1/ Henham Park,  September 1844 (Two Gamekeepers Suicides)

This is a bizarre tale of two game-keepers who worked for one Earl, who killed themselves within a day of each other. Reports suggest that it was due “to their anxiety and dread of meeting their master, who was coming back from a trip to Ireland. Suicide or a telling off? He must have been a real iron-fisted dictator! Another suggestion was their love of their job and the game they preserved. Another of the Earl of Stradbroke’s gamekeepers has been restrained due to the recent occurrences.

2/ Foxhall Heath near Ipswich, April 1898 (Hanging Skeleton in Woods)

A boy was in a fir plantation on Foxhall Heath, when he came across the remains of a man hanging in a tree. It was clothed and facing the other way and the boy asked him to come down. The lad told a gamekeeper and he left it till the following morning. What presented itself was like something from a horror film. The skin was shrivelled and the clothes hung off him and it had been ravaged by various woodland creatures. Investigations came to the conclusion that it was the corpse of a man named Rose, a gardener from Woodbridge, who’d gone out a couple of years ago and simply vanished. It was positively identified by his son who recognized the trousers he was wearing.

3/ Suffolk General Hospital Suicide, Bury St.Edmunds, February 1872

The matron of Suffolk General Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, Miss Musgrove, committed suicide by throwing herself out of a window. She had already handed her notice in, but if you’re going to kill yourself, why bother? (Was it at the hospital?)

4/ Sudbury Suicide, April 1910

Mr Langdon J.P., the Mayor of Sudbury, was discovered in an out-house on his property with part of his head blown off. He asked a workman to take two guns to be cleaned, Langdon took another two, then sent the workman for a duster, during this absence a loud report was heard, so he rushed to the outbuilding and found him lying there with his head disfigured.

5/ Ipswich Barracks Murder, April 1895

 

6/ Oulton Broad near Lowestoft, February 1901

7/ Wortham Murder, near Eye, July 1899

A diabolical murder was committed in the village of Wortham, near Eye. James Dickson’s wife, Eliza went to the beer-shop(off-licence?) and was brutally slain. She was found on the common with her throat slashed and more cuts to her neck and face. A young man has been arrested and charged with murder. (Who was he?)

8/ Hundon (Octogenarian Suicide) February 1888

The Hundon postmistress, Mrs Hannah Potter, an 80-year-old widow, committed suicide by hanging herself. Apparently, she had near perfect sight and hearing but recently her memory had started to fail her. Could this be Alzheimer’s? One Sunday she went to church as usual, then called at a friend’s for tea, but the next day she complained of losing her purse with £2 in it. She took care of the incoming mail and sent out the outgoing one, then went upstairs, tied a handkerchief round her neck, and hooked it to a nail and hanged herself.

9/ Falkenham Double Suicide, January 1918

On returning home to Falkenham near Felixstowe, John Barham found his wife hanging from the bannister. She was dead. Later on, he was discovered at the bottom of a well. Their son was killed in action in France recently and this is what was thought to set the snowball effect into motion.

10/ Eye, (Fatal Shooting) June 1899

11/ Downham Hall (Dead Body Discovered) October 1841

The gamekeeper for Lord William Powlett of Downham Hall, Riches Dawson, went missing from home and was found four days later hanging by one leg, head down, from a notch in a fir tree about twelve feet from the ground. It is likely that he was at work and he climbed a tree one night to see how many birds were present, then got his foot tangled in the tree, passed out and consequently died. His hat and pitchfork were under the tree. The pitchfork was used to shake up the buckwheat for the pheasants.

12/ Wingfield near Harleston, December 1899

Two deaths have occurred at Wingfield near Harleston, one Lucy Gardiner, aged seventy-seven. The other, a child named Lily Collyer. The old lady and the child lived in a cottage which had no fire guard protecting the fire. It is supposed that Gardiner had a stroke and fell, causing flames to engulf them both. Dr Kirby said that the child was virtually roasted alive. It was judged to be an accidental death.

13/ Newmarket (Fly Poison)  September 1870

A singular fatality has occurred at Newmarket. A woman named Cooper, housekeeper to Mr.W.Boyce was sitting near a table on which were some poisoned papers for the purpose of killing flies. A fly was seen to go into one of these papers and then to alight on the woman’s nose, which was slightly scratched. The wound speedily became inflamed and in a short time, her whole system became affected. Within 24 hours the poor woman was dead.

14/ Bentley Station/Ipswich, (A Mother’s Suicide) September 1885

15/ Trimley near Felixstowe, January 1910 (Three deaths in one family)

Mrs Rouse, the wife of a villager, died suddenly around Christmas and then on the following Saturday, one of her kids passed away, then on Monday, another died. The father passed out in the street and was taken to Ipswich Hospital, where his condition is described as precarious. It is thought that they all got some kind of food poisoning over the festive period.

16/ Gislingham near Botesdale, August 1835 (Twenty-three poisoned)

Twenty-three people in the village of Gislingham have suffered the effects of arsenic poisoning, which had been mixed with flour, which was then turned into bread. Inquests have been held on those who ate the bread from time to time and have died. Who mixed the arsenic into the flour is unknown, but suspicion is fixed to one person in particular. (Who was that?)

17/ Friars Street Congregational Chapel Suicide, Sudbury, February 1883

71-year-old William Foakes was the keeper of the chapel at Friars Street in Sudbury. Just as the congregation were assembling one Sunday, Foakes was discovered hanging to a beam under the gallery. He had just had a charge of impropriety brought against him by a woman who is regarded as somewhat simple. The trustees were investigating and the pressure got too much for Foakes.(Is the chapel still there?)

18/ Lowestoft Wife Murder, December 28th, 1885

19/ Lowestoft Wife Murder, December 31st, 1885

20/ Ipswich Gaol Suicide, February 1894

The warder in charge of Ipswich Gaol, Mr Groves, was doing his rounds on Monday morning when he got to the cell of George Woods. When the door was opened he flew out and went to the third landing. Groves ran after him but Woods reached the landing first and threw himself over, falling twenty-five feet. The prisoner was instantly killed, with this being the second suicide in Ipswich Gaol in a month. He wasn’t on suicide watch and he was only in for breaking into a shop.

21/ Great Cornard (Suicide Letter) April 1889

John Shave, a twenty-one-year-old, killed himself by drowning in the River Stour. He had been seeing a young lass named Hetty Bruce and they had been engaged for eighteen months or so and never had an argument. His back used to play him up and when he lifted some iron up about a year ago it gave way and he used to get painful spasms as a result. He left a letter, it read:

“My Darling- When you read this letter I shall be in another land far away. I have not the conscience to meet you again on earth, so I have done away with myself; but my own dear girl, I do not want you to fret at all about me, for I am not worth it. I am exceedingly so to think I hurt your feelings last night; the Lord knows. You asked me to forgive you, but it was me that wanted forgiveness, but I was ashamed to ask you. What few things you have of mine, keep, and say nothing about them. The little money you have of mine spend on yourself. I beg you not to let this trouble you, for I do not know what to do with myself and this is what I have chosen. Love to mother. I cannot ask you to accept my love, for I am not worthy of it. My darling, I wish you goodbye and God bless you. P.S.-If you want to find me, I shall be down by Lady’s Bridge”.

Miss Bruce didn’t know what he meant by “Hurting her feelings”, but he said that the landlord’s daughter of where he lodged had irritated him, but she wasn’t jealous of her. A portrait of Miss Bruce was found on him and when Miss Bruce was shown his body at the inquest at the inn, she grabbed hold of the body, hugged him and kissed him passionately.

22/ Barsham Murder (Not Barham)  August 1870

 

23/ Lowestoft Drowning,  July 1870

 

24/ Clergyman Drowns at Lowestoft,  September 1870. (23 Wellington Esplanade, is on the corner of Claremont Road, opposite Claremont Pier)

 

25/ Claydon Railway Fatality, August 1870.

26/ Offton Hunting Fatality,  November 12th 1870

Yesterday the Essex and Suffolk Hunt met at Offton near Ipswich. Among the field was James Spall, the landlord of the Bell Inn, Ipswich. About 2 o’clock the hounds having drawn several covers blank, several members in the hunt were standing still, when Spall said he was cold and must be moving. He put his foot to his horse to start when it gave a sudden plunge and fell, rolling over its rider, and in trying to rise it fell twice upon Mr Spall, who was killed instantaneously.

November 16th, 1870. (The Inquest)

27/  Ipswich Woman Fatally Shot,  October 11th, 1870

October 13th, 1870. (The Inquest and Verdict)

28/ Suicide from a Steamer, Southwold.   February 1866

The master of the steam trader Rainbow, which plies between London and Great Yarmouth, reported on his arrival at the latter port on Sunday that at about 5 a.m. a gentleman who had taken a passage from the London-wharf had been missed at Southwold, Suffolk. It is believed the passenger committed suicide. /he was about seventy years of age, wore a beard, and was about 5 feet 10 inches in height. He wore a light skull cap, dark coat, and light trousers, and he left on board the steamer a hat and great coat, the latter containing a purse with five shillings in it and various other articles, which are now in the presence of Yarmouth police.

29/ Fatal Fire at Cavendish,  May 1866 (Two killed)

30/ A Sad End to an Ipswich Beggar, April 1866

31/ Ship Wrecked off Lowestoft,  December 1866 (Nine Men Drowned)

32/ Shooting near Bungay (South Elmham)   January 1867

33/ Helmingham Human Remains/Skeletons  (In 1900 the Rectory garden was excavated and twenty-five graves were unearthed)

34/ Peasenhall Murder Confession,  August 1904.

35/ Jockey Killed at Newmarket,   October 1906

36/ Fishing Boat Sinks Off Lowestoft (Loss of Eight Lives)  October 1906

37/  Wife Murder at Beccles.   16th November 1880. (Women have twelve pairs of ribs, of those eighteen, were broken)

1/ Cheadle Murder, (Mysterious Affair) June 1870   (Also see No.51)

2/ Kinver Church, October 1867 (Infants Corpse Found)

Some charcoal-burners were drawing water from an old pit-shaft when they found a piece of a woman’s sleeve in their pail of water. They sent down another bucket and examined the contents of a guano-bag they brought up, to their horror they found the tiny decayed remains of an infant. The child had on a night-gown and a brick was attached to the bag. The coroner said that the child had been in the water for eighteen months or so and it was so decomposed that cause of death was impossible. He also demanded that the pit was drained. It was and a second child was found, the skeletal remains anyway. This second had been there a lot longer than the first. Further digging around produced a third body, deeper than the other two. The remnants had no flesh and were of a six-year-old boy. The legs had been tied together and there is no doubt he was brutally murdered. (Are they buried in the churchyard? Who were they? Captured murderer?)

3/ Silverdale Poisonings, September 1906

4/ Newcastle-under -Lyne Cemetery Suicide, July 1908

The corpse of a forty-year-old man was discovered in Newcastle (Staffs) Cemetery with a bullet wound in his mouth and a revolver by his side. He was later Identified as a solicitor’s clerk by the name of Herbert.E.Edge. (Buried there?)

5/ Stafford County Asylum, June 1860 (Murder?)

A night-worker at the Stafford County Asylum named Mary Robins heard a scream in a chamber that two inmates were occupying, so she opened the door and saw Anna Hall beating up eighty-year-old Susannah Rhodes and demanding to know why she didn’t give her any brandy. Staff managed to pull her off and lock her in another room. Medical attention was needed for Rhodes, but despite best efforts, she died that night of her injuries. A post-mortem revealed that she had eight cracked ribs and cuts and bruises. Rhodes had been an inmate of the asylum for forty years and had been there since it was built in 1820. Hall had been there four months and was suffering from a mental condition known as “mania after childbirth”-would that be post-natal depression now.

6/ Coton Hill Asylum Suicide, Stafford, August 1863 (See No.17)

John Alcock an inmate of Coton Hill Asylum, Stafford, died the previous evening when he was walking down the stairs with an attendant when he bolted off and headed for the roof via an open window. Another member of staff saw him and tried to catch him before anything untoward happened, but Alcock fell from the building. He lingered a couple of hours but died later on. The jury recommended that the windows have fasteners fitted to them in future.

7/ Stafford County Asylum Suicide, August 1864

An attendant at the Stafford County Lunatic Asylum named Challinor committed suicide by leaping off the roof of one of the buildings. He died instantly and was horribly mangled, falling a distance of seventy feet.

8/ Armitage Train Crash, March 22nd, 1899

Armitage Train Crash, April 14th, 1899

An inquest was held at Lichfield yesterday on the body of William Wolfe, fireman, who was killed in a collision on the London and North-Western Railway at Armitage near Lichfield. Owing to a flaw a drawbar on a goods train gave way and thirty-five waggons which became detached were dashed into by another goods train, of which Wolfe was the fireman. A verdict of accidental death was returned.

9/ Oldhill Double Suicide, May 1892

Harry Pugh and Ann Gill were lovers and both decide in a suicide pact, by drowning in the Pig Lane Pool at Oldhill. They both entered the water and Ann was drowned, but Pugh survived and got out. He was arrested (You could be tried for murder if a double suicide took place, and one survived it) and admitted to police that they had struggled and that he held her under till she drowned. Her body was recovered the next day.

10/ Wallgrange and Endon, January 1899 (Railway Fatality)

On Monday night, William Bentley of Birches Head, Hanley, was walking along the line between Wallgrange and Endon on the North Staffordshire Railway when he was struck in the back by a goods train and killed. It is supposed that the wind prevented his hearing the train.

11/ Perry Bar Child Murder, March 1899

12/ Burntwood near Lichfield, May 1852 (Vicars Fatal Accident)

An accident occurred at Burntwood which resulted in the death of the Reverend R.Errington. His garden had become overrun with sparrows and he went up a ladder to get some of the nests and destroy them. He climbed one pear tree next to the house (Vicarage?) when a branch snapped and he fell twenty feet to the ground and landed on his head. His wife had just come out to warn him to be careful up there. He was killed outright.

13/ Stone Hunting Fatality, December 1885

The death has been reported as having occurred at Stone in Staffordshire last Saturday, in consequence of an accident in the hunting field of Captain Richard Tylden, Royal Artillery, who for nearly two years had been attached as adjutant to the Shropshire and Staffordshire Artillery Volunteers. Captain Tylden was in his twenty-eighth year.

14/ Longton Station Fatal Accident, September 1885

A fatal accident occurred near Longton Station on Tuesday night. William Lockett aged seventeen years was crossing the line about eight o’clock when a passenger train from Derby to Stoke came up at full speed and ran over him, killing him on the spot.

15/ Woodhouse Wife Murder, near Lichfield, March 1st, 1899

 

16/ Woodhouse Wife Murder, near Lichfield, March 2nd, 1899

 

17/ Coton Hill Asylum Suicide, February 1878 (See No.6)

An inquest was held on the death of a patient of the Coton Hill Private Asylum, Staffordshire. Mr Fielding Nevins, a gentleman from Shrewsbury, was suffering from religious mania and he was left unattended for a few minutes one day when he jumped through a window and fell thirty feet. He then got up, got a shard of glass and slit his throat from ear to ear. He died as a result of the separation of the jugular vein.

18/ Burton-on-Trent Suicide, May 1861

A man committed suicide in a strange way near Burton-on-Trent. He was involved as a complainant in a police case and he was found dead in a ditch with a pen-holder jammed into his throat. A pair of glasses were held in his hand and his chest was badly bruised. Police discovered a letter addressed to his wife and brother saying that because of some unpleasantness at work, he decided to end it all and could they pray for him and forgive him.

