Sussex (West)

1/ Storrington Murder/Suicide, March 1840

A woman, the wife of a sailor, had been for some time labouring while under temporary derangement. She took hold of a razor and severed the child’s head from its body. She then repeated the act on herself. When someone finally entered the building, they found the body of the infant in a box and the head was on the floor next to it. The mother still had a pulse and they tried to restore animation but she died soon after. Verdict, was not surprisingly, “Insanity”.

2/ Crawley Downs, April 1903 (M.P.’s Wife Dead in Woods)

Mrs Brand was the wife of Hon.Arthur George Brand, M.P. for North Cambridgeshire, and it was her body they found in the woods which was next to their house “Huntsland” in Crawley Downs. The husband came back in the evening and was told his wife was missing, so police were called and a search was made. Two things about her were that she had an amazing singing voice and frequently sang at Liberal party meetings. Also, she had a heart condition, and that it is believed she was walking in the woods and had a fatal coronary,

3/ East Wittering, February 1899 (Bodies Washed Up)

4/ Angel Hotel, Midhurst, (Attempted Murder/Suicide) December 1919

A Canadian soldier, Charles William Brice was staying at the Angel Hotel, when he entered the bedroom of a barmaid named Kersey, who was from Elland in West Yorkshire. He had been seeing Kersey for some time and when she ran out, he fired the gun four times, then he shot at the landlord who had gone to help her. Brice then put the gun to his chest and fired, causing his instant death. Kersey is pulling through and expected to survive.

5/ Haywards Heath (Weird Suicide) October 1876

This is a strange method to do yourself in! A railway porter at Haywards Heath wanted to kill himself so he thought the best way would be to eat a newspaper. He actually suffocated himself with the unnamed paper, and as yet the name of the poor chap has not been revealed, nor has the reason for the suicide.

6/ Crawley Gun Fatality, April 1895

7/ Bognor Regis (Suicide on Wife’s Grave) April 1905

Bognor Regis had a tragedy on its hands when local butcher, Arthur Wagstaff, whose missus died about a month ago, went down to her grave with a double-barrelled shotgun and promptly blew his brains out while at her graveside, dropping down dead. (Does anyone know which cemetery/churchyard this is?)

8/ Ifield (Former village in the neighbourhood of Crawley) April 1901

The White House at Ifield was the scene of a dreadful discovery the other day. The wife of the Reverend Loder Cother, Mrs Amy Henrietta Cother, was found hanging in her wardrobe and the suicide is thought to be down to her bout of depression recently. (Is White House still there?)

9/ Steyning (Horrific Death) May 1885

10/ Clayton Tunnel Suicide, May 1867

A shocking suicide was committed at the Clayton Tunnel on the London and North Brighton Railway. When the eight o’clock train from London to Brighton got to within a hundred yards of the tunnel, a man who was sat in a 2nd class carriage, who had got on at Three Bridges Station, flung open the door and leapt out. The other passengers tried to stop him but he managed to get out, when the next stop was reached they checked the place where it was supposed to have occurred. The body was in three bits, the head and one leg were severed off and the rest of the remains were taken to a pub in Pyecombe.

11/ Worthing, (I know it says Woking, but it has no pier!) September 1885

12/ Bognor Regis, July 1914

The coroner’s jury returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind on Edward Harrison, an actor, who was found dead in the sea with his throat cut from ear to ear. He was in an “Oh I say!” company who had only been in Bognor for a few days. Harrison was in severe financial difficulties and this was preying on his mind.

13/ Ashenground Woods Murder, Hayward’s Heath, April 1895

A man who was once an inmate at a lunatic asylum, murdered his wife in Ashenground Woods near to Hayward’s Heath, by stabbing her in the neck. The place was, in 2016, a public woods and is now called Ashenground and Bolnore Woods. The man’s name is Minaham and the scene of the crime showed that the two struggled and she put a fierce fight.

14/ Worthing, August 1889 (This was one that I couldn’t believe it had happened, a million to one chance)

15/ Chichester, April 1903

A doctor from Chichester, Dr Arthur Edward Buckell, was found dead by his own hand. He had been suffering from depression for a while and was going to London to undergo some treatment for it. He was going with his wife and son and had just got to the station when he vanished and went back to his surgery. There the 47-year-old had taken some poison. He decided he couldn’t go through with the special treatment.

16/ Arundel Suicide, July 1889

17/ Handcross near Crawley, (Fatal Bus Crash) July 1906

A Vanguard motor-bus, while travelling on the Brighton Road at Handcross near Crawley, was going downhill when the brakes failed and the bus tipped over. Six are known to have died and there are about twenty injured. Later on, the death toll rose to eight, with two more in a critical condition. It was a party of tradesmen from Orpington and they were going to Brighton and the total number of passengers was thirty-four. (Did any more die?)

18/ Hayward’s Heath Asylum, February 1885

Yseult Lucille Dudley was the English woman who tried to assassinate Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa and was acquitted as being insane. He was a main member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The U.S. authorities said she could serve her time in a British asylum. She was discharged from Broadmoor.

19/ Bognor Regis (Four Drown) June 1888

Four fatalities were the result of a tragic boating accident near Bognor Regis in Sussex. James Barnes, William Rogers, Stephen Hewitt, and John Hewitt, all left Bognor in the boat, to go to Selsey Bill, which is approximately a six-mile row away. The sea was calm when they left, but nothing was seen of them, till the boat was found on the sands and the bodies of two of them nearby. The other two bodies have not been recovered as of yet.

20/ Worthing Child Murder, July 1895

21/ High Street, Horsham (Gun Fatality) July 1870.

22/ Fatality off Littlehampton, July 30th 1870.

Monday, August 1st, 1870.

We have received two telegraphs relative to the accident. The first, from Lord Charles Hamilton, dated the 30th of July, is as follows;- ” With reference to your report in today’s paper, I wish to state that Lord Claud Hamilton had nothing to do with the very unfortunate accident which took place here with my boat on the 27th.- I remain, yours obedient, Lord Charles Hamilton, Norfolk Hotel, Littlehampton” The other telegraph is dated the 30th, is from Captain England. It is as follows;- ” Captain England, brother of the late Mrs Saunders, wishes to state that the reward offered was £50 for the recovery of the body, not £500 as stated in the Times this morning”.