For its supporters, Liverpool’s defeat in the 1914 Cup Final was distressing. And for Mrs. Ada Stone it was even worse. She paid for it with her life.

The Cup Final that year took place on APRIL 25th, and when the 7.20 train left London Bridge for Brighton that evening the passengers included two who sported Liverpool’s colours. They were Mrs. Stone and Herbert Brooker, a 32-year-old former navy gunner. They had attended the Cup Final together at Crystal Palace. They had seen Burnley beat their team 1-0. And Brooker was now in a black mood and fighting-drunk, enraged by Liverpool’s defeat.

Shortly after the train left Horley, the communication cord was pulled in a third-class compartment. The guard was loath to stop the train on a busy stretch of line, so he allowed it to continue to the next station, Three Bridges.

As it came to a halt, Herbert Brooker leapt out brandishing a wicked-looking knife which he flourished at others on the platform. Overpowered by the guard and several porters, he was tied up and locked in a waiting-room to await the police. A search of the train then revealed Mrs. Stone’s body. Her throat had been slit and she had been stabbed in the chest and back.

When he had sobered up, Brooker told the police he was from Crawley, and worked at Woolwich pier in London. He claimed he had no recollection of attacking Mrs. Stone. He must have been drunk, he said, as if that explained everything.

Convicted at Sussex Assizes of Mrs. Stone’s murder, he was hanged at Lewes Prison on July 28th, 1914.