WITH political debate building towards this year's General Election auctioneers Henry Aldridge and Son will be selling a number of lots with a historic link to past campaigns, including a signature of Winston Churchill.

A sinister note will be added to the auction in Devizes on Saturday with an archive of letters from infamous killer Dr Crippen.

Dr Harvey Hawley Crippen rose to infamy by poisoning and dismembering his wife and hiding her remains under the cellar floor in 1910.

He was arrested by police after trying to flee the UK with his mistress Ethel Le Neve, who had disguised herself as a young boy for the journey.

Crippen was the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication after the captain of the SS Montrose, the ship he was escaping on sent a wireless telegram to the British authorities.

His trial at the Old Bailey in October 1910 lasted five days and he was found guilty by a jury after just 27 minutes of discussion. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison in London on 23 November 1910.

A spokesman for the auction house said: "The letters are expected to attract worldwide interest when auctioned."

Papers of local interest coming under the hammer will be parliamentary election documents for the North Wiltshire constituency dating from 1906.

Conservative candidate J. R. Randolph of Eastcourt, Malmesbury, wrote he was: "Opposed to any attempt to repeal the Education Act passed by the late government." It leaflet goes on to state: "I strongly resist any Bill for the Disestablishment of the church of England or Wales."

There is also a letter from Sir John Dickson-Poynder addressed to Mr H J Morris, register number 56, informing him to vote at the National School, Sutton Benger.

The election theme is continued with autographs from every Prime Minister since 1721, including Winston Churchill.

More than 50 autographs and letters from British Prime Ministers dating from Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister in 1721 through to Tony Blair will come under the hammer.

Other examples include Robert Peel, David Lloyd George, The Duke of Wellington and Devizes’s only ever Prime Minister Henry Addington.

Viewing is possible on Friday from noon until 8pm and from 8.30am until the sale starts at 10am on Saturday.