what he had done to him and pleading: "Don't strike me. I am sorry I shot you."

Whittock replied: "If you were going to shoot me, you might have let me known."

He then took possession of the four weapons, two of which were still loaded and arrested him.

At the Bargate police station, he was charged with attempting to murder his brother-in-law and firing at the other two witnesses and magistrates the following day remanded him to stand trial at Hampshire Assizes. However, he was not sent to Winchester Jail but held in local custody where he repeatedly checked.

But within hours he was dead.

The following morning, the county coroner J H Todd heard evidence from Pc Wilmer who told him there had been nothing unusual in his appearance. He checked twice in the evening and on both occasions Trest confirmed he was all right, but on the third occasion, he found him hanging from the window bar by his braces and handkerchief.

Elcock told the inquest jury his father thought he was not right in the head.

"That was the general opinion of the family. Six or eight months ago I knew him threaten to do some act of violence to his sister and went to London for that purpose but he could not get access to her. I however knew he would do it some other time when he would something in his pocket to clear the way."

Several other witnesses testified as to Trest's eccentric traits and of late he had appeared sullen.

Jurors returned a verdict of suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed, stressing that no one at the police station could be held responsible for his death.