“Why had you been drinking so much?” the prosecutor asked.

“Because it was sloe gin,” the American serviceman answered to much amusement.

The riposte perfectly reflected James Jessop’s laid back attitude when he had slouched in the dock at Hampshire Assizes, seemingly indifferent to his potential fate.

Nonchalant and taking a quizzical look about the court room, the soldier offered a not guilty plea to an indictment alleging he had attempted to strangle Beatrice Godden, 27, with intent to murder.

The First World War was thankfully coming to a close and the mood among the people of Southampton was euphoric, no more than the victim who was on her way home after attending the opening night of a variety show at the Hippodrome.

But as she walked along Winchester Road in Southampton, she was suddenly grabbed by the arm.

Desperate “Do you feeling lonely?” asked a drunken stranger dressed in the uniform of an American private.

He insisted on escorting her and she complied in the desperate hope that someone would come to her rescue.

Her anxiety grew as no one came and she began struggling to shake him off. However, her efforts were in vain as he flung her into a ditch on the side of the road and beat her.

When she started screaming, the American threatened to kill and stab her if she continued.

“She was finally rescued by a passing British soldier who found her clothing badly torn and in disarray,” alleged prosecutor S H Emanuel, instructed, as was the way of things at that time, by the town clerk.

“She ultimately reached home in a state of shock and horror.”

Jessop told the court how he had watched a soccer match and then went to the Salvation Army hut to buy eight pence worth of salmon, coffee and bread.

He then ventured to the Common where he admitted having too much to drink.

“I had never tasted sloe gin before and had four or five glasses, or shorts as we call them back home in the States.”

Then he quipped: “Actually I come from a dry state!”

Although the drink made him stagger, Jessop confirmed he knew what he had been doing. “But I did fall into a ditch and got covered in mud.”

Jurors at his 1918 trial found Jessop guilty of common assault and he was jailed for six months with hard labour.