Nursing a grudge against Harry Short, a 23-year-old fellow-soldier, on FEBRUARY 17th, 1903, Private William George Hudson went to Short’s room in their Preston Barracks and shot him to death.

When he appeared at Manchester Assizes before Mr. Justice Lawrance, his defence was that he was too drunk to know what he was doing, and he had fired a random shot in the dark. But the prosecution pointed out that it was not quite dark at the time of the killing, and the court heard evidence that Hudson had made threats, and was sober enough to know what he was up to and that it was wrong.

Convicted of Short’s murder and sentenced to death, he was executed at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison despite the jury’s recommendation of mercy on account of his youth – he was 23, like his victim.