Bournemouth At War / ONLY MURDER OF YEAR Traditional Cache

Bournemouth has a great history. I have documented many famous people, major events and occurrences in previous geocaching series highlighting the history of Bournemouth. This series focuses on many of the key incidents and stories in the town when Bournemouth was at war. A complete list of all the caches in this series are bookmarked.

The war may have ended, however, in 1946 the town still suffered some setbacks and turmoil, as well as having to pick up the pieces to enable the town to grow once more, but not all were able to adjust to life after the war.



There was just one murder in the town of Bournemouth during 1946, which occurred on Sunday 28th April at 10:50pm. Mrs Olive Maud Harman was discovered on the pavement outside 23 Southern Road, Southbourne, with a wound in her left temple, She had been staying in Southern Road with her four year old son. Although rushed to Boscombe Hospital, she died early the next day.

Her husband, Mr Charles William Harman, was found by the police on Monday morning in a shelter on the cliff top at the end of Southwood Avenue. He too had a head wound and on the ground by his side was a humane killer used to slaughter animals. He died in hospital later the same day. The verdict at the inquest was that he had killed his wife and then committed suicide. The location of this cache is very near to where Olive Harman got shot.



At the end of 1946 the town was slowly coming out of the gloom of the years before it. It had been a bumper year for visitors who had arrived in large numbers in the Spring as well as the Summer. Over Christmas the town was well patronised. Even though rationing was still in force there was more food available. Toys for the children were plentiful as were presents for the whole family.

Although the bomb sites were not being redeveloped nor the piers rebuilt, the town was being cleaned up and the feeling was one of optimism. People were at last anticipating a more prosperous future after deprivations of the six years of war. With such a promising start to the postwar era Bournemouth looked forward to a thriving and successful future.