Hammersmith & Fulham

1/ Fulham Parish Church Suicide, September 1887

At Fulham Parish Church the body of a young man, who was some time ago the organ blower of the church, was found hanging in the organ loft. A post-mortem revealed that he had been hanging for several days at least. It turned out to be a man by the name of Chasemore and he was destitute. “Suicide while of unsound mind” was the verdict of the jury.

2/ Lillie Road Fatal Fire, Fulham, March 19th 1892

A disastrous fire occurred at a butcher’s shop at West Brompton, which was occupied by John Weston. Mrs Weston, her two children and the cashier named Amy Glover, were all burned to death. Another woman is so severely burned that she is not expected to recover.

Lillie Road, Fulham, March 26th, 1892 (See above)

3/ Hammersmith Suicides, June 1834

Two young women in their early twenties, named Sarah Webb and Emma Leslie, who were a cook and housemaid respectively, at a gentleman’s house at Brook Green, both killed themselves by drowning in the River Thames near the suspension bridge. At midnight one night James Sawyer, a boat builder heard a female voice screaming “Murder” then “Oh Lord”, and then the sound of water splashing. He went down to the riverbank to see if he could help in any way and found two bonnets and two handkerchiefs on the causeway called Miss Christie’s Steps. He told police what had happened and they dragged the river, and soon recovered the bodies of the two women. They were bound together by the wrists and they were both dressed up to the nines, had their hair done and each had a fresh rose pinned to their lapel. A local milkman recognised the two of them and the scream of “Murder” was probably by one of them who had suddenly had a change of heart.

4/ South Fulham Police Station, August 1892

5/ Hammersmith/Putney, (Boating Accident) June 1895

6/ Fulham, October 1886 (Mother Drowns her Four Children)

Rumours were rife around Hammersmith and Fulham that 35-year-old Frances Leader had drowned her four children in the Thames at Fulham. Frances is the wife of a butcher and residing in Denmark Road, Camberwell, and there was an argument at that address and she walked out on her husband and took their five children, ranging in age from a baby to a 9-year-old, and got on a boat to Chelsea. From here she went down to the riverbank near Broynhouse Lane then calmly walked into the Thames with the baby in her arms, saying,”we all have to die”. All the kids except the seven-year-old boy followed her into the water. When he told the on-lookers what had happened they didn’t believe him. Police dragged the area for the bodies and Harry aged nine the eldest, was found the next morning, with three-year-old Frank the day after that near Putney Bridge and Charlie being found on Sunday. The argument was about the husband going to the ale-house and when he came back the kids were dressed and ready to leave. He begged Frances not to go and took the kids upstairs, but they cried for their mother so he let them out. Then she gathered them together and made the deadly journey to Fulham. Frances Leader’s body was discovered ten days later in the Thames off Mortlake. The husband came down and identified the corpse as that of his wife. The body was dragged in by the foreman of the Mortlake Brewery, who was unloading a barge at the time.

7/ Hammersmith Dock, (Attempted Murder) January 1885

8/ Hammersmith Dock, August 1885

9/ No.10, Rylston Road, Fulham, (Uxoricide) August 1885

10/ No.10, Rylston Road, (Fulham Wife Murder) September 1885

11/ No.10, Rylston Road, Fulham, October 5th, 1885

On Saturday, Mr John Haynes, solicitor, received the following letter:

“Whitehall, 2nd October-Sir-With reference to your letter of the 30th ult., forwarding a petition on behalf of Henry Norman, now under sentence of death in Newgate Prison. I am directed by the Secretary of State to acquaint you that after careful consideration of all the facts of the case, he regrets that he has been unable to find any sufficient grounds to justify him in advising interference with the due course of the law. I am your obedient servant, Godfrey Lushington”. Norman, who is under sentence for stabbing his wife in the heart, will, therefore, be executed this morning.

12/ No.10, Rylston Road, Fulham, (Uxoricide) October 6th, 1885

13/ Fulham Fields, (Policeman Assaults Another Policeman) August 1870. Cemetery mentioned is Margravine Cemetery

14/ Fulham Gasworks Fatality, August 1870 (The Old Gasworks, 87 Waterford Rd, SW6 2ET)

15/ Hammersmith Infanticide, December 1870 (Blythe Lane)

16/ Shepherd’s Bush Station Fatality, October 1902

17/ Attempted Suicide at Iffley Road, Hammersmith. October 1903.

18/ Child’s Death, Fulham. December 1903. (Was it the doctor’s fault?)

19/ Prostitution in Shepherd’s Bush, October 1906. (White Slave Traffic or pimping as it would be referred to now)

20/ Strange Prisoner Death at Wormwood Scrubs. October 1906

21/ Suicide in the Presence of his Girlfriend, Willow Vale, Shepherd’s Bush. June 1907 (Suicide of Alfred Greenfield, a youth of Adelaide Road, Uxbridge Road, in the presence of his sweetheart, in Willow Vale, Shepherd’s Bush)

22/ Child Burned to Death, Hammersmith. October 1880

An inquest was held at the West London Hospital, on the body of Emma Alice Terry, aged six years, who died from burns. /it appeared that the deceased was the daughter of a porter living in Alma Terrace, Hammersmith. On Friday Evening, the 22nd inst., the mother left her playing in the bedroom with another child. The mother heard a scream and rushed upstairs when she found the deceased in flames. She was removed to the hospital, where she died the following Monday. A benzoline lamp was found upon a chair, and it is supposed the deceased’s clothes caught fire while she was removing it from the mantelpiece where it had been left burning. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death”.

23/ Death in Wormwood Scrubs Prison. October 1880

Yesterday an inquest was held before Dr Diplock, at Wormwood Scrubs Prison, on the body of Edward Slow, aged twenty-nine, a convict, who was undergoing a term of ten years imprisonment for felony. William Sykes, also a convict, said on Monday afternoon he was at work at the top of the scaffold and assisted the deceased push a trolly, which he was wheeling. The scaffolding suddenly gave way, when the deceased fell a distance 40 feet and was killed. The witness and another convict saved themselves by clinging to a rope. The trolly carried a stone weighing two and a half hundredweight. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidental death”, and added that greater caution should be used in carrying heavy weights over the scaffolding.