19/ Stafford Gaol Execution, August 1885

Thomas Boulton was executed in Stafford Gaol yesterday morning for the murder of Elizabeth Bunting, his niece who was fifteen years of age at Handsworth near Birmingham, in April last. The condemned man walked firmly to the scaffold and appeared to die almost immediately. Berry was the executioner.

20/ Burton-on-Trent Boating Death, July 1889

21/ Cobridge near Hanley, March 1885

On Saturday evening a child two years of age, son of a potter named Smith, was playing in the road at Cobridge near Hanley when it ran in front of a tram engine, which passed over it causing injuries of such a shocking character that the child died almost immediately afterwards.

22/ Sandford Hill Child Murder, near Longford, January 1900

A dreadful case of a mother murdering her child occurred at Sandford Hill near Longford. Lydia Bates, a colliers wife, had been put in an asylum on several occasions and had been behaving strangely recently. She hit her eight-year-old son on the head, killing him, then washed the body ready for his burial. When arrested, she told police she was going to kill her two daughter’s as well and then commit suicide as the Lord himself had told her to it.

23/ Potteries Suicides, April 1899

24/ Bradley Factory Deaths, June 1899 (Twenty Tons of Metal on Three Men)

Yesterday afternoon a shocking accident occurred at a galvanizing works at Bradley, Staffordshire. By some unaccountable means, about twenty tons of galvanized sheets fell on three men, killing one immediately and maiming the other two for life. The man killed was Arthur Horton aged twenty-two, a galvanized sheet inspector.

25/ Etruria Station Suicide, June 1899

Last evening as the 5-30 express from Stoke-on-Trent to Manchester was passing through Etruria Station, a man of middle age, who had been standing on the platform, threw himself in front of the approaching engine. When the train had passed he was found to be fearfully mangled, death having been instantaneous. The man who was fairly well dressed was last night still unidentified.(Who was he?)

26/ Cavendish Bridge Brewery Fatality, near Burton-on-Trent, April 1851

A fatal accident occurred at the Cavendish Bridge Brewery, when John Sheffield an employee at the brewery, fell into a vat filled with port. He was quickly dragged out, but the sixty-year-old was dead. The owner of the brewery emptied the contents of the vat into the Trent and was about 2880 gallons, worth about £200. (What a way to go though!)

27/ Chell Colliery Explosion, Hanley, August 1889

28/ Rowley Hall Colliery Fatality, May 1899

An inquest was held concerning the death of William Ashman, who lost his life at Rowley Hall Colliery and it was also shown that four miners showed incredible heroism. Ashman had been knocked down by a fall from the roof. For three hours the miners, amidst the repeated showers of slack, attempted to rescue the poor fellow and four times they got him to the surface alive but were knocked down. The miners were commended for their gallantry. The verdict was “Accidentally Suffocated”.

29/ Hanley, August 1905 (Suicide Note)

The search for Annie Tunnicliffe of Hanley, who vanished on Monday, when she was meant to have been wed, has resulted in a strange letter being found in Annie’s bedroom.

“Goodbye to all. I am better off the earth than I am on it. Mother and Father, don’t worry after me. You will know the ending of me. There is none of my sister’s that give me a good name, but hoping that they will all follow me to the cemetery. Don’t worry after me. Give my best love to Sam (her lover), and especially tell him “Not married on earth, but married in Heaven”.

Police have searched the area and dragged the canals, but to no avail. (Was she ever found?)

30/ Burslem, (Eccentric Woman) May 1899

31/ Burslem Murder, April 21st, 1885

At Burslem on Sunday, the dead body of a young woman named Clara Jessie Vernon aged eighteen of Stanley Street, Burslem, was found lying in a ditch close to the canal at Middleport. She was seen on Saturday night with a potter name Henry Ford with whom she had been keeping company and who is now in custody, on suspicion of causing her death. The deceased, it is said, was intoxicated when last seen on Saturday night.

32/ Burslem Murder, April 23rd, 1885  (Inquests Verdict)

At the inquest held yesterday on the body of the young woman Vernon, who was found dead in a ditch near Burslem on Sunday morning and whose sweetheart, a young man named Ford was arrested on suspicion of causing her death. The medical evidence pointed to death having been caused by suffocation, brought on by an epileptic fit, which might have resulted from excessive drinking. A verdict was given accordingly and Ford as released.

33/ Stoke-on-Trent Railway Collision, January 1885

34/ Stoke-on-Trent Railway Collision, February 1885

35/ Stoke-on-Trent Inquest, April 16th, 1885

The adjourned inquest on the body of John Roberts of Manchester, driver of the express which came into collision at Sideway siding near Stoke-on-Trent in January last, was held at Stoke yesterday. The jury, in returning a verdict of accidental death also found the blame attached to the signalman, Key, for signalling the line clear, when the goods train was upon it and that deceased contributed to his death by passing the danger signals.

36/ Weston-on-Trent near Stafford, July 1910 (Suicides Hallucinations)

An unknown man thought to be from Manchester and whose body was pulled from the canal at Weston-on-Trent near Stafford, left the following letter in his pocket. It read :

My Dear Marjory- I think I have been mad since I left Manchester in the way I did. Why I did so I cannot say to this day. I should have faced the music, but I was always a moral coward, and even now I am the greatest coward of all. But I cannot do else, as I am reduced to my last farthing, and last night I slept out in the fields. On Saturday night, about 11 o’clock, I am certain I was mad, because as I walked along all the hedges seemed to become ghosts of people gone before,who seemed to be trying to pull me down to them, and early this morning as I walked along the high road, ghosts of people would appear and in some cases were so vivid that I said “Good morning”. They dissolved into space, and my blood ran cold. What have I been, whoever I have been, God knows I have suffered this last week; in fact, I have lived a little hell.

Dear Marjory, Try to forgive, because, how I have behaved, I have always loved you dearly, and now God bless you, my dear sister, and may He pour down upon you the sweetness of His blessing. Goodbye dearest, forgive all this trouble I have brought upon you-Your loving brother, Horace.”

The inquest evidence said that he put bricks and rubble in his pockets to weigh him down and when found, it had been in the water about five or six days and the body was standing up in the canal.

37/ Malkin Tile Co., Longton,  June 1899 (Lead Poisoning. See No.46)

38/ Stoke Racecourse Fatal Tragedy, August 1854

At the races at Stoke in Staffordshire, just as it was about to begin a crowd of people rushed toward the booths and stands and then it collapsed with a frightful crash. A stand fell upon the crowd below and a great panic started, with folks desperately trying to get out from under the debris. Thomas Windsor was dragged out, but sadly he was already dead. Then out came Mary Ann Fannerly, a married woman who was separated from her husband. Her chest cavity was caved in and brain protruded from her nostrils. Nearby was her paramour, Thomas Burns, who died later from severe injuries. The chap, Windsor, left behind a wife and five kids and the other two also left children.

39/ Longton Fatal Fight, February 1892

40/ Stoke-on-Trent Bridge Suicide, May 1885

41/ Burslem, May 1882 (St Paul’s Churchyard Suicide)

An amazing ceremony took place at Burslem, performed by the Bishop of Lichfield. A couple of months ago a young man named Blaze, killed himself by hanging over his wife’s grave. The burial ground was then deemed to have been polluted and the ground had to be reconsecrated. The Bishop said of the suicide- “We may well believe that such an act could not be done except under the influence of a disordered train (of thought), but we must always remember that in too many instances, it is the conduct in former years that produces disorder. Apart from all other evils and from the many which may bring about such a state of things, there is one above all others, which I am sure must suggest itself, because we see so continually its evil effects- I mean that awful habit of intemperance which is ruining the bodies and soul of thousands around us.”

42/ Hanley Manslaughter, February 1899 (Sorry about the corner, the paper was weak and collapsed!)

43/ Whittington Barracks Suicide, Lichfield, July 1904

No 1400 Sergeant Frank Charles of the 4th South Staffs Militia, went to the Sergeants mess of the 1st North Staffs Regiment at eight a.m. It just outside the barracks and going through the kitchen he saw a rifle and turned back to examine it. Then a gunshot was heard and a man found him with terrible facial wounds. Charles had put the gun under his chin, then pulled the trigger. He was taken to the hospital and he lived on for a couple of hours, then passed away. Deceased was married and when they informed his wife of what had happened, then a distressing scene followed. Since returning from South Africa, Sergeant Charles had been an orderly room clerk, then was returned to regimental duty and the duties of the orderly room went to another non-commissioned officer. This annoyed him, to say the least, he thought suicide was the best answer, rather than return to regimental duty.

44/ Winshill Murder near Burton-on-Trent, June 1879

45/ County Prison Warder Suicide, Stafford, December 1866

One of the warders, called turnkeys in those days, by the name of Thomas Parker, killed himself while at the prison by hanging himself from the ceiling of the store-room. He had worked at the prison for twenty years and had accrued some property and managed to save a few quid as well, but for quite a while he had been suffering from depression. A letter that was written before his death mentions the fellow turnkey who had been put inside for two months for supplying tobacco to the prisoners. The general consensus was that he was somehow involved as well and although he wasn’t, this weighed heavily on his mind. A verdict of “Temporary Insanity.”

46/ Longton, January 1899 (Lead Poisoning & Starvation, See No.37)

47/ Apedale Colliery near Newcastle-under-Lyme, June 1885 (Nine Deaths)

 

48/ Tutbury, November 1899 (Eaten by Pet Mice)

Seventy-one-year-old Palmea Porter lived alone in Tutbury and was in receipt of parish relief. The one thing that kept her going was her pet mice, but this would come back to haunt the woman. A neighbour of Palmea’s hadn’t seen her for a while and was concerned, so he asked the police to intervene and enter her property. Sergeant Walker got into the house and saw her in an armchair, with portions of her face and head eaten away by her beloved rodents and the body was badly decomposed. The mice had made nests in the furniture, while poor Palmea lay there, dead. She died of natural causes though.

49/ Great Fenton Colliery Explosion, April 9th, 1885

 

Great Fenton Colliery, April 18th, 1885

John Bithell of Hanford, the fireman who was injured by the explosion at the Great Fenton Colliery on the 8th inst. and had since been lying at the North Staffordshire Infirmary, has succumbed to his injuries. This makes the seventh death in connection with the explosion.

50/ Hednesford, (Lion-Tamer Killed), March 1892

 

51/ Dilhorne Murder Confession,  July 1870 (See also No.1)

 

52/ North Staffs Coal & Iron Company, Talke, (Four Men Suffocate to Death)    July 1870

 

53/ Wyrley Cannock Colliery Murder,  September 19th 1870

September 20th,1870.

After the despatch of our parcel on Saturday evening, Mr John Farnall, superintendent engineer of the Wyrley Cannock Collieries Company, succumbed to the injuries inflicted with a pistol by James Allsopp, a young engine-tenter under him. The deputy coroner for South Staffordshire, Mr W.H.Phillips, opened the inquest last night. The prisoner Allsopp will be taken before the magistrates today, at Penkridge, near to Wolverhampton.

54/ Chatterley Iron Co., near Tunstall   (Fatal Boiler Explosion)   September 1870

 

55/ Silverdale Colliery Explosion,  July 9th 1870

July 15th 1870   Coroner’s Inquiry.

The coroner’s inquiry as to the death of the nineteen men who were killed by the explosion of gas in Messrs.Stamer and Co’s. colliery, Silverdale, on the 7th of July, was resumed yesterday. At the close of the evidence, the Coroner summed up, and the jury, after consulting for half an hour, found that the deceased were killed by an explosion of gas, but how that occurred there was no evidence to show. They considered, however, the return air-way was too small for the extent of the workings and recommended that it should be enlarged.

56/ Lawn Colliery Fatality (Death by Suffocation)  December 1870

57/  Fatal Explosion at Hanley (Boothen Colliery)  December 1870

58/ Cannock Colliery Manslaughter,    December 1870

59/ Hunting Fatality near Burton-on-Trent.  December 1902

60/  Man Falls into Hanley Sinkhole, Stoke-on-Trent.  December 14th,1903

December 15th, 1903. Hanley Pit-Shaft Tragedy

61/ Murder in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent.   March 14th, 1904

Wednesday, March 30th, 1904.  (Execution of Henry Jones)

Henry Jones, aged fifty, and a collier, was hanged at Stafford yesterday morning for the murder of Mary Elizabeth Gilbert, at Hanley, on January 29th. Jones made no attempt to deny his guilt. Being a Methodist, he was offered the services of a Nonconformist minister, but he expressed himself satisfied with the ministrations of the prison chaplain. It is understood that Jones unsuccessfully appealed to the Home Secretary for a reprieve.

62/ Bell-ringer Crushed to Death, Stoke-on-Trent Parish Church.  January 1905

63/  Rioting in Horninglow, Burton-on-Trent.  May 1907  (Vicar’s Effigy Burned)

64/  Mother’s Murder/Suicide, Four Ashes.   June 1907

65/  Young Lad Murders His Girlfriend, Great Haywood.  December 1880.

1/ Brockwell Park, Dulwich, August 1885 (Child’s Body in Pond)

Two lads were fishing in the pond at Brockwell Park when they decided to move to another part due to not catching any fish. On doing so Frank Warner Allen and Edward Turner Lloyd spotted the tiny corpse of a male child. It was on a piece of calico and nearby were a copy of the “Daily News” and some brown paper. They found P.C. George Cooke 494 W Division, and told him of their find. The body was fished out and taken to the local police station. The child was a healthy eight-pounder, but had bite marks on its neck, probably from a dog. It was thirty yards from the main road so therefore nobody could have slung the little bairn over the fence. The verdict “Found Dead”.

2/ Kennington Park/Camberwell? May 1877 (Across the road from The Oval Cricket Ground, near Oval Station)

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3/ Selborne Road Suicide, Camberwell, (Religious Mania) November 1890

Elizabeth Horne aged sixty-seven, residing in Selborne Road, Camberwell was described by her husband, William, as having suffered from religious mania. The daughter, Sarah, said that her father went out and left her mother doing the washing, then she left the kitchen. After a few minutes, she went upstairs to get her mother and found her suspended by a strap from a hat peg. An overturned chair was next to her feet. She was cut down, but unfortunately, she had already expired.

4/ Southwark Workhouse Suicide, May 1870

A man named Driscoll was discovered in a workhouse in Southwark, lying on a bed, with his stomach slashed open. Driscoll had thrust the knife into his stomach then dragged it across to the other side, leaving a gaping wound and entrails and intestines visible. They tried to save him but the injuries were too severe and he passed away shortly after.

5/ Rotherhithe Dock, (Ancient Body in Cargo) January 1878

The body of a female was discovered on board the vessel, Irvine, which is in dry dock at Rotherhithe. This isn’t as sinister as you first think! She was found in the cargo hold, in which had been tons of soda. She is in a state of excellent preservation and its thought that centuries ago in Peru, which is where the cargo is from, an earthquake struck and she is a victim of that.

6/ Southwark, February 1892

The inquest at Southwark touching the death of an old man named Thomas, a seaman, who, while kneeling before his wife’s coffin, pulled out a gun and blew his brains out. (Where did this occur?)

7/ Grange Road Fire, Bermondsey, August 17th, 1885

Grange Road, Bermondsey August 18th, 1885

The infant child, Edward Sampson, died at Guy’s Hospital last night from injuries sustained in Saturday’s fire at Bermondsey.

