Dec 9th, 2014: Witley Park

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The court said guilty so he swallowed a cyanide capsule, because he'd been sentenced to...
ya ready?... "seven years’ penal servitude".

I think you need to see that in context - penal servitude didn't just mean going to prison. Most sentences included hard labour - and even where they didn't conditions in prison were very very harsh. Men in particular would often end up 'broken' by it, even if the sentence was just a couple of years.

There's also the question of honour and pride - a much greater part of upper class mindsets at that time. It was quite common (iirc from my reading on the history of suicide) for men of his class if found guilty, or if likely to be found guilty of a crime to kill themselves out of shame.