The Avoidable Death of a Policeman in Golders Green

On the evening of 23 August 1929 soon after 10pm, the audience was leaving the Ionic Theatre Golders Green, having just seen the silent film ‘The River’, staring Hollywood actors Charles Farrell and Mary Duncan. As they left the cinema and headed towards the bus depot and the Underground station, some of them saw two men arguing outside a shop in The Parade.

Today, this is Leverton and Sons Ltd, funeral directors, 624 Finchley Road, near the clock tower in the centre of the road.

The Ionic Theatre

One of the men appeared to punch the other in the face and he fell backwards hitting his head on the pavement. The assailant ran off and jumped on a bus going towards Childs Hill and Swiss Cottage.

People tried to help the injured man and PC Garner who was on point duty was called. When he got there, he was shocked to find the man was a colleague, PC John Self who worked in plain clothes. 

Dr Leakey, who lived locally, was called and he found PC Self unconscious on the pavement. He was taken by ambulance to Redhill Hospital in Edgware where he died just before midnight. The postmortem found that he died from a fractured skull.
A box and a shopping bag were found on the pavement a few feet away from PC Self. The bag label had the name, ‘Mrs Holmann’ written in blue ink.

 

 The Metropolitan Police mounted a massive manhunt and Superintendent George Cornish, one of the ‘Big Five’ at Scotland Yard was put in charge. Despite the effort, the police still had no idea who the assailant was. Then on 27 September, Harry Holmann went into Chadwell Heath police station and gave himself up. 

He said, ‘I struck a man in Golders Green last Friday, and I am the man you want. I can’t stand it any longer. I have told my wife all about it.’ Harry Holmann was a 28-year old labourer, a tall man with wavy hair, who lived in Beacontree Essex.

In 1921 Holmann had assaulted his father and had been certified as ‘feeble minded’. He had escaped from mental homes and then been taken back. He was sentenced to six months for housebreaking in 1924, and to three months imprisonment for stealing some boots in 1926. Holmann had worked as a kitchen porter at the Brent Bridge Hotel in Hendon from July 1927 to October 1928 but was discharged when some staff were made redundant.

On the fateful day, PC Self was on a bus going to sign off duty in Golders Green Police Station in Temple Fortune, at 1069 Finchley Road. Harry Holmann had been to the Brent Bridge Hotel and was on the same bus going to the bus station. He told police that Self had asked him if a box on the conductor’s platform was his and he said ‘No’. After they got off the bus, Self, who did not say he was a police officer, took the parcel and prodded Holmann in the back, saying ‘This is yours, come with me’. This annoyed Holmann who hit Self on the chin, and then ran off.

When Holmann read in the papers about the PC’s death and they had found his wife’s shopping bag, he gave himself up. At the Old Bailey he said he did not intend to kill PC Self who he did not know was a policeman. The jury found him guilty, but recommended mercy. The judge said the death of PC Self was tragic, but he had made an error in not identifying himself. He accepted the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Holmann to eight months imprisonment. Holmann said, ‘Thank you very much.’

John Self, from a newspaper photo

PC John Arthur Self was 44, born in Dickleburgh, a small village in Norfolk. He had joined the Met in February 1908, and working in plain clothes had arrested many criminals during his service in S-Division. He lived locally with his wife Rose and their 19-year old son at 109 North End Road, less than half a mile from where he died.