8/ Camberwell New Road, (Actor’s Suicide) December 1910

An actor by the name of Charles Goodhard aged forty-one grabbed a knife from a butcher’s block outside his shop in Camberwell New Road and slashed his own throat with it. A fellow actor, Ernest Leicester, said that he had been acting with him at the Palace Theatre in Camberwell and Goodhard had taken some lodgings in Peckham but had complained of having hallucinations, so the landlady, in her infinite wisdom, told him to leave. Leicester tried to get a doctor’s note to sign him off, on the sick, as he thought he was too ill to go on stage. The butcher, whose shop he committed suicide at, Frank Lomas, said the guy just pulled the knife out of the block and quick as a flash, he slit his throat. It also seems that Goodhard’s hallucinations were getting worse and that the landlady said he was scaring her daughter, so she thought it best that he go somewhere else. Friends had sat up with him the night before, as he had become that bad. The coroner was asked if it could have been delirium tremens but he said it was worse than that. “Suicide during temporary insanity”.

9/ St George’s Cathedral Suicide, Southwark,  August 1891 (On St George’s Road, near Imperial War Museum)

A suicide in a church is not amazingly rare, there are quite a few on this website. But fifty-six-year-old Thomas Mason decided to kill himself in St Georges Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark. Others have ended their lives in prestigious buildings such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Milan Cathedral and Notre Dame in Paris. I think it’s down to “if I’m going to kill myself, I’ll make it spectacular and memorable to the local population. Also in a religious building, you’re nearer to God and have more chance of going to Heaven, despite the sin of suicide. That’s what I think! Anyway back to Mason. His housekeeper, Elizabeth Tonbridge, who lived with him at Hercules road in Lambeth, said his health was getting worse and had been unemployed for a time and was clearly depressed. He sold pieces of furniture to get by, but then began to hit the bottle and had threatened suicide a couple of years ago. He told her that he was off to sell the rest of his furniture and wouldn’t be out too long. He left a note, with “Liz” on it. The note read :

“Dear Liz- Do not worry. You have been good and kind to me. I wish you had not been so good and attentive to me, when Dr Lowe gave me up. It was you who saved me with your kindness and attention, day and night. I wish you had now let me die. May God reward you for your greatest kindness to me. I know you have kept me since November, and spent all your money on me. That scoundrel- has not only caused me to take my life but has also caused you to lose a good situation. May God bless you is my last prayer. Let the parish bury me. I have written a letter to the police. Also, forward my letter to Bishop Butt.”

The Coroner received a note addressed to him and it went as follows: “To the Coroner- Please do not question Miss Tonbridge, as she is suffering from a weak heart, and it may prove injurious to her. I have taken my own life, as I am tired of it.”

Another letter read:- “Please to break this gently at my residence. I have persevered and tried to get employment, but my endeavours have proved unsuccessful”.

The caretaker at the cathedral, Mrs Emma Murray, heard a crash on Friday evening, then going to one of the side chapels saw Mason lying on the altar steps, quite dead, with the revolver was close by.

10/ Barratt Road Murder/Suicide, Nunhead, June 1885

11/ Elephant and Castle Child Murder, May 1908

Six and a half year old, Marie Ellen Bailes of Prebend Street, Islington was murdered and her body was found by the lavatory attendant in St George’s Road, Elephant And Castle on the 30th of May. It was found wrapped in a parcel and police say they are currently making inquiries, but has to be treated as murder against person or persons unknown.

12/ Borough, February 1894 (Suicides Weird Letter)

Alfred Austin aged forty-two, who kept a coffee-house at Greenwich Market, shot himself while in a cab on the High Street, Borough. He had left a couple of letters behind, one to his missus and one to the coroner. His wife’s letter read:

“Dear Ruth- If my luck continues like it has been for the last seven years, it means bringing you to poverty. There I draw the line, and what I am about to do is for the best. Dear old Tom and his wife will cheer you up all they can. I want you to back this double event, twenty shillings each way. Aborigine (Lincoln) and Ardcarn (Liverpool). Goodbye and Good Luck-A.Austin”.

The coroner’s letter went like this: “Mr Carttar, Coroner- Dear Sir, For pity’s sake, don’t trouble my wife to attend the inquest. Having served on many inquests I know the custom. The shock will be bad enough without making it penetrate, for a better woman never trod God’s earth. Kindly oblige yours truly-A. Austin”.

13/ Surrey Canal, Camberwell,  April 1885 (Death in Lime-Kiln)

14/ Camberwell New Road, (Tram Fatality) March 1899

A six-year-old boy named Albert Jones was crossing the Camberwell New Road on his way out of school when he was run over by a tramcar. He was badly mangled, as he was caught between the brake and wheel of the tram, then rushed off to St Thomas’s Hospital, but was dead on arrival.

15/ Dulwich Wood Suicide, September 1860

A labourer was walking through Dulwich Wood early one morning, when he came across the body of a man hanging from a rope, attached a tree branch. He ran to get help and the corpse was cut down. The medic who arrived said that he had been dead for quite a while and it is supposed that he fastened the rope, then threw himself off the tree branch. He was about sixty-years-old.

16/ Southwark Skeletons, July 1894

While some workmen were digging out the foundations for a new school in Artillery Row in Southwark, they stumbled across four coffins with the skeletons of four adults in them. The police were informed and they were taken to the mortuary. (Was it an old burial ground/churchyard?)

17/ Camberwell/Walworth Road, January 1885

Mr Bradford of Wingrave Street in Camberwell, whose mysterious disappearance has excited much inquiry, was found on Friday in Walworth Road and induced to go home. On Saturday morning he jumped from his bedroom window, impaling his foot on the railing and injuring his head. He now lies in a dying condition.

18/ Surrey Canal, near Old Kent Road Bridge, June 1889 (Four Drowned)

19/ London Bridge Railway Station, April 1871 (Next to London Dungeon on Tooley Street)

A child’s corpse covered in lime was found at London Bridge Station on the South-Western Railway. One of the closets was being repaired and when the seat was removed, they found the infants remains. The surgeon doing the post-mortem stated it had been dead for several months, and where it was found, the seat had to be lifted off then nailed down.

20/ London Bridge Station, (Boy’s Body Found) September 1869

A lamp-boy went into the ladies waiting-room to light the lamps and saw the floor soaked in blood. He called Baylis the porter and Mr Jones the station-master, also Inspector Haycock, they searched the area. In one W.C. they came across the body of a full-grown boy, with the head fixed at the bottom of the pan. It was removed and was still warm. A woman was seen in the vicinity and checking the tickets collected during this time, only one, from Greenwich, was collected. (Did she kill the child?)

21/ The Peckham Fat Boy, December 1903.

22/ Eugene Road Explosion Victim, April 30th, 1885

Mrs Rebecca Ewington aged forty-two, one of the women injured in the explosion which occurred at Eugene Street, Rotherhithe on the night of Monday, April 20th, was removed to Guy’s Hospital where she had both her legs amputated. She died on Tuesday morning. All the other persons injured in the explosion are progressing favourably.

23/ Eugene Road Explosion Inquest, May 1885 (See above)

24/ Great George Street, Bermondsey, (Horrific Death) August 1851

A dreadful accident occurred at the premises of Mr Keatley, soap manufacturer, Great George Street in Bermondsey New Town. A twenty-four-year-old workman named John Murphy was crossing a plank of wood on the side of the copper when he lost his balance and fell headlong into the boiling liquid. He was taken out and taken to Guy’s Hospital, but the chances of him making it are slim.

25/ Grand Surrey Canal Drowning, July 1885

A lad aged thirteen named Sampson Johnson was drowned at Camberwell on Sunday evening when bathing in the Grand Surrey Canal. The deceased said when entering the water, that he could swim very well.

26/ Camberwell Empire Murder, April 1910 (Murder in Music-Hall)

Thomas William Jesshope aged thirty-two, who was a fireman by profession, was found guilty of murdering John Healey, the Camberwell Empire’s stage carpenter, at that place, by stabbing him. Jesshope was fired from his job at the Empire and Healey took over his position. Jesshope sought revenge for this and he went and stabbed him in the pit of the Camberwell Empire, just after a performance on the Easter Monday. Defence plea was one of insanity, (and again) epilepsy running in the family, plus domestic problems, drove him into a state of rage and he couldn’t stop himself. The defendant said he remembered nothing about the stabbing and only remembered being in a police station. (Was he found guilty or did he get off lightly?)

27/ Waterloo Road Murder, (Lambeth/Southwark) February 1895

28/ Wyndham Road, Camberwell. (Murder/Suicide)  June 1878

A man named Hale shot his wife with a revolver at 9-30 a.m. one morning, then turned the gun on himself and blew his brains out. The sixty-five-year-old, living with his missus on Westhall Road, off Wyndham Road, was whisked off to the hospital where he lies at death’s door. The motive for the murder/suicide is not known.

29/ St Saviour’s Dock, Southwark.   January 1858 (Man/Woman Suicide)

The body of an unknown male was discovered near London Bridge, after being seen to jump into the Thames near St Saviours Dock. He was five feet nine inches tall, dark complexion, about thirty odd and smartly dressed. He had a note about his person, saying: “May God bless you, my dear Maria, and your children, forever. Adieu. -J.W.”

The other suicide was a female who drowned herself near Millbank. She was thirty-ish, black skirt, black velvet jacket and the under-linen had a tag marked “M.S.No 5”. Nothing else is known, so she remains a Jane Doe for the time being.

30/ Duke Street, near London Bridge.   May 1868

The governor of Ayr Gaol, Robert Sutherland killed himself in the Hand-in-Hand beer-shop in Duke Street (Duke Street Hill is still there!) not a million miles away from London Bridge. He fobbed his missus off by saying that he was going to Edinburgh and instead got a train all the way down to London, then got a room at the Hand-in-Hand. When he never appeared on Sunday, they forced the door open and found Sutherland on the floor with his head on a pillow, and an upturned basin next to him, from which blood had flowed onto the floor. He had the razor nearby and over £37 in his pockets, which was a phenomenal amount in those days. A couple of letters by Sutherland explained that he suffering mental problems and decided to kill himself as a last resort.

31/ Bankside, Southwark, July 1895 (Watching a Boy Drown- Case of Genovese Syndrome?)

32/ Finlay Street, Peckham, March 1899 (Suicide-Self-Immolation)

Eliza Burton aged fourteen, residing with her parents at 18, Finlay Street, Peckham, committed suicide by self-immolating. He father heard her screams coming from the scullery so he rushed to see what was wrong. He was met with his daughter in a ball of flames. She had got some paraffin and soaked her underclothes and then torched herself. The father afterwards said that she had nicked some money off one the girls she worked with at the laundry and this preyed on her mind.

33/ Walworth Road Station, (Fatality) February 1866

A dreadful accident occurred near to the Walworth Road Station, which caused a man’s death. Workmen were involved in the construction work of a double line and this was a day/night operation so they could finish the job quicker. A navvy working on it was knocked down, with the wheels cutting and mangling his body. He died on the spot.

34/ Camberwell Baby-Farming, October 1873

For quite a while now the corpses of dead children have been packed up in South London, all having severe cuts and bruises on their bodies. One was found at County Terrace, Camberwell Road, and police believe that an establishment similar to the one that Margaret Walters kept is somewhere in the area. (Walters was infamous for baby farming, and thought to have killed nineteen kids and profited handsomely from doing so)

35/ Elephant and Castle, (Fatal Cab Accident) August 1885

36/ Horselydown, (Suicide Over Pet Dog) September 1869

This is a sad little tale of a woman whose conscience got the better of her. The couple, a German watchmaker and his wife living in Camberwell, were extremely hard up so they looked at where they could make a saving. The pet dog was costing seven pence a week so they decided to drown the hound. The woman went to Southwark Bridge and lobbed it off. A few days later remorse seems to have suddenly kicked in and she went down to the Thames and dived in. Her body was found floating at Horselydown.

37/ Camberwell Gate, (Fireman Suicide) November 1900

Fireman C.F.B. Garside of the Met Fire Brigade, who worked from the Old Kent Road Fire Station, hung himself from the fire escape “duty” box at Camberwell Gate. A fellow fireman found him and cut him down. He was moved from the drill class a few weeks ago and has only been in the Fire Brigade a short while. The motive for his suicide could be the stress of the job.

38/ Peckham Manslaughter, June 1895

At the Old Bailey David Harboy, who was yesterday found guilty of the manslaughter of his wife on the 5th at Peckham, this morning was sentenced by Mr Justice Wright to five years penal servitude, the sentence being made light because of great provocation and the prisoner having sunstroke in India.

39/ Gravel Lane, Southwark, November 1847

Nineteen-year-old John Ward was deeply fond of a woman, but she died suddenly. Ward seemed to go into his shell and a few days after her death he failed to turn up to work, instead was found at home in Gravel Lane writhing around in agony from the arsenic he had taken. A short note read: “I cannot live in this world any longer without my dear Elizabeth, so place me in the same grave with her- John Ward”.

40/ Bermondsey (?) March 1899

41/ Peckham Rye, (Children’s Bodies) June 1868

Three children’s bodies were found by dogs in a ditch at Troy-town, Peckham Rye. There was one boy and two girls and they were in an appalling condition due to the action of quicklime. The boy’s skull was fractured and he only weighed six pounds and was thirty inches tall. A witness had seen a butcher’s boy throwing something from a basket into that ditch at some point, but he was not questioned. Insufficient evidence was the jury’s conclusion and let the police continue the investigation.

42/ Dulwich Mutilation, March 1879

Henry Wheatley, while walking along the tow-path near Barnes Terrace saw a large box floating on the surface. A quick look in the box revealed its contents to be human remains wrapped in brown paper and packed together. The doctor who examined them said it was clearly a case of murder and estimated that the victim was a female in her twenties. The portions of the body were the upper part of the chest, right lung, and right shoulder joint, attached to the body and chest. The left upper arm had been removed from the shoulder. A piece of the right leg which had been severed below the hip joint, this had been hacked off at the knee. The medical examination also revealed that the cutting tool was probably a chopper and was blunt. Police received a missing persons report of a German girl who worked as a dairymaid in East Sheen, who left for another job and was to have been met at Waterloo Station by the butler of her new employers family but never turned up.

43/ Kennington Murderer, May 1899 (Wandsworth Gaol Hanging)

44/ Wyndham Road, Camberwell October 1851 (Triple Filicide/Suicide)

It was actually on Queen’s Place off Wyndham Road in Camberwell where a father, named Anthony Fawcett (43), sadistically murdered his three children by slitting their throats, then committing suicide in the same way. He is a stranger to the neighbourhood and he had just gone into business at Stockham’s grocer shop on the corner of Queen’s Place. He had been there for a few days and started to complain to his missus about the lack of customer’s and how he thought he had been diddled into buying the shop. The children were Emily aged six-and-a-half-years, Frederick only one and a half years old and Mary Ann who is in a pitiful state, but may pull through. He was found in the garden and after medical assistance to try and close up his laceration, he died soon after.

45/ High Street, Peckham, August 1903 (Boiling Tar Accident)

The roads around here are in connection with the electrifying of the tramways and among the appliances used by contractors is a massive cauldron for boiling tar. It is on the back of a horse-drawn vehicle, but on this occasion, it tipped over and the contents, which weighed over a ton, spilt onto the pavement. Four youngsters were in the vicinity and two escaped but the other two took the brunt of it and were horrendously scalded and they died on the way to the hospital. Mr Valentine’s newsagents was covered in a black mass and he closed the premises immediately.

