Alma Rattenbury and George Stoner
Toronto Daily Star, April 24 1935
Alma Rattenbury (1897 or 1898-1935) had lived an eventful life before meeting Francis Rattenbury. Born in Toronto, she played with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as a young woman. She married a relative of the Earl of Caledon in 1914; he fought in the First World War and was killed in action in 1916. After his death, she served as a hospital orderly in France and was wounded twice.
She married and divorced Thomas Packenham before meeting and marrying Francis Rattenbury, a British architect who settled in British Columbia in 1891. He designed the province's Parliament buildings, which were opened in 1898. After she gave birth to their son in 1928, the couple lived on separate floors of their house in Bournemouth, England.
George Stoner was 17 years old when he was employed by the Rattenburys as a servant and chauffeur. He and Mrs. Rattenbury became lovers; her husband knew of and tolerated the affair.
Both Stoner and Mrs. Rattenbury pleaded not guilty to her husband's murder. He was convicted but she was acquitted after only an hour of deliberation. (Trigger warning ahead.) Four days after being set free, on June 4 1935, she committed suicide by stabbing herself repeatedly.
Stoner was sentenced to death before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He was released after seven years and went off to fight in the Second World War. He passed away in 2000.
Created October 17, 2025.