Mums Mysteries & Murder · Marti & Cheryl

The Ardlamont Mystery

·54 min·3 clips

Alfred had taken out two £20,000 life insurance policies on Cecil before the fatal trip.

1. Mums Mysteries and Murder revisits the 1893 Ardlamont Mystery, also called the Ardlamont Murder and the Monson Case, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. 2. Hosts Marty and Effie frame the story, and they bring in author Daniel Smith’s book, the Poisoner Cabinet Podcast, The Scotsman, The National, The Daily Mail, ElizabethBuns.com, and the Surgeons’ Hall Museum website as sources. 3. The episode asks how Alfred Monson, a bankrupt tutor with debts, insurance frauds, and failed businesses, became tied to Cecil Hamborough’s death. 4. Alfred Monson was born in 1860, married Agnes Day in 1881, and had three children before working as a private tutor for the Hamborough family. 5. Cecil Hamborough was 20 years old, the son of Major Hamborough, and the family’s financial strain runs through the story. 6. Major Hamborough hired Alfred in 1890, and Cecil even lived with Alfred’s family in Yorkshire for part of his education. 7. By 1892 Alfred was bankrupt, and the episode says Alfred and Cecil were relying on friends and supporters connected to the Hamborough estate. 8. In May 1893 Alfred leased the Ardlamont estate in Cecil’s name, with the plan that Alfred’s family would stay for the hunting season and Cecil would join them in August. 9. The hosts describe Ardlamont as a large country-house estate in Kames, Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland. 10. On 8 August 1893 Edward Scott arrived, and the sources disagree on whether he was an engineer or simply a friend of the family. 11. On 10 August Alfred, Cecil, and Edward went hunting, workers heard a gunshot, and Alfred and Edward came back to Ardlamont House alone. 12. The episode says the initial account claimed Cecil’s shotgun went off accidentally, but later evidence showed Alfred’s gun had been used instead. 13. Alfred and Edward also removed cartridge components, cleaned their guns, and only then reported an accident to the police. 14. The staff later found Cecil’s body, and the local doctor signed a death certificate listing an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. 15. The night before, Cecil and Alfred had gone fishing in a rowing boat that had a hole in it, and Cecil could not swim. 16. The episode also says Alfred had taken out two life insurance policies on Cecil’s life for £20,000 before the hunting trip. 17. The insurance company sent officials to Ardlamont on 23 August, and police arrested Alfred on 29 August. 18. The trial opened on 12 December 1893 and ran for 10 days, with Joseph Bell, Dr Brown, and James McNaughton among the expert witnesses. 19. The hosts keep the tone conversational, self-aware, and occasionally joking, even while moving through estate politics, gun evidence, and courtroom testimony. 20. Listeners who enjoy Victorian true crime, forensic evidence, and Scottish history will get the most from this episode; listeners wanting a tightly edited, sombre retelling may skip it.

As heard by us

A loose true-crime conversation about financial strain, lavish appearances and public speculation.

The episode finds its through line in the gap between money trouble and polished appearances. People on both sides are discussed as financially strained while still seeming lavish, dependent on friends and invested in looking secure.

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Why you'd press play

You get a conversational true-crime episode where a case touches money trouble, kept-up appearances, and a sideways drift into royal-photo internet theories.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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