46/ Bermondsey, (Inheritance Hoax)  March 1895

47/ Walworth, August 1905 (Father Slays Children)

Henry Walter Popple was a middle-aged unemployed coachman living from hand to mouth with his missus and three daughters at No 2, Sandringham Buildings, Chatham Place. He went upstairs to the girls’ bedroom and killed four and a half-year-old Violet Selina, then two-year-old Gladys Dorothy, by slitting their throats with a razor. Eight-year-old Ada Pauline was badly wounded in the attack but lies in a precarious condition in hospital. Then to end it all he cut his own throat but was prevented from doing it fatally by policemen who overpowered him. The neighbour heard shrieks of “Murder!” and got a copper to go over to the property, where he found the two children dead and one alive but seriously wounded. The wife was in a hysterical state.

48/ Claren Place, Camberwell, January 1853

This tells you in a nutshell what life was like in Victorian slum areas of London. Eliza Pallinger aged only fifteen and living at No 3, Claren Place in Camberwell, was charged with the murder of her newly-born infant. The supposed father of this child, a forty-year-old named James Brown, killed himself by cutting his throat. A forty-year-old and a fifteen-year-old today would only come into to contact if he was trawling the internet, but forgive me if I’m wrong, the age of consent was thirteen or fourteen.

49/ Grange Road, Bermondsey, September 1885 (Girl’s Heroism)

50/ Swan Lane, Rotherhithe, May 1897 (Child Neglect)

An Inspector Chown from the N.S.P.C.C., went to No 51, Swan Lane in Rotherhithe after neighbours had complained about the way the kids were treated. In a windowless cellar, he found a two-year-old boy sitting upon earth. His eyes had crusted over with sores and he was in a filthy condition. Sometime later the child’s mother, Mary Ann Foster, turned up rat-arsed. Foster had been imprisoned for two months about two years ago, for neglecting the same kiddy. This time she got four months hard labour.

51/ Old Kent Road, (Child Remains) August 1878

After an anonymous tip-off, a police-officer went to Charles Mummery’s shop on the Old Kent Road to follow-up the lead he had been given. As soon as he walked in the foul smell caught his attention and the stench was coming from under the floor. Mummery went downstairs and fetched up a box, which, when opened, contained the bodies of several children submerged in quicklime. Mummery said it had been there for months and police are now investigating the matter and have buried them properly.

52/ Southwark Bridge Road, (Skeletal Remains of 50) July 1896

While some builders and workmen were excavating at No 52, Southwark Bridge Road, a horrific discovery was made. William Roffey, a bricklayer, came across an estimated fifty skulls and loads of human bones to go with them. The bodies had been piled on top of each other, sort of like a mass-grave and the site covered several square yards. This is still there! Next door to Nelson’s (corner of Union Street and across the road from Island Cafe, under the railway bridge)- Google Maps 2016

53/ Camberwell, June 1889 (Mesmerised Into Giving Money Away)

54/ Webb Street Roman Catholic Church, Bermondsey, October 1863 (Human Remains)

While engaged in removing fixtures and fittings in Webb Street Roman Catholic Church, prior to its demolition for the railway enlargement, the workmen discovered, between the ceiling and roof, a pile of human bones thought to be those of an adult female. When they were examined, bizarrely, on one bone was written “Mr Phillips”, and another bore the inscription “Four guineas, the course of lectures”. It can be said that Mr Phillips was a medical student who had placed the remains in the church to get rid of them. The church itself was used as a “theatre of anatomy” many moons ago, so they abandoned the thought of an inquest and instead buried the bones in a local churchyard.

55/ Grand Surrey Canal/Coleman Street, Camberwell, August 1858 (Murder/Suicide Attempt)

Here’s a sad little story! A bloke named Thomas Wilkinson who lived in Coleman Street in Camberwell with his missus and children, apparently quite happily. Mrs Wilkinson goes off to the coast for a short break and while she was there, she got word that her husband was “playing away” and seeing other female company. She rushed back and after getting confirmation from neighbours about her husband’s extra-marital affairs, she took hold of the baby boy and leapt into the Grand Surrey Canal with him. A passer-by jumped in to save them, but Mrs Wilkinson kept screaming “Let me drown”. The guy managed to save her, but the little boy drowned.

56/ Peckham House Lunatic Asylum, (Lunatics Eating Habit) June 1852

I just assumed that because it had Peckham in the name, it was in Peckham itself, so I could be wrong. This is about a patient there and his peculiar eating habits. When he died they cut him open and found the following items of metalwork and cutlery in his stomach. Spoons and other items that weighed over two pounds, three spoon handles, nine nails, half a heel of a shoe, a two and a half inch screw, four pebbles (probably a dessert!), a metal button, plus other tiny knick-knacks.

57/ Queen’s Buildings, Southwark, July 1895

58/ Vassall Road, June 1901 (Eccentric Vicar’s Death). Says Brixton but now in Camberwell

The Reverend George Bradshaw died in a fire at 27, Vassall Road, Brixton, and is thought to have been started by him. He would barricade himself in his room and see no-one. At the inquest, a witness was asked if he kept paraffin in his bedroom and he replied “no”. Asked if he got any mail, he replied: “very rarely”. Literally, the clergyman was a hermit. His charred body was found on the bed, as though he’d been suffocated while on there. He had retired from the clergy some years ago and this was chalked down as an “Accidental Death”.

59/ Addington Square, Camberwell, (Teenage Suicide) June 1832

A fifteen-year-old boy has a barney with his mother and commits suicide. Thomas Bennett aged fifteen, of Edmond Street in Camberwell, was the only man in the house and he was the only earning any cash to keep the family going. His father had gone off to America and left his wife and five kids to fend for themselves. Thomas got a job at the public baths in Addington Square for seven shillings a week. He had an argument with his Mum and he stormed off to work telling her “that she would never see him again”. While at the Baths he wrote on the wall “Throw your drags into the deep, You’ll find your son Tom fast asleep”. He then drowned himself in the reservoir of the Baths.

60/ Old Kent Road Stabbing, August 1885

61/ Horsleydown Suicide, November 1860 (Opposite the Tower of London)

Ann Clark was a young, good-looking woman who still grieved for her husband, enough to commit suicide. Her body was found near the Tower of London in the Thames. Her brother said that her husband, David Clark, had died about a year ago and that they had three children together and that ever since his death she’d been in a despondent mood. On the 22nd of October, she told her mother she off out to look for needlework to keep some money coming into the household. That was the last time anyone saw her alive again.

62/ Camberwell, (Eight Shilling Suicide) September 1865

Fifteen-year-old Sarah Ann Abbott was a servant to Mr Pullinger of Elizabeth Ann Villas, Coal Harbour Lane in Camberwell. The family were going to Epsom to watch the Derby race, when Mrs Pullinger found two sovereigns missing from her bedroom drawer, then discovered the missing coins in Sarah Ann’s possession. Her aunt, Mrs Storer, was sent for, to come and get her thieving niece. Mrs Pullinger didn’t want the police involved but didn’t want her in the house. When asked about the sovereigns she admitted to taking them but said another girl had told her to nick them, whereupon she gave her mistress £1 and 12 shillings back saying she had spent eight shillings. The aunt arrives and Sarah Ann runs upstairs crying her eyes out, then takes a huge gulp of “Burnetts Disinfecting Liquid”. On the way home with her aunt, she began vomiting and had painful stomach cramps and died later on at St Thomas’s Hospital. All over eight shillings!

63/ Union Street, Borough Fatal Fire, May 1885

64/ Peckham, September 1900 (Missing Bridegroom)

The village of Heston in Middlesex was the scene of a missing bridegroom, and two weeks later he was found in a house in Kent Lane in Peckham, suffering from phosphorous poisoning. The groom, Charles Hawley, was to wed Alice Chandler, but on the day of the wedding Hawley arrived at the bride’s parents house and slept there. Midway through breakfast he got up and walked out of the house and vanished for the fortnight. Police found a letter on him addressed to the jilted bride. He is in a precarious condition in Miller Hospital in Greenwich.

65/ Darwin Street Fire, Old Kent Road, September 1885

66/ Wildash Road Bride Suicide, Camberwell, January 1888

Twenty-four-year-old Priscilla Moore killed herself at her house in Wildash Road in Camberwell, by cutting her throat with a razor. Mrs Moore had only been married for about three weeks, with the wedding on Boxing Day. Alexander John Moore, the husband, returned home one evening to find the house pitch black. He found his wife upstairs lying partly on the bed and partly on a chair with a huge gash in her throat. She was fully dressed but had taken her boots off. Why, after so short a time being married she did this, is a mystery.

67/ Oakley Street, Waterloo Road, July 1895 (Stabbings)

68/ Stantons Wharf, June 1900 (Suicide Diary)

This is a collection of letters written by Charlotte Helen Reeve, twenty-three-years-of-age who was in the service of Mr Cooper, Glenhurst, Clapham Park. These were written to her sister who was working at Hyde Park Gate and they read like this:

“April 29- On the night I post this to you I shall have left here forever, so you will please have my boxes fetched to you, or wherever you like to have them sent. If Mrs Cooper says anything to you about our late butler spare his name, as he is nothing whatever to do with me. He is entirely innocent of the cause of my leaving here. Why I am going I need not say; you can guess. The one who has caused me to go I can’t say, and even if I would it would do no one any good. My only wish is that I could take Clepham (her illegitimate child) with me. He is my only worry now. Oh! if I could only take him with me, but that I can’t do. Bad as I am, I must stop short at murder. If my machine and boxes are pawned, I dare say they will fetch a few shillings- enough to pay for Clepham until they take him into the Union, as that is where he must go, unless I can force myself to take him with me at the last minute”——She then carries on with the following lines——

“Myself, I hope and trust, you will never hear of me again. My body may be found in the river near the docks, or I may go further away than that. I cannot fix on the certain place till the time comes, but I have taken away all the washing-marks and names off all the clothes I wear, so that no one will know me, and nobody will identify me. Better for my sake and all the others. I shall have a black silk ribbon round my neck, with a small gold heart-shaped locket and 22-carat gold wedding ring strung on ….

Don’t let mother know of this. Let her think I am too lazy to write to her. I have not written since January. I have left you a dreadful lot of hard work to do for me, I know; but when it is all over I am sure you must think it is the best thing I could do, and what I ought to have done three years ago, and saved my family all the disgrace of these last three years. Just fancy! My first boy in heaven, my second on earth, and my third in hell with me. How awful to have such a record. Now, for your own sake, and the family’s, don’t scream or faint, or do anything like that when you read this, as I must warn you it is very shocking, but it can’t be helped now. I am not unhappy, but I wish I could go now instead of waiting three weeks.

The next letter is dated May 10th and she goes on about how lonely she is. This one is dated May 14th, and it reads:

“My mind is slowly but surely going. I hope it will last one more week. I wonder if anyone else ever felt as nervous as I do about dying. I am going out tomorrow to finish up the last of my business. Then I shall have nothing else to do but to wait for Monday. I am starving myself this week as much as possible as too be too weak to struggle long in the water, as I dread a slow death more than anything else…..I wish the weather was warmer, then the water would not be as cold. I tried it yesterday and fairly shivered.

Finally, on May 21st, Charlotte ends her letter with her signature- “Goodbye, Clara. Pray for me”

Her body was found off Stantons Wharf (Stantons Wharf is on the Bermondsey side of the Thames, between Tower Bridge and London Bridge) with the ribbon, locket and ring on her.

69/ The Southwark Poisoning Case, November 1902 (George Chapman-The Borough Poisoner)

70/ Cock Tavern, Camberwell March 1877 (Cock Tavern- No 3, Denmark Hill) Potman- Glass Collector

A nineteen-year-old Suffolk lass named Ellen Gissing, who was a barmaid at The Cock Tavern in Camberwell was found by the landlord, Henry Kennet, dying in her room from poisoning herself. A doctor and police were sent for but she died five minutes after he turned up, as he stated by strychnine poisoning. He asked her if she had taken anything, she replied “poison”, and when he pressed her as to why, she responded “Oh, I am in such trouble. I have been ruined by the potman and he has threatened to kill me. I am dying. I wish to die, for I am in such frightful pain”. On her person were some “Battle’s Vermin Killer”. The mother came from Suffolk to view the body and said she had a letter from the landlady, Mrs Kennet, who asked her to come to Camberwell as her daughter was threatening “to make away with herself”. The Coroner pointed out that the potman was not needed at the inquest, to which Mrs Gissing, her mother shouted: “For God’s sake, don’t bring him where I am, gentlemen, I couldn’t bear to look at him”.

71/ Denmark Hill Station Suicide, September 1883

Just a few yards from Denmark Hill Station, a body of a man was found in a tunnel, horribly mangled by a passing train. The porter, George Ashdown, found him while walking through the tunnel on the west side of the station at midnight. He was about twenty yards down when he tripped over the corpse, which was missing one side of his face and had an arm missing, which lay nearby. There were various trinkets and bits and bobs in his pockets, but what got the police interested was an address saying “Miss Sporle, No24, St Georges Street, Peckham”. It turned out to be his girlfriends’ address and she identified him as Alfred Pound aged twenty-one, and also from Peckham. Miss Sporle said that a few days ago he had asked her a strange question, which she thought he was joking about, and it was “What is the easiest way out of this world”. He told her he would shoot himself on a train line, then fall on the tracks and let the engine run over him just to make sure. The Derringer pistol found next to the body belonged to Pound. He tried to follow his plan and shoot himself, then fall on the line, but it just severed his arm off and didn’t slice him in two as he’d hoped.

72/ Dulwich/Camberwell Child Murder, December 1st, 1885 (Could be Southwark or Lambeth)

73/ Dulwich/Camberwell Child Murder, December 8th, 1885

74/ Dulwich/Camberwell Child Murder, December 19th, 1885

75/ Bermondsey Murder/Suicide, March 1867

A horrible murder and suicide occurred on Wednesday last, in Bermondsey. A householder named Catford was summoned to serve as a juror on an inquest about to be held and on his return, after discharging that duty found that his wife had murdered her only son, about four years old, by nearly severing his head from his body and then had cut her own throat. Both had been dead upwards of an hour. Mrs Catford appeared in her usual health when her husband left home and no cause can be assigned for the dreadful act, but it is said that the deceased was subject to fits of depression and symptoms indicating aberration of intellect.

76/ Westminster Bridge Road (Vitriol Throwing)   September 1870.

77/ Camberwell Child Murder,  August 1870.

78/ Camberwell Wife Murder,  August 1870.  In another publication, the address was Meeting House Lane in Peckham.

79/  Church Street, Rotherhithe (Fatal Fire)  August 29th, 1870

August 31st 1870.

Yesterday Mr Carter, coroner for Surrey, resumed the inquest on the bodies of the two Dinnes, father and son, who perished in the Church Street fire in Rotherhithe. All the material facts connected with the calamity, as elicited on the first day of the inquest, and still further on Saturday last, at that held at Guy’s Hospital on the body of Henry Welsh, 20, who died from injuries received in jumping from a second-floor window of the burning building. In the case of the two Dinnes, the jury arrived at the conclusion, in effect, that they were suffocated and burnt, but how the fire originated there was no direct evidence to show.

