> One of the most terrible and frightening incidents happened on Thursday
19th August 1943, This one event sent shock waves through the hospital and
the village.
21 year old Nurse Muriel Gertrude Emery was found murdered in the
grounds of the Three Counties Hospital, She was last seen on Wednesday
the 18th at about 10.45 pm, she had been visiting a soldier who was
stationed at the searchlight battery near Wilbury Farm..
Nurse Emery was reported missing for work on the morning of Thursday
19th August, After a short search her body was found in a ‘spinny’ at the
back of Three Counties Hospital by Police Constable Fisher of the local
constabulary, He looked at her body and it was evident She had died
from severe head injuries. Bedfordshire police called in chief inspector A.
J. Thorp and sergeant Frisk form Scotland Yard and they took over the
investigation. After talking to many local people a man told police he was
going past the hospital at about 11 o’clock and heard a scream, he paid no
attention as it was not unusual to hear such things late at night.
After months of detective work Scotland yard got a breakthrough when a
local man attacked a store keeper. He was identified and after questioning
he confessed to Nurse Muriels murder, He took police to the place where
he had killed her and showed them the lagoon where he threw the lump
of wood he had used in the attack. He was convicted of murdering Nurse
Muriel Gertrude Emery on the 20th May 1944 and sent to Broadmoor Mental
Hospital for the criminally insane. On release he married in 1972 and died in
Stevenage in 1988.
In early 1945 it was clear the war was coming to an end, the medical
superintendent wrote to the war ministry to ask for the return of the Fairfield
Hospital block that was requisitioned before the war. This was denied because
there could still be wounded officers from the Japanese theatre of war.
By October of that year the war was over and the search light battery at
Wilbury farm was broken down and sold for scrap.
In 1947 ECT and Insulin therapy were now being administered in the
Fairfield Hospital block which had been vacated and returned to the authority
of the Three Counties Hospital. Also in this year the Royal Free vacated the
hutted area and moved back to London , the ministry still had 17 years of the
25 year lease it had signed in 1939 so they informed TCH that in late 1947
the London Chest Hospital would be moving in to the huts as they needed a
rural countryside location to benefit their recovering patients,It was felt that
the fresh air and quietness of the area would be therapeutic and healthy
for convalescence.
Peace time life at TCH was begging to return to normal af \