Page "Peter Warlock" Paragraph 40

In September 1930 Heseltine moved with Barbara Peache into a basement flat at 12a Tite Street.

With no fresh creative inspiration, he worked in the British Museum on transcriptions of music by the English composer Cipriani Potter, and made a solo version of " Bethlehem Down " with organ accompaniment.

On the evening of 16 December Heseltine met with van Dieren and his wife for a drink, and invited them home.

According to van Dieren, they left at about 12. 15 am.

Neighbours later reported sounds of movement and of a piano, in the early hours of the morning.

When Barbara Peache, who had been away, returned early on 17 December, she found the doors and windows bolted, and a smell of escaping gas.

The police broke into the flat where they found Heseltine dead, apparently from the result of coal gas poisoning.