80/ Murder in Dover Road, Southwark.  September 1870.

81/  Body Found near Horselydown (Bermondsey)  November 1870.

82/ Body in a Carriage at London Bridge Station,   November 1870  (London Bridge Station is next to The Shard)

83/  The Borough Poisoner, George Chapman.  (Newspaper clippings- See also No. 69)  December 13th, 1902

December 20th, 1902  (Maud Marsh Poisoning)

Saturday, January 3rd, 1903

Chapman, the Southwark publican, who is charged with poisoning his barmaid, Maud Marsh, was again brought up in court on Wednesday and charged with murdering his two alleged wives as well. The case for the prosecution was fully developed. Chapman, it is stated, is a Russian Pole, and has some medical training. The bodies of the two women exhumed were found to contain antimony. Prisoner was again remanded.

84/ Southwark Poisoning Case (George Chapman) January 10th, 1903.

85/  The Borough Poisoner,   January 26th, 1903. (Newspaper Article)

86/  Camberwell Murder/Suicide, Albany Road.  August 1903.

87/ Armenian Murders at Peckham Rye, November 10th, 1903.

Armenian Murders at Peckham Rye, November 13th, 1903 (The Funerals)

88/ Bermondsey Wife Murder,  October 1904  ( Off Jamaica Road)

89/ Dulwich Shooting Case, Railway Mews.  October 1906

90/ Fatal Fire in Bermondsey Street, Bermondsey.  November 17th, 1906

November 21st, 1906.

The inquest of the third victim of the Bermondsey fire, Herbert Deeks, a secret was revealed which had been kept for four years. “Miss Bush” who leapt into the street and so saved her life, sent a certificate which showed she was married to Deeks on August 3rd, 1902. Evidence given showed the place was a death trap. The stock consisted of flannelette, celluloid combs, collars and hat sprays, which, when ignited, went off like “golden rain”. The jury returned a verdict of “Death from burns”, but could not state the cause of the fire.

91/  Murder of Ex-girlfriend, Willow Walk, Bermondsey.  October 26th, 1906

November 14th, 1906  (Execution of Frederick Reynolds)

At Wandsworth Gaol on Tuesday, Frederick Reynolds was executed for the murder of Sophia Lovell, at Bermondsey. Reynolds had kept company with the young woman, who broke off the engagement. She became acquainted with another young man, and on the night of September 10th, while she was walking out with him, Reynolds attacked her and cut her throat with a razor. Death resulted in a few minutes. Reynolds, who maintained a careless demeanour at the trial, afterwards showed marked contrition for his crime. He spent a rather restless night but behaved firmly at the last. Pierrepoint was the executioner and death was instantaneous.

92/ Murder of Sister, Walworth.   March 16th, 1907

At Lambeth, on Tuesday, Arthur Parker Hawkins, aged thirty-six, labourer, of Great Suffolk Street, Borough, was committed for trial charged with the murder of his married sister, Mary Ann Alpe, at Walworth, on February 23rd. The deceased was fatally stabbed, and the suggestion of the prosecution was that there was strong circumstantial evidence that the prisoner was the man who inflicted the injuries.

Saturday, March 30th, 1907 (Walworth Tragedy)

93/ Murder/Suicide in Evelina Road, Nunhead.  September 1907 (Across the road from St Mary’s Road. Still there, No.45, Evelina Road, Nunhead)

 

1/ Weston-super-Mare Pier Suicide, August 1881

The wife of Mr.Richard Nash of Oakhouse Martley, Worcester, committed suicide by leaping off the pier at Weston-Super-Mare. She went for a walk with a friend and while her friend was paying to get on the pier, Mrs Nash waltzed over to the railings, climbed over and into the water. The body was recovered later on that day.

2/ Kelston Bathing Fatality, August 1890

3/ Huntspill Suicide Pact, near Highbridge, August 1868 (Lesbians or Good-time Girls?)

Can’t quite work this one out. Either they are lesbian lovers or good-time girls or really really close friends! Elizabeth Cridge, nearly sixteen, and Jane Meaker aged nineteen, both stayed out one night. Their beds were unslept in and they were nowhere to be seen, so a party went to look for them but to no avail. Eventually, their bodies were discovered in a cattle-pond on their employer’s grounds. Rather romantically they were clutched in each others arm’s, both were obviously stone cold. Rumours abound that immorality of conduct and these had reached the vicar, Reverend Arundell. Vicar told their boss, Mr Hawkins, and he swiftly had a word with them about the gossip. Hawkins told them if the rumours were true, they’d be out on their ears on Monday. Sunday night they made some kind of suicide pact and both dived into the small, but a fairly deep pond. The question remained, were they sane when they did it? The verdict was “Felo de Se”. The girls were buried within the day, between nine and twelve at night, and with no Christian rites performed, as was usual for suicides. Huntspill is in a sombre mood at the moment.

4/ Hallatrow Church Suicide, Somerset July 1861

Just to clear one thing up first, is that Hallatrow has no church, but High Littleton has, so this could be the one. The sextoness of the church, Mrs Collins, sent two young lasses in to help her tidy the place up before the Sunday service began. They went about their business and while doing so their fifteen-year-old brother crept in and went up to the belfry. After ten or fifteen minutes one sister found him swinging by a rope. The rope used was also used to ring the bells. He had been so determined that while the rope was far too long, he threw his legs out from underneath him, or else his feet would have touched the floor and he ended up in a sort of kneeling posture.

5/ Near Brent Knoll Station, (Railway Death) February 1900

6/ Bath, October 1836

Uriah Hales, a labourer, fell into a lime-kiln in the Lower Bristol Road, Bath. He was extricated from the kiln, but both his legs were literally burned off.

7/ Frome Suicide, September 1843

A tragic event took place about a mile from Frome, Somerset. Thomas Moon was walking with a relative of his to Vallis Vale, then when he got to the top of the rocks and he threw himself off. The height of the rock was about one hundred and fifty feet and not surprisingly he was killed as soon as he hit the ground.

8/ Twerton, Bath June 1860 (Fatal Accident)

A dreadful accident took place at Twerton, resulting in the death of a little girl. The children’s name is Grissel and their parents live in the lane adjoining the Royal Oak Inn. The kids were playing near the road one day when they ran alongside a waggon, which had a load of timber in it. One of the pieces of timber weighed a couple of tons plus and for some inexplicable reason she managed to fall under the wheel, straight over her head. The girl died straight away and her brains protruded from the head of her lifeless body. Her brother had tried to rescue her and had his foot crushed under the wheel.

9/ Weston-Super-Mare, (Sad Affair) October 1885

Mrs Emily Kirkbride had employed Emily Mary Nicholas as a domestic servant at Woodhill, Manor Road, Ashcombe. She had been there for over four years but Mrs Kirkbride suspected her of being pregnant. She had a word with her and she told her that she was correct in her assumption. Kirkbride then told her mother that she would have to go back home. Nicholas was gutted by the news but was told she could stay another day. Mrs Kirkbride left her alone the following day at around three o’clock and when she came back at seven o’clock, she saw that the house was locked and unlit. Kirkbride thought she had gone to meet her at the station so hung on for half an hour outside, but then she heard groans. The mistress immediately got help and the door was forced open. A message was sent to get her mother or father and in a bit of great timing, as soon as they opened the door to her bedroom her father arrived to comfort her. Nicholas had taken some poison and the doctor managed to save her, and then a couple of days later she went home. The day after going home, she gave birth to a child but it was stillborn, then a few hours later Emily Nicholas died. She left behind a sad letter, which read:

“I hope the Almighty will forgive me for what I am going to do and take me home to glory to be with Him. I don’t want to live to be a trouble to anyone; so goodbye, my dear mother and father, brothers and sister, and my dear mistress; I do hope to see you all again one day. Friends, you all know about it; it will drive me mad. I hope that nasty wretch will live to suffer for it, and made to pay all the expense. So goodbye.” Who this mysterious person that she wrote about is, nobody knew.

10/ Oake near Milverton,  December 1900 (Four Poisoned to Death)

11/ Dowlish Wake February 1881 (Vicars Suicide)

The vicar of Dowlish Wake, Rev.Benjamin Speke, killed himself by drowning. His wife had died the previous day, and a few years ago the clergyman went missing. His clothes were found in London, then several weeks later he turned up in Cornwall and had managed to get a job as a cattle drover. He was eccentric, to say the least!

12/ Hampton Rocks Skeleton, Bath September 1893

Two boys, while exploring a cave, have made a horrific discovery. While in the cave at Hampton Rocks, Bath, they came across the remains of a 20/30-year-old woman, which was covered over with flat stones, and was badly decomposed. It was bordering on being a skeleton and had been there a considerable amount of time and could only be determined as being that of a woman due to the clothing and hair remnants. The boys got in contact with police, but eventually, County Police took over the investigation. (Ever find out who it was?)

13/ Nailsea Dynamite Suicide, October 1893

John Roberts was a miner and he lived at Nailsea with his missus, and they had had a rocky relationship, to say the least and was taken to court for assaulting her. Being a miner, he sneaked out a couple of sticks of dynamite from his workplace, then popped a stick in his gob and lit it while his wife was there and waited for the thirty-second fuse to end. He walked into the yard, then a loud explosion was heard (and people living a mile away said they heard it) and his head was blown to atoms.

14/ Yeovilton near Yeovil, February 1895 (Fatal Boiler Explosion)

15/ Keynsham,  March 1857 (Fatal Accident)

A fatal accident occurred at the Hillsbridge Iron Works near Keynsham. A man by the rather Dickensian name of Holiday Bush, who was a roller operator at the works, was reaching for a spanner when a piece of his clothing got caught in the machinery, it then dragged him headfirst against the drums and he killed instantly.

16/ Portbury Suicide, May 1830

A young lad only sixteen years of age, drowned himself at Portbury because his mistress told him off for acting improperly while her husband was away. The lad tied a huge stone around his neck by means of his braces and dived into the water. Because he was deemed to have committed suicide, his body was interred at midnight and with no religious rites.

17/ River Avon near Bath, March 1904 (Weird Suicide Letters)

An inquest was held on the body of a gentleman’s attendant named C.F.Davis of Clevedon, whose corpse was fished out of the Avon. He left a suicide note and his hat on the bank, plus a second note to the Coroner, it went:-

“I did this act being fully aware of the awful eternity that awaits me in consequence, but it is only the fit end to a life of misery. God help my soul. Tuesday, February 23rd; 9-30 p.m. Postponed until tomorrow about six o’clock.

The following letter to a friend read:-

“I send you herewith a pair of gold links, the last possession I have to part with. Try, all friends in Clevedon, to think kindly of me and forgive the rash act I shall tonight undertake…..Tell all those to whom it may concern to recover my body as soon as possible. I dread rats and eels. The only step left for me to take; What else can I do? I have done my best since I left Clevedon to battle against this. The more I think the worse I am, and the more urgent it is for me to clear as soon as possible. God forbid that it was ever my intention to “do” anyone, but circumstances alter cases. Mine has been a cursed life.”

His uncle killed himself twenty years ago and his mother died in an asylum about a month since and there was a warrant for his arrest. Verdict “Suicide whilst temporarily insane”

18/ Barwick House Fatality, Yeovil, December 1885

19/ Puxton Station near Weston-Super-Mare,  September 1904

The express train had just gone through Puxton Station near Weston-Super-Mare when a plate-layer noticed something lying on the tracks. On closer inspection, it proved to be the decapitated body of a young woman. The remains were identified as those of Katherine Woodford aged twenty-four, the daughter of the rector of Locking. She had been cycling around the area and the bike was discovered quite a distance away in a field.

20/ Weston-Super-Mare Suicide, August 1884

A member of the Volunteer Engineer Corps, a man named Twitt, blew his brains out in his bedroom at Weston-Super-Mare. His invalid wife was lying in bed at the time and his wife was greatly distressed by his suicide and is not expected to recover from the shock.

21/ Grosvenor Suspension Bridge Suicide, Bath, February 1918

An aeroplane worker, Mabel Holland aged sixteen, jumped off the Grosvenor Suspension Bridge in Bath. She was suspected of dishonesty but this was unjustified and the girl from Bath decided to end it all. She left a note saying why she did it.

“I am nearly driven out of my mind with their taunts. The girls who work with me have driven me to this.”

22/ Gurney Slade Fatal Explosion, January 1832

Mr George Gait a grocer in the village of Gurney Slade, went to his relations with his wife. The rest of the family, eight in all, were going to chapel, with one the daughters was making up a fire and who threw the contents of a box on the fire. She thought it was the coal box but it contained several pounds of gunpowder and the house was blown to smithereens. Two of the children were killed outright and three are in a critical condition.

23/ Yeovil Frozen Body, January 1885

24/ Weston near Bath, July 1900 (Mob Justice)

A mob numbering about 200-300 people in the village of Weston near Bath, made an attack upon a poor woman of that place. Her husband had died and she had been convicted of a certain offence shortly after. The unruly crowd grabbed hold of her, then set fire to her home and dragged her through the streets attached to a rope. The vicar of the parish, Reverend Hayas Robinson, intervened, just as they were about to “duck” her and he cut the rope and freed the woman. One man got three months in prison and two others got a couple of weeks each in the clink. Some others got a fine of £2 each. (What the hell had this poor woman done to warrant such treatment?)

25/ Glastonbury Church Suicide, February 1840

The suicide of a Mr Bullhead has taken place in Glastonbury. He was heavily in debt and owed £1700 to a local firm and was thought to have invested in the Glastonbury Canal, which also appeared to be leaking money. The solution was a simple one. Mr Bullhead borrowed the keys to the church tower, telling the sexton that he wanted to survey some land in the area to see if it had flooded in the recent heavy rainstorms. He made it to the top of the tower then threw himself off. (Was it St Benedicts? St John the Baptist?)

26/ Lansdown Grove Hotel Suicide, Bath,  September 1889

A man’s body was discovered near the Lansdown Grove Hotel in Bath. He was found under an elm tree and was identified as an inmate of the Bailbrook Asylum and was named Julian Fowler, the son of the vicar of Walton near Clevedon. He had shot himself in the head, with the weapon lying by his side. A few days previously Fowler’s father was allowed to take his son home and this he did, via a little break in Wales. The father sent a postcard to the man in charge of the asylum, Dr Wetherley, saying they’d be back that day. Fowler and his Dad arrived in Bath from Chepstow and he was left to make the three-mile trip back to Bailbrook alone. This was the opportunity he needed and then committed suicide near the hotel.

27/ The Road Murder, July 1885

28/ Bath Murder/Suicide, February 1850

Edmund Hunt took his own life and that of his infant child at Bath. The wife and mother of the child was a habitual shop-lifter and when he got home one evening and discovered that she had been arrested for it again,  he took the child and went down to the River Avon and plummeted into the water. He was deeply attached to the child and was only thirty-seven years old.

29/ Banwell Drowning, Weston-Super-Mare, January 1884

At Banwell, a couple of young men named Phillips and Richards, had a street-brawl. Phillips was dragged away by his mates and Richards was ushered by the crowd to a mill pond where he was chucked in. There was a tiny island in the centre of the pond, where he stayed until he said, they got a boat. He instead made a swim for it, got snagged in the weeds and promptly drowned.

30/ Taunton Suicide, October 1868

About seven miles from Taunton at Blackdown Hills, a man’s body was found with his throat slit. In a ditch about a mile from the Holman Clavell Inn, in Pitminster, the decomposed remains were found and nearby was a razor and a knife, both encrusted with blood. The man’s name was Henry Mitchell from Crediton and was a former member of the 16th Rifles, and it was estimated that it had lain there at least a week.

