Henry Mitchell

In the novel Death in the Clouds, Henry Charles Mitchell is the senior of two stewards on board the Prometheus during the flight when Madame Giselle was murdered. As Mitchell testified at the inquest, He was the likely the last person to see her alive as he had served her lunch, and she was fine when he served her coffee. When bringing round the bills for the passengers, he thought that Madame Giselle was asleep and decided to leave her be. About five minutes before landing however, he decided to wake her and then discovered that she was dead.

He lives at 11 Shoeblack Lane, Wandsworth, and is married to Mrs Ruth Mitchell.

Henry remembered Madame Giselle flying to and from England quite frequently. He also remembered that she was a good tipper.

After the death of Madame Giselle, he is afraid that he will lose his job. The company absolves him from blame, but he feels somehow responsible, because as the senior of the two stewards, he was in charge during the flight. He feels that he should have noticed that she was dead earlier, if he had tried to wake her up the first time he took round the bills. However, Poirot assures him that nothing that happened was his fault, and that noticing that she was dead earlier would have made little difference, because death was nearly instantaneous.

Portrayals
In the the film adaptation of Death in the Clouds in Series 4 of ITV's Agatha Christie's Poirot drama series, the part of Mitchell was played by John Bleasdale. Here, he was also the one who told Poirot that Madame Giselle's tea cup had two teaspoons. In the book, this clue was noted by the second steward Albert Davis, who does not appear in the show.