SHE was the one who got away and life had no meaning for Frederick Simmons. So there was only one way out – he resolved to kill her and then himself.

But at the very moment he meant to throttle her, he stared at her plaintive face and backed away.

"Had it not been for your pitiful and pleading looks this morning, your body and mine would be cold by now," he wrote in his last letter to her before swallowing laudanum.

Perhaps it was a cry for help, perhaps it was simply just a case of misunderstanding the strength of the poison but he survived and fully recovered appeared before Southampton Quarter Sessions within a month in 1886 to enter a plea of guilty to attempted suicide.

Simmons, a well educated clerk who sat immaculately dressed in the dock, had the rare distinction of having the eminent C T Giles not only speak for him as a barrister but also as a family friend.

The prosecution said little by way of the facts. Instead Mr Loveland handed Recorder A H Stonehouse-Vigor a series of letters which revealed the unfortunate background to the case.

"Are they in favour of the accused," the judge asked.

"They concern circumstances which ought to be known to you," Loveland replied.

Having read the correspondence, the judge asked Simmons whether he had anything to say. "You realise the court can award a very severe punishment."

A salutary Simmons conceded: "I hardly need to tell you that I was very sorry when I came to realise what I had done. By the power of Almighty God I have been snatched from the very brink of eternity to live – I hope – for better things for which I had wanted to die for.

"I owe my life to the instrumentality of the police for they have given me much care after what occurred. Without them, no doubt, I would not be standing here."

Simmons said he had no money difficulties and if released from court he gave his word as a gentleman he would not repeat such an act.

"I would go to London to see my friends."

The judge interjected: "Where are they?"

Simmons said his father held a respectable position there. He had been asked to give his address but declined. "Having got into this scrape, I do not wish to drag my relatives into it."

The prosecutor suggested that if Simmons wished to preserve them from the "scandal," he could write his father's address on a piece of paper which would be handed to the judge for only him to read.

Simmons however again declined.

Passing sentence, the judge accepted Simmons had been under considerable stress for his relationship with the young but married woman but he was of sound mind, though he had almost been "actuated" in thoughts of revenge to the woman who he thought had done him an injury.

"Such was the state of your mind you were committed to do this determined act. But I must do what I can to prevent men such as yourself from committing crimes of this sort and you must undergo punishment, during which time you must consider whether it will be wise for you to get clear altogether of your entanglement with this woman."

Then, with a gasp from the public gallery, he jailed Simmons for four months with hard labour.