Charles Walton (murder victim)
Charles Walton (1870–1945) was found murdered on the evening of 14 February 1945, (St Valentine’s Day), at The Firs farm on the slopes of Meon Hill, Lower Quinton in Warwickshire, England. The case is notable as the foremost police detective of the era, Chief Inspector Robert Fabian, led the investigation into Walton's death. The chief suspect for the murder was the manager of The Firs, Alfred John Potter, for whom Walton was working on the day he died. However, there was insufficient evidence to convict Potter and the case is currently the oldest unsolved murder in the Warwickshire Constabulary records. The case has earned some notoriety in popular culture due to its supposed connection with the local belief in witchcraft.
Charles Walton (murder victim)
Alternatively, the police may have believed there was a closer connection: Charles Walton’s great-grandparents were Thomas Walton and Ann Smith. Ann Smith was Ann Tennant’s maiden name and she was born in 1794. It is feasible that it was she who married Thomas Walton on 2 January 1812 in Ebrington, Gloucestershire, when she would have been 17 or 18. She could then have given birth to William Walton, the victim’s grandfather, in 1814 and, assuming that her husband subsequently died, could have married John Tennant in April 1819 in Long Compton. If this tenuous possibility were to be proved true, Ann Tennant was Charles Walton’s great-grandmother.