31/ Southstoke Brewery Fatality, Bath, March 1887

Thirty-six-year-old Charles Witchell, of No.2, Crossway Cottages, Combe Down, and living with his brother and sister, went missing from his home. He had worked for the Southstoke Brewery in Bath for twenty years. Inquiries were made as to his whereabouts and it was ascertained that he hadn’t been to work at the brewery, they thought he had pulled a sicky and stayed at home. When the hours turned into days, the family grew worried and a search was made for him. His body ended up being in a disused vat at the brewery. He was found by chance when a worker was going up to the roof of the building and he spotted Witchell’s hat next to the vat. The vat was empty but contained enough gas to kill a man. It cannot be worked out if it is a tragic accident or suicide.

32/ Taunton County Gaol Suicide, February 1850

The County Gaol at Taunton saw the saw suicide of a teenage prisoner. The sixteen year old named W.Hounsell was in prison for absconding from the Chard Union. He was clearly disturbed by his stay at Her Majesty’s pleasure, so much so that he threw himself under the wheel of a treadmill that had eighteen men working it. They tried to stop in time, but the lad was badly mangled and when they got him out he was already dead.

33/ Bath Murder, June 1889

34/ Monkton Combe Mill Suicide, September 1864

Thomas Watts a miller left his home and went to the mill at Monkton Combe. During the morning someone wanted a word with him about some business matters, but they couldn’t find him, so they looked around. He was found in the flour mill hanging from a beam. In the loft part where he was found, the floor sinks seven feet down so the grain can run into the mill. He stood on the edge of the dip and tied a rope around a beam and then popped it around his neck and leapt off.

35/ Worle Self-Immolation, August 1863 (It’s like an episode of Wallander)

The wife of William Wallace a farmer living in Worle, committed suicide in a most distressing manner. One morning Mr Wallace left the farm to look over the fields and livestock and he left the wife and two kids at home. Just after he left she dressed herself in a gown, she walked downstairs, then got a light and set herself on fire. While alight she walked into the garden and died from the dreadful burns she sustained. She was described as being of “weak intellect” and had some weird delusions on account of her husband moving to a larger and better farm. Friends told of how she used to say how she didn’t want to leave the farm and they would have to carry her out in a coffin.

36/ Fear and Coward Saw-mill, Bath, May 1834 (Tragic Accident)

Twenty-seven-year-old Henry Abrahams was supervising the circular saws at Messrs Fear and Coward, of Bath. It was rotating at 3600 feet a minute when he came into contact with it. Firstly it took an arm off, then divided the side and lacerated the entrails, laying them open to view. He was taken to United Hospital but it was hopeless and he died the following day.

37/ Selwood Club, Frome, July 1889

38/ Clevedon, July 1899 (Woman found on Rocks)

William Hancock a boatman, was rowing his boat near Salthouse Mill when he spotted the body on the rocks. He went to Clevedon and told Sergeant Fairchild. They recovered her and the only clue to her identity was the “H.W.” she had on her clothing. She was about thirty, blue coat and skirt, blue cap, black silk waistband and kid lace boots. It appears that the woman had fallen onto the rocks from a cliff nearby, about thirty feet high and had been bashed about by the waves and rocks. (Who was she ?)

39/ Bath Brothel Suicide, June 1860

If you’re going to kill yourself then there can worse places than a  vat of ale, which we have read about, or indeed in a brothel. This is Thomas Bull, a farmer from Basingstoke, who hung himself at 8, Monmouth Street, Bath, renowned as being a knocking-shop. He went to Bath for the purpose of attending the races at Lansdown and then he met a prostitute by the name of Jeffries. He went to the above address and stayed there for a number of days. The madam of the brothel told him to go home as he was getting depressed. He said he would and decided on having a kip before he went back and he asked her to wake him at three o’clock. The door was shut tight when she went to get him up, so she got a copper to help open the door, along with a carpenter. They found Bull hanging from the bed-post by a piece of cord. The body was freezing cold and the hands were black, which means he’d been dead quite a while. He only had a shirt on and had no money or papers with him to prove who he said he was.

40/ Frome, August 1847 (Twilight Zone-Dream Fulfilment)

A fatal accident occurred near Frome, which it appears, was seen in a woman’s dream. The wife of a man named Gibbs, who was a carter, dreamed that a waggon had run over her husband, while he was at work and killed him. She was utterly convinced by it but he passed it off. He had to go to Bath one day and the wife asked him to take their daughter with him. Everything went OK until they were heading back at seven that evening and got as far as Ammerdown, the horses became frenzied and Gibbs tried to jump out and stop them. Suddenly the dream came true in all aspects. He was run over by them and lived for a few hours, but during the accident, the daughter tried to help and was herself run over and killed as well.

41/ Somerset County Gaol, Taunton,  January 1857 (Tragic Accident)

Another tale of woe from the County Gaol is just above this one. George Kingdon was a prisoner at the County Gaol in Taunton. He was with six others doing some drainage work and above them were some more men on scaffolding. An iron bar fell off and tried to jump out of the way, instead, it landed smack on his head. He was breathing but unconscious and only lasted a few minutes before passing away. A post-mortem revealed that bone splinters from the skull had penetrated his brain. The bar fell nearly fifty feet and if he’d have stayed where he was, the bar would have missed him.

42/ Knowle Murder, March 1879

43/ Near Watchet, Somerset, June 1859 (Sorry, some of it missing!)

45/ Nore Point, Portishead, December 1900 (Steamer Wrecked-Seven Dead)

46/ Saltford Drowning, Somerset.   September 1906

While swimming in the Avon at Saltford on Saturday, Douglas Snell Chamberlain aged nineteen, whose parents live in London, suddenly sank, dragging another swimmer, his cousin named Heal, with him. Several persons went to their assistance and Heal was rescued in an exhausted state, but Chamberlain was drowned.

47/ Bath Murder/Suicide  September 6th 1870

Mr H.C. Hopkins, writing in the British Medical Journal concerning the sad case of Miss Prankard, who is now in the Bath United Hospital, says that she has been wounded by two bullets, one entering the face on either side in front of the ear. Both are now lodged in the bones of the upper part of the mouth or of the nostril. Up to the present time, she progressed favourably, but no attempt has yet been made to remove the bullets.

September 19th, 1870

Miss Kate Prankard, one of the victims of the late murderous assault by which her sister was killed by her father and she herself shot in the head, has sufficiently recovered to be able to leave hospital and take up abode with her friends. It will be remembered that two bullets were lodged in her head, above the palate, behind the nose, but the surgeon’s decided no operation was necessary, hoping they would work their way out. They were correct, as on Wednesday a bullet dislodged itself from the place in which it had been embedded and fell into the young lady’s mouth.

August 24th, 1870 (Murder/Suicide at Bath)

48/  Practical Joke leads to Suicide, Stoke Pero near Porlock.   February 1866

49/ Mother/Daughter Found Drowned, near Bridgewater.  March 1902.

50/ Level Crossing Fatality, Weston-super-Mare.  September 5th, 1903.

October 1st, 1903  (The Inquest)

The inquest on the persons killed in the recent accident at Worle, through a railway engine coming into collision with a wagonette at a level crossing, was concluded yesterday afternoon. The evidence showed that immediately before the accident Smart, the driver, of the wagonette, said he thought he could get over the crossing before the train passed and that he subsequently said he supposed it would mean twelve months for him. The jury returned a verdict of “Manslaughter” against Smart and expressed the opinion that the crossing was not properly protected by a signal aged seventy. Smart was committed for trial but admitted to bail in substantial sureties. (Martha Biddiscombe and Isabel Hannon, both of Ferndale, were killed in the collision at Worle)

January 25th, 1904.  (Verdict at Assizes)

51/ Fireball Crashes Through Church Roof, Wookey.  May 1906

52/  Suicide at a Lunatic Asylum.  October 1880 ( The Somerset and Bath Asylum is on Bath Road, Wells)

1/ Shrewsbury Steeplejack Death, June 1883

2/ Billingsley Rectory near Bridgnorth, November 1894 (Child Skeletons)

Two skeletons were found at Billingsley Rectory, a few miles south of Bridgnorth. They are of children and have laid there for nine years and six years respectively, and were buried in Billingsley churchyard the other night. Due to the amount of time spent in the ground, post-mortem examination finding would prove to be fruitless. Were they brother and sister?  (Are they still buried in Billingsley? Names?)

3/ Clunton Child Remains, April 1891

A man named Morgan was walking through Cwm Wood near Clunton, when he stumbled on the remains of a small child, maybe three or four years of age.The decomposition rendered identification near impossible. The skeletal remains had been stripped clean and had lain there at least a year.

4/ Sundorne Estate near Shrewsbury, June 1873 (Dead Child)

On Friday, May 30th, two poachers were going through woodland on the Sundorne estate near Shrewsbury, when they saw some dogs gnawing away at the body of a dead child. They shooed them away and buried what was left, the head and the trunk of the body under some stones. They informed police of what had happened and when they found the spot, the dogs had dug up the corpse and had only left the head this time. A verdict of “Found Dead” was returned but no evidence to say what had happened or who’s child it was due to the dogs eating most of the body. That little was left it was impossible to tell how old it was or what sex it was. Poor little bugger!

5/ Mailbeach Lead Mine, (Seven Dead) March 1895

6/ Shrewsbury Railway Station, January 1868 (Dead Child in Package)

A box had been taken out of a train from Hereford in October of 1867 which was directed to an address in Edinburgh-“Till called for”. This was now in “Lost Luggage” in Shrewsbury Railway Station. Nobody claimed it and as it was found in a carriage,  eventually it was opened and inside was the body of a full-grown child. It was wrapped in newspaper but not one item of clothing or any clue to the identity of the little infant. The box appeared to have crafted especially for this purpose and was tightly packed. It had laid in the office for over three months and was perfectly preserved. Due to decomposition, the age or how it died was nearly impossible to say. The newspapers were from Worcestershire and over five years old.

7/ Cloverley Hall Suicide, August 1878

The area of Whitchurch is embroiled in gossip about the suicide at Cloverley Hall. Amy Aldall, the 24-year-old laundry maid at Cloverley Hall killed herself in the Mere near to the Hall. Amy had been seeing one of the male servants, so she handed in her notice but was asked to reconsider her decision, so she did. The two had a chat which became heated, and they broke up with each other. At 9-30 one night she got ready, went out, and was never seen alive again. Friends and relatives got the police to look for her, as they thought she would do something silly. The Mere was dragged and her dead body rose to the surface. The post-mortem revealed that she was pregnant as well. Amy left a suicide note on a desk addressed to the man she split up with, and she wished him every happiness that this world could give when he was married.

8/ Wellington (Poker Murder) March 1892

9/ Severn near Shrewsbury, July 1889

Two lads, named David H.Williams and Edward Price, were drowned in the Severn near Shrewsbury on Friday while bathing.

10/ Coalbrookdale Suicide, December 1842

This is a most painful suicide I can imagine. It’s a young lad, only eighteen, by the name of William Maybury. An old man who worked at the forge named David Williams said they were all doing some work for William Jenks, an engineer. The payment was a couple of gallons of ale which they drank that in the evening at the forge. Maybury was in a funny mood and began to bite John Salisbury. Williams told him off so did his father who also worked there. He then burst into tears and seized the “gate”, which disengaged the water that moved the machinery of the hammer, set the forge to work, and threw himself under it. The hammer pounding down struck him several times before they could stop it. Salisbury tried to stop him but his head was already crushed to pieces.Verdict “Temporary Insanity”.

11/ Shrewsbury, (Orders Coffin, Then Suicide) September 1878

A man by the name of Reynolds, aka “Bold Harry”, called upon an undertaker and ordered his own coffin. He said that he wanted the ends to be free so that if he were buried alive he could make his escape. (Fairly popular in Victorian times, as were bells that rang above ground if you were buried alive. A great fear for Victorians). When he met the undertaker he said he’d changed his mind and he wanted the ends leaving in. Then he chose the coffin bearers, even getting some boots for the short fellow of the group so that he’d be level with the rest of them. Everything was settled, he then had a quiet moment on his own and then slit his throat from ear to ear.

12/ Wellington, April 1899 (Collier Entombed)

13/ Ludlow Castle Fatality July 1831

Mr Richard Jackson, a plumber and glazier, was employed in the Castle Green to paint the fire engines. He was ahead of schedule so took a break, and took some visitors around the Castle. He was going over some worn timbers that lay over an old well when they gave way and he fell a hundred feet to the bottom. (The well used to supply the garrison with water)

14/ Apsley Park, Wellington, February 1883 (Head Found)

Police in Shropshire are still trying to find the identity of the head that was found in the pond at Apsley Park, Wellington. The pond has been drained, but no other remnants of the body are therein. A bag with a large stone in it was found, and one theory is that the head was carried from a museum nearby. Several locals have identified the head as that of a dim-witted girl of about twelve years of age named Mayers, of Kynnersley. The girl has been missing for a month or so when she went on an errand to Shrewsbury. Police, later on, arrested Mr and Mrs Mayers for the murder of the girl.

15/ Kings Arms beer-shop, Oswestry, April 1841

Mr Minshall, who ran the Kings Arms beer-shop in Oswestry, hung himself. He was found by a young lad who was going to ask for some beer on tick and he went to call him from the foot of the stairs but no answer was forthcoming, so he went upstairs. There was Minshall hanging from a nail, over the landing. The verdict was “Temporary Insanity”.

16/ Wellington Murder, June 1885

17/ Albrighton, (Ice Fatality) January 1885

18/ Kemberton Pit near Shifnal, December 1910

A dreadful accident has happened at the Kemberton Pit of the Madeley Wood Company’s Colliery near Shifnal. The death toll, so far, is four men, and three youths. The miners were on duty at 10 o’clock at night and were being lowered down the shaft when the cage suddenly dropped and fell over 300 feet. The cause of the accident was due to the rope breaking which was attached to the cage. (Memorial anywhere?)

19/ Shrewsbury Suicide, June 1919

The Onslow estate which belongs to Major Wingfield was the scene of a grisly discovery. A farmer was walking through a coppice when he saw the body of a man hanging from a tree. He was identified as Matthew Price, an old miner from the Rhondda Valley who had been staying in Shrewsbury for a few days, at a hotel there. He had a watch on him, £5 note, and a bank-book showing £100 in war stock.

20/ Woore Double Suicide, January 1903

The dead body of Robert Lewis, widower, and well-known provision merchant of Woore was found with his throat cut in an adjacent brickyard. The house-keeper gave evidence at the inquest then a couple of days later, she was discovered hanging in an outbuilding of Mrs Wilson’s cottage. The house-keeper, Mary Elizabeth Morris, was under the apprehension that her boss was about to propose marriage. The death of Lewis certainly unhinged her mind.

21/ Near Shrewsbury, October 1896 (Kleptomaniac Lady of Manor)

22/ Ketley, December 1843 (Child Suicide)

James Colley’s daughter was sent by the mother to get some coal from one of the pits, and when she hadn’t returned after her usual time, her brother saw her and told her that she’d be in for a good hiding when she got back. The girl was petrified at the thought of getting a smack so she took off her bonnet and pinafore then threw herself into the pit. The body was recovered from the 200-foot deep pit and was dreadfully mangled.

