"Oh, don't you understand? Haven't you read that idiotic rhyme? It's up in all of your bedrooms - put there for you to study!"
Vera Elizabeth Claythorne was one of ten guests invited to Soldier Island. She was the tenth to die, in the manner laid out in the poem.
Vera Claythorne was a cool, efficient, resourceful young woman who is on leave from her position as a sports mistress at a third-rate girls' school. Her job as a governess was ended by the death of her charge, Cyril Hamilton. Claythorne let the boy drown so his uncle Hugo Hamilton could inherit the family estate and marry her. Hugo rejected her when he somehow realized what she had done.
Charge
"Vera Elizabeth Claythorne, that on the 11th day of August, 1935, you killed Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton."
Her last job was working as a governess to Cyril Ogilvie Hamilton, the young heir to a wealthy family. While working there, she fell in love with Cyril's uncle Hugo Hamilton. Hugo was unable to marry her however, since he was bankrupt, and Cyril was next in line to inherit the family fortune. This led Vera to grow to hate the boy. When he begged her to allow him to swim out to a dangerous rock at sea, she allowed him to go, hoping that Hugo, could inherit his money and marry her. She swam after him when he swam out, whether out of last minute guilt or to exonerate her in the law's eyes is uncertain. Cyril drowned, and Vera was cleared of any involvement in his death. However, the plan backfired when Hugo, looking at her, realized what she had really done and why she'd done it.
Another thing Vera had failed to recognise was how Hugo didn't care for his future as much as he cared for Cyril. Since he loved his nephew he was unable to forgive her, and abandoned him. - Wilkerson Augustin
Death
"He went and hanged himself and then there were None."
Vera dies of asphyxiation, caused by hanging herself.