FRIENDS said she had the face of an angel and a smile that lit up a dark room.

Little wonder Magdalene Jervis, 24, looked so radiant. She was engaged to be married and had specifically travelled from her new home in South Africa to London to buy her wedding dress.

But tragically she was never to walk up the aisle.

On her way back to Bursledon, where she was staying with her mother and aunt, she was blasted to death on a Southampton-bound express by a spurned suitor, someone she had regarded as no more than a close friend.

Having shot her twice through the heart, John Keyes turned the revolver on himself.

Their bodies were discovered lying side by side by a guard after the late night service had reached Terminus Station in Southampton.

Instead of returning to Johannesburg, she was laid to rest in St Leonard’s Church, Bursledon.

It was third tragedy her mother had faced with the utmost dignity. Her first husband, a mariner, had apparently drowned at sea and her second husband had also died.

Now she faced the loss of her only daughter.

The shocking tragedy that dominated the Echo headlines for much of July, 1935, began when the guard, H Barrow, who lived in Bitterne, was strolling along the platform, repeatedly shouting "Southampton", after the non-corridor, five coach train had chugged into the station. Looking through the half-drawn blinds in the second compartment of the third coach, he saw two slumped figures, naturally assuming they had fallen asleep.

As he opened the door, he was met by Southern Railway cleaner Bill Harley, who gently shook the man on the shoulder. But at the same moment, he saw tell-tale blood on the woman’s dress and an automatic pistol lying at his side. A closer view of the woman however revealed her light frock was saturated in blood.

Hearing the cleaner’s agonised shouting, one of the 30 or so passengers, Dr A W Mellena, rushed back on the train. The doctor, who had been sighting seeing in London with a party of Dutch tourists who were returning to Southampton to re-board the Rotterdam Lloyd liner Dempo, rushed back on to the train.

He estimated both passengers had been dead for about an hour and gave instructions to the two officials to lock the compartment and call the police.

Several officers, led by Inspector W Robertson of the town’s force and Chief Inspector W Brown of the Southern Railway Docks Police, carried out a two hour investigation before the bodies were moved to the mortuary.

A police surgeon deduced Jervis had been shot at point blank range while sitting in a corner seat and her killer had blasted himself while standing up. He then slumped onto the seat and expired.

Detectives interviewed other passengers who all confirmed they had not heard a shot, leading them to believe no one else was involved in the tragedy.

An examination of the dead man’s wallet revealed a visiting card, inscribed with an address of a South African club in Muizenburg situated a road called in Rust-en-Verde, which ironically in English meant ‘Quiet and Peace.’ A story slowly then began to emerge of unrequited love.

Jervis had met Keyes on board the Union Castle liner Winchester Castle while she was travelling to England in March with her mother. He was working with as a writer in the purser’s office and passionately fell in love with the bride-to-be who was engaged to a South African.

The couple spent a considerable time together and that fateful day was the last time Keyes, who lived in Wexford, Ireland, would have spent with her. He had received unexpected news via a telegram that he was being transferred to the liner Arundel Castle that was to set sail from Southampton for Cape Town within hours.

For Jervis, her relationship was nothing deeper then friendship. He saw differently and in London had purchased the heavy Belgian automatic.

“It is unthinkable that Mary would have wanted to die,” said a close friend of the family, dismissing any notion of a death pact.

“She never looked up on Mr Keyes as anything more than friend and was looking forward with marked delight to her forthcoming marriage in Johannesburg.

"I know she was fond of Mr Keyes but not sufficiently, I am sure, to make her wish to break her engagement.”