Sidney Harry Fox

Sidney Harry Fox (born?-died 8 April 1930) was a British petty swindler and murderer. He was executed for the murder of his mother in an attempt to obtain money from an insurance policy on her life. His case is unusual in that it is a rare example of a known matricide in the United Kingdom.

His murder was detected by then recent advances in forensic pathology.

Fox was described as "the son of decent working Norfolk parents"; little is known of his father, although it has been said that he was a railway porter. Fox was in trouble in his teens as a petty thief while in service at good houses, for which he was birched. Learning from his association with people of quality, he later developed a role as a plausible, genteel con-man until World War I, when he obtained a job in a London bank and proceeded to forge cheques on the accounts of his customers. On discovery of his dishonesty in 1916, Britain was then in the middle of the Great War and needed soldiers. Fox was offered immunity from prosecution on condition that he enlisted in the Army, however he enlisted in the Royal Air Force, getting an officer's commission by claiming to be an Old Etonian. He drew on his banking experience to forge cheques on his brother officers' accounts. He was caught and sent to prison for three months, ending his military career.

Fox and his mother Rosaline lived on 18 shillings per week (£43 equivalent in 2010) between them, supplementing this by cashing worthless cheques and moving from town to town. In 1927, Fox was imprisoned for fraud and his mother committed to the workhouse. On his release, he commenced a bogus affair with a Mrs Morse for mercenary reasons; she knew nothing of his homosexuality. He used the access given to steal her jewellery, and he also insured her life for £6000 (£284495 in 2010). Mrs Morse awoke one evening to find the gas-tap in her bedroom turned on. The resultant outcry led to a divorce action being filed by Mr. Morse, naming Fox as co-respondent. Fox was arrested on several charges, imprisoned for the jewellery theft and released in March 1929; he and his mother found it convenient to renew their travelling life.

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