In fact Alfred was one of two murder victims at the hands of an Army pensioner called John Knocker who committed the double murder at the Greyhound Inn Sutton at Hone.
Alfred Kemp was the first to die his throat cut in the presence of a witness who was seated with him but managed to escape and summon police. Knocker approached the landlord David Smith and attacked him and killed him. Both men's bodies were discovered by another lodger who had been in bed upstairs after Knocker had left. Knocker had begun to walk to Dartford and there he was apprehended by a constable with blood stained hands but with no weapon. He confessed to the constable that he was responsible and willing to be hanged.
The Hemel Hempstead Gazette of Friday 8 January 1886 contains a report of the double murder and Knocker's subsequent court appearance for a capital offence. However he did not receive a sentence of capital punishment and as the Sundridge burial register suggests he was found to be of unsound mind.
Alfred Kemp was a bricklayer's labourer and was lodging at The Greyhound. He and another lodger James Stroude a bootmaker were seated quietly drinking together when at ten o'clock David Smith had served Knocker and closed his doors for the night. About fifteen minutes later Knocker calmly got up and cut Kemp's throat;Stroude escaped through the back door and called out to Smith and went to call for help.
Knocker had served in the Army for 25 years and had lodged at The Greyhound for about four months. He was born at Chatham in Kent. He had an amicable relationship with both the landlord and his fellow lodgers. At the inquest Mrs Smith said he had left on Christmas Eve and had returned from his holiday "a different man".
Knocker on his court appearance to face trial for murder at Maidstone Assizes had application made by Mister Dickens without objection from Knocker to be remanded to appear at Lewes so that enquiries could be made by a competent person into his state of mind.The application was granted and Knocker appeared at Lewes Assizes on 24 May 1886 when he was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure for murder in strict custody as insane. On 2 June 1886 a Home Office order for removal of a criminal lunatic to Broadmoor was issued to the Governor of HM Prison Lewes and the Superintendent of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.
John Knocker was detained at Broadmoor for the rest of his life. He died at Broadmoor on 24 October 1928; his case notes remain closed to public examination until 2029. His case file is held at Berkshire Record Office reference D/H14/D2/1/1278 and covers dates from 1886-1928. His death was subject of an inquest by the Reading Coroner and his death certificate is recorded on the basis of the Coroner's Certificate that he died of natural causes as a result of myocardial degeneration and senility. He is described as "Of the Greyhound Inn Sutton at Hone Kent inmate of Broadmoor Asylum formerly a soldier". His burial was at Broadmoor in the burial ground at the foot of the hill and within the Victorian brick walls of the Criminal Lunatic Asylum. This area is now grassed over and landscaped.
David Smith was buried at Saint John the Baptist Sutton at Hone on 10 January 1886.
Alfred Kemp was born at Chevening apparently the only son of William and Mary Kent. On the night of the 1881 census of number 7 Martin's Row Sundridge he was living at home with both his parents and was employed in Sundridge at the Old Mill as he is recorded as working as a labourer in a paper factory, There is an irony that within five years his fellow lodger and murderer was working in a paper mill.
© Henry Mantell Downe and Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2020
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