Alice Wheeldon: The Derby woman who plotted to murder Lloyd George with a poison dart

Embed from Getty Images

Or did she?

There was an extraordinary story on BBC East Midlands Today earlier this evening about the attempt to clear the name of Alice Wheeldon.

The Derby Telegraph has the story:

Exactly one hundred years ago, on Boxing Day 1916, a Government agent posing as a conscientious objector arrived on the doorstep of a Derby home. 

The combined house and secondhand shop was occupied by suffrage supporter and anti-war campaigner Alice Wheeldon and her family, and within a few months, the property, the family and Derby would be known worldwide in connection with an alleged plot to poison then Prime Minister David Lloyd George. 

And Alice's great granddaughters – Deidrie and Chloe Mason – are hoping that the 100th anniversary year will be the one when their long campaign to clear Alice Wheeldon's name and prove that the plot was a Government conspiracy, will come to fruition.

An earlier Sydney Morning Herald report (the Masons live in Australia) says the supposed plot involved shooting a poisoned dart at Lloyd George while he played golf.