23/ St Martin’s Moor, (Body in Canal) October 1873

An inquest was held at the house of the lock-keeper to the North Shropshire Union Canal, William Clay, on the body of a girl that was found in the canal. Clay said that the water was low when he spotted something in the water. He fished it out and found it was the body of a child. A medical examiner said the body was so decomposed that it was impossible to perform a post-mortem. Estimates suggest that it had been there for around two months with the head and chest area had been gnawed away by vermin and rats. (Ever identified?)

24/ Shrewsbury, March 1899

Thomas Sail Harris of Iffley, Shrewsbury, late secretary and manager of Lowcock’s Iron Foundry, Shrewsbury, on Tuesday night committed suicide by hanging. Mr Harris was a member of the Shrewsbury Town Council for eight or nine years but was recently declared bankrupt, and a meeting of his creditors was fixed for Friday.

25/ Dawley, November 1902

26/ Longford near Market Drayton, September 1833 (Deathbed Confession)

A man died in the Ellesmere region a few days ago, but before he breathed his last he admitted to a clergyman that he’d killed two old people at Longford near Market Drayton. The two were Francis Bruce and Ann Taylor, and a blacksmith named Preston was executed for the murders. The deceased were found with their throats slashed and the place ransacked and all valuables were taken. Preston was under suspicion because he arrived in the area the same day that the couple were slain. He arrived penniless and a few days later had a great wad of cash. Indeed Preston had taken part but had not participated in the murder, he was simply watching the door. Just before his hanging Preston said he had no part in the murder.

27/ Market Drayton Murders, April 28th, 1899

28/ Market Drayton Murders, May 5th, 1899

29/ Market Drayton Murders, May 6th, 1899

30/ Broseley, December 1856 (Four Lads Dead)

Four collier boys, James Pope aged 16, John Taylor aged 15, John Yate aged 14 and Charles Simmonds aged 13, turned up after dinner to work in the mine. They got on, to make the 250-foot descent and had gone a matter of yards when the machinery gave way and they plummeted the full distance. The workmen at the top could not bring themselves to go down but one volunteered and when he reached the bottom he found Yate, and he disentangled him from the chain. He stood up and walked about, a bit groggy but generally OK. He was taken up to the surface and was greeted with stares of disbelief from the other pitmen. The next trip down they brought up Simmonds alive and well but the other two were both dead. They were taken home and they partook of tea and gruel, but one died that night and the other a few hours later. They were buried in the churchyard in the same grave, and it seemed as though the whole population of Broseley, around 5000, had turned up to see them off.

31/ Woore, January 1903 (This is the clipping from Woore tragedy at top of the page)

32/ Near Rednal Railway Station, July 1885 (Fatal Accident)

 

33/ Shrewsbury Railway Station Death,  August 1870.

34/ Suicide by Slitting Throat, Shrewsbury.  April 1866

35/ Drowned in the Severn, near Shrewsbury.  June 1866

36/ Deaths from Exposure, Shropshire.   January 1867 (Oakengates – Telford Area)

37/ Drowning Victim Identified at Cressage,  February 1867

38/ Murder at Duddlewick Mill near Bridgnorth,  January 1866

 Murder in Shropshire,  February 9th, 1866  (Murder of Edward Edwards)

39/  Westbury Barmaid Murderer Executed, Shrewsbury.   March 1902

40/ Three Killed at Granville Pit, near Wellington.  April 1904.

41/  Railway Tragedy at Shrewsbury (Nineteen Killed)   October 1907

42/  Attempt to Poison a Family, Uppington.  26th November 1880

Tuesday, 14th December 1880.

A further reward of £100, with a free pardon to any accomplice other than the actual perpetrator of the attempted murder, has been offered by the Government for information leading to the discovery and conviction of the person or persons who sent a poisoned joint of mutton to Mr S.H.Ashdown, of Uppington, near Shrewsbury.

1/ Loch Lomond Drowning, August 1880

A London auctioneer named Samuel Hurren decided to take a trip on Loch Lomond. He slipped and fell overboard the “Prince of Wales” steamer and was drowned. A search party was sent to look for the body but they found nothing. (Was body ever found?)

2/ Port Appin, Argyll& Bute, (Drunken Quarrel Deaths) December 1879

3/ Crieff, Perthshire, (Dynamite Suicide) March 1892

A quarry worker named Waddell didn’t go home after work at the quarry near Drummond Castle. A search party got together and eventually found his corpse in a wood close to the quarry he worked at in Muthill near Crieff. He had obtained a stick of dynamite, popped it in his mouth and lit it, causing him to never worry about buying a hat again.

4/ Greenock Drownings, June 1885

During a heavy gale on Saturday, a boat filled with water and sank off Greenock and two men named Onion and McDade were drowned. A heavy sea prevailed in the lower reach of the Clyde throughout the day and considerable damage was done along the coast. (Did they ever find them?)

5/ Edinburgh Castle Suicide, December 1864

A private of the 74th Highlanders, Daniel Ross, was found with a bullet-wound in his head in one of the toilets at Edinburgh Castle. Ross took his rifle to the wash-house, placed the gun under his chin and fired. The bullet left the back of his head. No reason can be assigned for this rash act.

6/ Dean Bridge Suicide, Edinburgh, September 1884 (See No.8)

A clearly disturbed woman climbed on to the parapet of Dean Bridge, started flailing her arms about, then plummeted into the Water of Leith. In the last couple of months, this place has become a suicide hot-spot; this was the third in that time.

7/ Dalry Child Murder, Ayrshire, October 1888

8/ Dean Bridge Suicides, Edinburgh, March 1888 (See No.6)

9/  Falkirk Triple Murder/Suicide, July 1887

 

10/ Loch Lomond near Luss, (Bodies Found) April 1897

The bodies of a man and woman washed up on the shores of Loch Lomond in Scotland. They were aged between thirty and forty, smartly dressed and have been dead for approximately two weeks. They had some food and drink at the Luss Hotel around that time and that is near where they were washed up. There were no marks of violence on the man, but she had swelling on her face and head, but that could be due to hitting rocks or boats while she was dead. (Who were they?)

11/ Loch Lomond (Boat Sinks- Five Dead) December 1873

Sir James Colquhoun. Bart, of Luss and four men, were drowned on Loch Lomond. Sir James and his brother, William, had been hunting deer on an island. When they’d finished they set off in a small boat, pulled by his head-keeper, John Boyd and two other keepers named James Spottiswood and Angus McDonald (nice Scottish name!), along with the kennel boy Thomas Anderson. William Colquhoun was in a separate boat and kept looking back for his brother and the others, but getting near Rossdhu Mansion, he got anxious about their welfare. The weather was squally and windy and when they didn’t come back, a search was instigated and it wasn’t until the next day they found the boat, capsized two miles away. The death toll of four dead and two of the keepers leave widows and children.

12/ Loch Lomond (Four Drowned) May 1908

Four young men aged between twenty-one and twenty-three years and all hailing from Glasgow, London and Sheffield, had been camping on the island of Corrinch. They went on a sailing boat on Sunday morning to Balloch and then on the evening made the return journey, but got caught in bad weather, the boat capsized and all four were drowned. The boat was found near Botwich Castle and the names of the Clydebank engineers are; Thomas Clough (21) from Sheffield; Douglas Wylie (23), from Glasgow; Ronald Young (21), from London; and Robert Gilmour (21) of Partick. All but Gilmour were recovered.

13/ Pollokshields, Glasgow, (School Children Killed) March 1882

14/ Girdleness Lighthouse near Aberdeen (Eleven Dead) May 1897

Eleven lives were lost off the coast near Girdleness Lighthouse near Aberdeen when two steamers collided and one sank. The steamer Collynie captained by Lawie collided with the Giringoe. The Collynie had eight crew plus the captain, his wife and two boys. About half a mile from the rocky coastline you see above, on a calm and clear day it has to be said, the Collynie was struck amidships and sank in a couple of minutes. Lawie called for the lifeboats to be lowered and began to tie the life-belts on his sons, then was fastening one around his wife when the ship keeled over and sank. The Giringoe managed to save Captain Lawie and hung around in the hope of saving some of the other crew, but to no avail. The Giringoe limped into Aberdeen Harbour at midnight with the wives and family of the crews waiting at the quayside.

The captain of a Norwegian steamer ” Faerder” said he saw two green lights appearing to be heading for a collision, then one green light vanished and shouting was heard coming from that area. It was only when he came into port that he was told about the two steamers crashing into each other.

15/ Findhorn/Elgin (Child Drowns Himself) July 1852

The nine-year-old son of Thomas McKenzie, lodge-keeper, was told off by his mother for not doing as he was told when he retorted that it would be the last time that she would smack him and that he was off to drown himself. He then dashed down to the Findhorn and threw himself into a pool similar to the one above. His mother was racing after him but couldn’t keep up with him and she got there just in time to see her little boy submerge.

16/ Dirleton Church Suicide, Haddington, June 1904

Forty-five-year-old John Milne, the beadle (church officer attending to the minister), was found hanging by a rope which was attached to a roof-beam at Dirleton Church at Haddington.

17/ Caledonian Station, Edinburgh, (Railway Fatality) February 1899

At the Caledonian station in Edinburgh, yesterday, one porter was killed and another seriously injured by the falling between a train and the platform.

18/ Kinning Street Fatal Fire, Glasgow, March 1899

19/ Gourdon, Taylor family Wi November 1899

A fishing boat foundered on Scotland’s north-eastern coast about eight miles from Gourdon in Aberdeenshire. The crew of five all bore the name of Taylor. There was the father, who was saved and four sons, who all drowned.

20/ East Newport Railway Suicide, May 1894

The badly mangled body of Charles Clare aged fifty-three, was discovered on the train tracks at East Newport in Fife. Clare, who was a publican at Newport had lost his licence a short time ago and this is thought to be the reason for his suicide.

21/ Ibrox Stadium Stand Collapse, April 1902

On the 5th of April in 1902 at a football match between England and Scotland, the West Tribune Stand collapsed due to heavy rainfall that evening. Hundreds of spectators fell approximately forty feet to the ground below. This occurred less than an hour after the match and twenty-five were killed and over five hundred injured. The match, despite finishing, was replayed at Aston Villa’s ground in Birmingham on May the 3rd 1902.

22/ Rutherglen Bridge Mill, (Fatal Fire) January 30th, 1885

Rutherglen Bridge Mill, February 4th, 1885

The woman, Sarah Kennedy, who was injured at the fire in the Rutherglen Bridge Mills in Glasgow last week, died yesterday. This makes the fifth death. The bodies of the four persons who perished in the mill have not yet been recovered.

23/ Musselburgh Harbour Murder/Suicide, September 1896

The bodies of Mrs Gibson of No 3, Ramsay Lane in Portobello and her three-year-old granddaughter were found in the harbour at Musselburgh. The child had facial scarring as though she had been struck with something, probably the harbour wall while on her way over the edge. Mrs Gibson tossed the youngster into the water first, then jumped in after her.

24/ River Clyde (Human Body Parts) March 1889

The lower portion of a woman’s body which included the legs was found the Clyde between Renfrew and Glasgow. The poor condition of the corpse and it being badly decomposed lends it to the theory that it had been in the river for quite a period of time. Coincidentally, in virtually the same spot another woman’s body was discovered a few months ago.

25/ Edinburgh, (Wife Dies So He Kills Himself) February 1899

A strange discovery was made in Edinburgh when Mr Liddell, a beadle of a mission hall, was found hanging to a bracket in the lobby of his house, while upstairs his wife lay dead in bed. A minister who was due to preach in the hall made the grisly discovery and it is believed that Mrs Liddell died of natural causes on Saturday. Overcome with grief he hung himself on Sunday.

26/ Abernathy Murder, February 6th, 1899

Abernathy Murder, February 15th, 1899

The trial took place at Inverness yesterday of Allan MacCallum, a notorious poacher who was charged with shooting at and murdering Constable King. The prisoner had been fined a relatively small sum for poaching and endeavoured to avoid arrest. He took refuge in a barn and when the police came to apprehend him he fired, killing King. He was found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to fifteen years penal servitude.

27/ Shetland Islands (Noss Island) (Child’s Cliff Fall) June 1898

A terrible accident on the island of Noss in the Shetlands has left one little girl dead and another two mentally scarred for life. It seems that the three girls left Bressay to look for birds eggs (popular in Victorian times) at Noss when one of them overbalanced and fell over two hundred feet down the cliff face. The other two ran back home to get help. A search party was organised and they found the mangled corpse at the base of the cliff. The deceased was ten-year-old Maggie Anderson.

28/ Ardtoune Suicide, Island of Mull, March 1860

Archibald Campbell was due to be married to a young lady from the island of Tiree and they were making arrangements for the marriage when the banns at Bunessan church were stopped by two young lasses who claimed that he had promised to marry them some time ago. This was more than Archibald could manage, so he went to his barn on his property and hung himself.

29/ Greenock Football Riot, April 11th, 1899

Greenock Football Riot, April 13th, 1899

The thirty prisoners in connection with the rioting at a football match at Greenock on Saturday were examined before the Sheriff yesterday. Bail was refused. Several other apprehensions were made last night and local feeling runs so high that it is suggested the trial should be transferred to Edinburgh.

30/ Flannan Islands Mystery, December 1900

The Flannan Islands are a group of seven islands about fifteen miles west of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. This is my favourite Scottish piece on this website. The fact it remains unsolved, along with its eerie location make it more of a Scooby-Doo mystery more than anything else, but also there is a sort of “Marie Celeste” quality about it; we sort of have a good idea of what happened but we can’t be sure for certain. The lighthouse was only a year old and had four men staffing it, three on duty and one on standby. The steamer went to the islands to drop off a relief keeper and for him to take the helm, but when they arrived they looked around for the others and found no one. James Ducat was the head-keeper and Thomas Marshall and Donald McArthur were his assistants. It is thought that they went out to help a boat in distress and got swept away by a huge wave. The living quarters were all neat and tidy, the was filled and ready to go and there was food on the table, just no men.

31/ West Port, Edinburgh, (Fatal Fire) January 1885

32/ Ben Wyvis, Ross-shire, (Decomposed Englishman) June 1886

On the mountain of Ben Wyvis, an Englishman thought it would be a great place to breathe his last, so he shot himself. When found he was badly decomposed and been there for an estimated three months. On his person were a silver watch, a flask, with “C.Lord, Manager C.R.R. Rooms” and a train ticket dated 18th of February. He had fair hair, was about five feet nine inches tall and slender. (Was he ever identified?)

33/ Colliston Murder/Suicide, near Arbroath November 1901

A tragic murder/suicide was committed in the village of Colliston near Arbroath, by forty-year-old crofter Joseph Watt, first on his wife when he shot her with a revolver, then shot himself. His slightly older wife was laid on the bed in her nightie drenched in blood when discovered and he was also dressed ready for bed but was still breathing, but unconscious. He lingered until the following morning and then expired. They had nine children together and it is believed to be a case of jealousy that sparked his act.

34/ Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, (Fatal Fall) November 1902

At the North British Railway Company’s offices in Waterloo Place in Edinburgh, the office keeper, James Dowie, was working on the top flat of the building when he opened the hoist gate. He obviously thought the hoist was there, but he fell down the shaft which was six storeys high and was instantly killed by breaking his neck.

