Henry Carstairs is a character appearing in the episode Death of a Stranger of the ITV crime drama Midsomer Murders.
He is a relation to the Tranter family and works as a taxidermist. 30 years prior to the episode, his wealthy uncle's son Simon Tranter disappeared and never turned up again. Simon's wife was expecting a child, a boy named Grahame Tranter. When Henry's uncle died without leaving a will two years prior to the episode, his fortune went to his believed grandchild Grahame, while Henry Carstairs was the next in line. But there was speculations around Grahame's paternity. Henry Carstairs got permission from Grahame to collect dead animals in the wood belonging to the Tranter Estate. His profession earned him the nickname 'Handbag Henry'. Henry Carstairs was the one, who reported the discovery of a tramp's body to the police. While Barnaby questioned him, he relayed to him and Troy the story about Simon's disappearance and the inheritance from the old Tranter. Later it turns out that Carstairs found compromising photo of Marcia Tranter with another man (Michael Darrow, who was Grahame Tranter's biological father) and sold them to Marcia for £50.000. What happened to him afterwards is unknown, but seen as the truth of Grahame's paternity came out, proving that he had no right to the Tranter Estate, Henry Carstairs most likely inherited it, since he was the only remaining blood-relative to Simon Tranter's father.