Sir, Your photo of the murder scene of April 29, 1947, (Register, Oct 8) brought my dormant memory of it back into brilliant light.

I was not yet 16 and preparing for a dress rehearsal in the Scala Theatre when the shots rang out in the street below. It sounded through the open windows of our dressing room like a car backfiring and the noise took us to the windows. Across the street we saw the Indian motorcycle, motor still running, lying across the kerbside, the body of its rider, Alec de Antiqui, sprawled lifeless next to it. We saw one of the three assailants running into the distance towards Warren Street. Alec had attempted to intercept the assailants when, without thinking of his own safety, he rode his motorcycle on to the pavement in a vain attempt to prevent their escape. The rider, an innocent onlooker, was in a small way of business in South London somewhere and had come to the area in search of second-hand spare parts for his motorcycle repair business. Not least of the tragedy was that he was the father of six children. All three of the assailants were caught and I believe that only one of them escaped the death penalty on account of his youth.

This is an event that has lived in my mind heart-pumpingly and clear as crystal over all the years since.

Allen Mitchell

St Albans, Herts

Explore Letters

• Feedback