How Arthur stayed proud until the end despite brutal beating
No-one looked on 87-year-old Arthur Gumbley as a vulnerable victim – least of all his family.
Despite his age, he was 6ft tall, in good health, still active and a proud man. His daughter Susan Boys called him “my big strong dad”.
After the violent attack that led to his death, he refused to sit in a wheelchair for paramedics and instead walked to the waiting ambulance.
WATCH: Arthur Gumbley speak from hospital bed
David Boys, his son-in-law, described him as “level-headed, a hard worker, not a show-off”. He added: “I suppose you’d call it old school.”
Mr Gumbley died in hospital on December 12, 2017, three weeks after being beaten almost unconscious and dragged around his home in Little Aston, near Walsall, by intruders demanding money.
Pictures of his bruised and battered face sparked public outrage and a £40,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of his killers.
One convicted, more on the run
Yesterday, following a two-week trial at Stafford Crown Court, one of them, 20-year-old Jason Wilsher, was convicted of murder and conspiracy to rob.
Other people were involved in the attack on Mr Gumbley but the police had evidence only to charge him after his DNA was found at the pensioner’s Endwood Drive bungalow.
Arthur Gumbley, known as Bob, had lived on his own for 13 years following the death of his wife but he cooked and shopped for himself and was “always independent” said Mr Boys.
He had made his money in the central heating business, being the first in the area to set up a company providing the then new form of heating.
In retirement he had kept up his hobbies of metal detecting, local history and going to car boot sales.
As a member of Bloxwich Research and Metal Detecting Club in 2004, he had uncovered jewellery from the first century and 23 Roman coins – including one dating back to 31BC – on farmland in Shenstone.
Treasure
He told the Express & Star at the time: “To find Roman coins with names of all the emperors on was like winning the pools.”
He handed them in because he wanted to find out more about the coins and also “to give other people the chance to see them”, he said.
The Staffordshire South Coroner officially classed the haul as treasure.
A gold coin dating back to the 16th century, found more recently, was among the hoard stolen in the raid on his home.
His loving family respected his independence but kept a close watch on him.
Not long before the brutal attack he was “beginning to come round to the idea” that he needed help with gardening, said Mr Boys.
Decent and caring
It was his daughter Susan’s vigilance which led to him being discovered when she made her nightly call to him.
The trial heard that Mr Gumbley had to be persuaded to leave his beloved home to receive treatment in hospital for his terrible injuries. He was never to return.
In a poignant interview from his hospital bed, the battling pensioner, clearly struggling to speak, repeatedly apologised for ‘being vague’ and not remembering more.
Even in his final days, the decent and caring pensioner tried his best to help detectives in their task.
Now one of his killers, at least, is now paying the price for Arthur Gumbley’s cruel and untimely end.