35/ Ayr Murder-Suicide, May 25th, 1885

Ayr Murder-Suicide, May 28th, 1885

David Doig, who after murdering his sweetheart on Thursday evening last, dangerously wounded himself, died yesterday in the hospital at Ayr. From the first but faint hopes had been entertained of the wretched man’s recovery.

36/ Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, (Double Railway Fatalities) May 1901

This little village in Midlothian was the scene of an atrocious accident. The Bonnyrigg locals used to take a shortcut over the railway tracks, in particular, where there is a bend. It was one Saturday when John Dunnett had crossed the train tracks whilst carrying his child, when he heard a scream. As the Edinburgh express was tootling along the line, Mrs Murphy had tripped over and Dunnett being the gentleman, he tried to rescue her but the train clattered into them both. They were killed instantly and Dunnett’s child had her hand on the line at the time it ran her father over and she lost her fingers.

37/ Islay/Glasgow Murder Trial, January 1890

38/ Pollokshaws, Glasgow, (Quarry Death) September 1885

A fatal accident occurred at a quarry at Pollokshaws, Glasgow on Tuesday. A large mass of rock fell, burying Timothy Croman and Thomas Owen. Croman was killed and Owen is not expected to live.

39/ Aberdeen, (Road Accident) June 1899

George Polson, a well-known teacher in Aberdeen was killed while cycling some miles from that city on Saturday. He collided with another rider in front of him and fell off his machine, under the wheels of a four-in-hand coach. Death was instantaneous.

40/ Renfrew Gaol Suicide, November 1841

The person who was in charge of Renfrew Gaol killed himself last Saturday morning, by hanging himself from the rope with which the bell is rung in that building. He had been on a drinking binge for some days and this is thought to be the motive for his suicide.

41/ Broxburn/Brumshoreland (Mysterious Death) March 1890

42/ Glasgow/Liverpool Mail Coach, August 1835

Three passengers on the outside of the Glasgow to Liverpool Mail Coach were struck by lightning and killed instantly. The coach was totally destroyed, although it doesn’t state where exactly this Act of God happened.

43/ Elgin, July 1885

Mr D.McLeod Smith, the sheriff-substitute of Nairn and Moray Shires, committed suicide on Saturday morning at Elgin.

44/ Greenock Drownings June 1885

During a gale on Saturday, a boat filled and sank off Greenock and two men named Onion and McDade were drowned.

45/ Dalmuir, (Football Death) October 1885

Thomas Anderson, a lad who was injured in a football match at Dalmuir near Glasgow on Saturday, died yesterday from the effects of the accident.

46/ Ayr Bay (Father/Son Drown) June 1888

47/ Galashiels (Cliff Death) July 1885

A man named Thomas Vallance belonging to Edinburgh, fell over the cliff at Galashiels yesterday in endeavouring to gather some heather and was found dead at the foot of the rocks with his skull fractured.

48/ Girvan, February 1888

A week has elapsed since Mr George Smith, a seedsman of Ayr, disappeared from Girvan. The harbour has been dragged at Ayr and inquiries have been made but no clue has been obtained regarding him. It is generally supposed that he was drowned, but there is no conclusive evidence.

49/ West End Park, Coatbridge, (Explosion Deaths)February 1899

At a late hour on Tuesday night a bonfire was kindled in West end Park in Coatbridge in honour of the return of Dr Douglas as a member for North-West Lanark, when two barrels of combustible material exploded, killing a boy named Clark and severely injuring two other lads who were stood nearby.

50/ Lawmarket, Edinburgh, (Scaffolding Deaths) February 1899

51/ Townsend Chimney Death, Glasgow, August 1907

A well-known Scottish steeplejack, John Goldie, was killed in a dreadful accident while he was working on the Townsend chimney in Glasgow. He was at the pinnacle of the structure when several people spotted him falling from the edge. The shaft is nearly five hundred feet high and not surprisingly, he was smashed to atoms at the bottom and died immediately. The Townsend chimney is believed to be the tallest in the world.

52/ Donmouth Suicide, Aberdeen, April 1886

A dead body of a teenage girl was discovered on the beach at Donmouth, Aberdeen. She has been identified as Julia Thomson aged sixteen, who lived with her parents at Chapel Court off Justice Street. Thomson was employed as a knitter in a local mill and when she left work early one morning after doing a late shift, instead of going home she sauntered down the beach and deliberately drowned herself.

53/ River Clyde near Dumbarton (Fatal Collision) August 1889

54/ Dornoch, Sutherland, (Accidental Shooting) August 1885

On Wednesday night, James Fraser, a herd boy aged fifteen, was playing on a farm near Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, with another boy who had a loaded gun in his possession. Whilst the boys were holding each other the gun went off and the contents lodged in the abdomen of Fraser, who died about six hours after the accident.

55/ Glasgow (Football with Skull) February 1904

Some children found a blackened skull in Glasgow and then continued to have a game of footy with it. What had happened was, that while some workmen had been digging a new sewer they had come across some coffins which were nearly rotted through. While waiting for them to be taken away, the kids in the area picked a few up and began to play about with them. The vicinity where they were excavating was formerly a graveyard.

56/ Woodside near Aberdeen (Kids Drown) June 1889

Two children, a boy of eight and a girl of eleven, were drowned in a quarry pit at Woodside near Aberdeen on Monday afternoon.

57/ Scotscraig, (Scottish Hero) March 1890

58/ Glasgow Murder? January 1885

Neill McAllister, a labourer, was killed at Glasgow yesterday morning during a quarrel with his nephew, who has disappeared.

59/ Newport near Dundee (Axe Murder) March 1902

A shocking tragedy occurred at Newport near Dundee, when a farm labourer named John Ritchie, an elderly seventy-six-years of age and who was residing with his wife in a roadside cottage about three miles from Newport, attacked his wife who also was in her seventies, with an axe. A pedestrian walking past saw him ferociously going about his wife with the axe and got help from the blacksmith nearby. On entering the cottage, he was sat down with an axe in hand, as she lay on the floor with multiple head injuries.

60/ Macduff Trapeze Death, July 1885

On Saturday night a trapeze in Shore Street in Macduff, broke while two boys were swinging on it. One lad named Russell aged sixteen was thrown into violent contact with a bar, whereby he sustained such severe injuries that he died last evening.

61/ Motherwell Police Station, (Attacked by Circus Performers) June 1888

62/ St Rollox, Glasgow, (Crushed to Death) November 1896

James Crawford Shingler of Glasgow was killed in Messrs Braby’s galvanizing works, St Rollox, Glasgow. He was engaged with other workmen at a crane raising a heavy beam, when some part of the machinery gave way and the beam fell upon him inflicting terrible injuries. Death ensued almost immediately.

63/ River Orr near Thornton, Fife, July 1889

Mr James Cant, chemical manufacturer of Thornton, Fife, lost his life whilst bathing on Tuesday afternoon in the River Orr, close by his residence. He had been bathing with his son and suddenly sank before assistance could be procured.

64/ Glasgow Double Filicide/Suicide, July 1909

A tragic discovery was made in Glasgow, when Mary Ann Adams, a widow, having killed her two daughters, Jane aged nine and Janet aged four, then committed suicide. She lived in a small flat in a run-down area and since her husband died a few months ago, she has been really hard up and destitute. The door was broken down and the mother lay on the floor, while the girls were upstairs in bed with their throats slit from ear to ear.

65/ Renfrew Fratricide, October 1889

66/ Overton Road Murder, Kirkcaldy, November 1906

At Overton Road, Kirkcaldy on Saturday night, a labourer and his wife were heard quarrelling in their house. On the police entering, they found the dead body of the woman lying in the passage with wounds to the head and body. Her husband was arrested.

67/ Glasgow Harbour Fatality, August 1885

A small boat in which three men were rowing to the steamship “Argentine” in Glasgow Harbour on Friday night, was run down by the steamer “Penguin”. One of the men was drowned.

68/ Glasgow Murder, July 1889

A shocking affair occurred at 567, Garscube Road in Glasgow on Friday morning. Mrs Agnew was found lying dead in a pool of blood in the house of John Nicol. Previous to discovery shouts had been heard in the house, “I’ll kill you”. Nicol and his wife have been apprehended. Mrs Agnew’s skull was fractured. Deceased had no fixed residence but formerly lived in Nicol’s house.

69/ Ayr, (Poisoned Cake by Post) November 1906

70/ Troon Harbour (Anchor Kills One) April 1885

Two pilots were rowing around the breakwater at Troon yesterday morning, when a large German steamer, the Armin, which was bearing down on the wall, having allowed itself too little room in entering the harbour, dropped her anchor with the view of preventing a collision. The anchor fell on the pilot-boat smashing it to pieces and killing one of the occupants.

71/ Stornoway (Outer Hebrides) (Invalid Burns in Tar) April 1885

On Saturday afternoon, Mr Sutherland a cooper from Stornoway,  was melting tar in an iron vessel in his house when the tar overflowed and set fire to his home. Hastily grasping the vessel Mr Sutherland ran with it to the outside of the house, dreadfully burning his hands in the process. On his return, he found that his little son who was an invalid, had been burned to death.

72/ Glasgow, March 1905 (Throwing Vitriol)

73/ Dunning (Glasgow/Perth Line) (Deadly Coincidence) May 1899

An appalling railway accident happened at Dunning on the Glasgow to Perth Line. The express was going at full speed, when a woman attempted to cross the line when she was knocked over by the train and was dreadfully mangled. A grisly coincidence about the whole matter was that an engine-driver had run over a man the previous night, in this same engine.

74/ Daviot Lunatic Asylum Murder, near Aberdeen, October 1907

While the inmates were coming back into the establishment from cutting thistles in a field, one of them assaulted the attendant, Alexander Duncan with the scythe he’d been using and nearly decapitated the poor chap. He died immediately. While everybody was running about panicking, the inmate escaped and has not yet been located.

75/ Ballater Precipice Fall, June 1885

76/ Aberdeen Harbour Drownings, March 1885

Yesterday morning a fishing boat while about a mile off Aberdeen Harbour, was capsized in a squall and two of the five occupants were drowned. The names of the men lost were William Robertson and John Wood, both of whom were young men and married. The other three saved themselves by clinging to the boat until help reached them.

77/ Crichton Royal Institution, Dumfries, (Killed with a Cricket Bat) May 1897

The Crichton Royal Institution which a massive insane asylum near Dumfries, saw an awful tragedy. One of the inmates was lying down on a balcony when another one came up to him and smacked on the head with a cricket bat. The blow smashed the skull and he died straight away. The chap who killed the man had never shown any signs of violence before.

78/ Glasgow Husband Murder, January 1885

79/ Logie House Dark History, near Dundee, November 1904

This large mansion just outside Dundee has a dark history all of its own. It lay empty for over fifteen years and previously was owned by the notorious “Laird of Logie”, who incarcerated his Indian bride there, who was known as the Black Lady of Logie and this became his downfall which caused him to be tortured in India. They were not the only crimes in this house, as a flagstone was lifted up and underground was the powdery residue which are supposed to be remains of cremated bodies.

80/ St Rollox/St Vincent Pond, Glasgow, (Wall Collapse/Drownings) February 1885

Two men named McGowan and Kerr, while working in St Rollox district in Glasgow last night, were crushed to death by the fall of a wall. Last night, also two boys Joseph Mulloch and Francis Michael Connisky aged about four years, fell into St Vincent Pond in Glasgow and were drowned.

81/ Death at Colliery near Hamilton, May 1885

82/ Edinburgh, August 1885 (Sleepwalker Killed)

Yesterday morning the dead body of a young lady, residing in the aristocratic area of Edinburgh, was found in the area of the house where she lived. For some time back she had been in the habit, it is stated of walking in her sleep and on this occasion she had walked out at a window a fallen into the area. Much sympathy is felt for her relative’s. She was only twenty-years-old.

83/ Dumfries Asylum, (Manslaughter/Suicide) May 1884

A lunatic inmate named Hale escaped from Dumfries Asylum, died shortly after being re-captured by staff and attendants. The post-mortem showed that he had several ribs broken, so the keepers who caught him were ordered to be arrested for using too much force in his capture. One of the keepers fearing arrest, killed himself and the other has legged it.

84/ Edinburgh Culpable Homicide, May 1891

85/ Maxwelltown Child Murder/Suicide, April 1885

A woman named Maule, the wife of a gardener residing at Maxwelltown near Dumfries, administered poison to her two children yesterday afternoon and then took poison herself. The woman and one of her children died almost immediately. The other child is not expected to recover.

86/ East Lothian Sleepwalking Fatality, November 1906

Mr George Bain, a man in his nineties who was well known for fifty years as an East Lothian agriculturist, strayed onto the railway tracks while he was sleep-walking and was cut to shreds by the passing train.

87/ River Clyde (Two Drowned) June 1888

88/ Hope Street, Glasgow, (Fire Deaths) March 1885

A fire occurred on Sunday night in a tailors workroom at 263, Hope Street in Glasgow and yesterday it was discovered that two women who had been in the attic had been suffocated in the smoke. Both were persons of about fifty years of age. One was caretaker of the premises and the other was a friend who was visiting her.

89/ Whitehaugh (Suicide in Front of Wife) October 1841

Colonel Forbes Leith killed himself by shooting himself in the drawing room of his property, while his wife was watching. He returned from India and settled on his paternal estate about twenty years ago, then soon after got married. He leaves a widow and several children.

90/ Murchalls Suicide, June 1885

91/ Cobbinshaw Loch Corpse, August 1901

Two gentlemen fishing on Cobbinshaw Loch got their hooks caught on something which they couldn’t free themselves from. Finally, with brute force, they dragged up the heavy object and reeled in horror when they found it was the corpse of a decomposing male. A local mystery nine months ago, was the disappearance of a blacksmith and police consider that this is him.

92/ Glasgow Scaffolding Death, May 1899

On Tuesday evening, Henry Gilbert, a middle-aged plumber of Glasgow, lost his life while engaged in the rescue of a fellow workman, a slater named Harrison. Harrison cried that his scaffolding was giving way and Gilbert got on to the coping with a view to rescue, but the latter collapsed and he was killed on the spot. Harrison was subsequently rescued.

93/ Dalseairth near Dumfries, (Officer Shot Dead) September 1885

94/ Orkneys (Crew Lost) April 1887

The fishing boat Harvest Home, belonging to Hopeman, Morayshire, arrived at Buckie and reported the loss of four of the crew who were washed overboard during a storm which was encountered on Thursday afternoon off the coast of Orkney.

95/ Pollockshaws Road, Glasgow, (Ice Fatalities) January 1885

Two brothers-Charles Henry Smith aged seven and Thomas Robinson Smith aged eleven-were drowned last night while sliding on a pond in an old brickfield at Pollockshaws Road near Glasgow. The youngest boy went through the ice first and his brother lost his life in attempting to rescue him.

96/ Govan Goalkeeper Killed, May 1899

97/ Edinburgh Fatal Stabbing, November 1896

Andrew Douglas, a fifty-year-old baker, has been arrested on a charge of murdering John Mulvey, a labourer. Mulvey’s nephew was entertaining some lodgers at a party when Douglas complained of the noise and Mulvey objecting to his interference, words ensued and a fight resulted. Mulvey was subsequently found to have two wounds near his heart and he bled to death. Douglas, who after being ejected from the room just went to bed, was arrested. No witnesses saw a knife being used.

98/ Summerlee Iron Works, Coatbridge, (Burned to a Crisp) September 1902

An atrocious accident occurred at Summerlee Iron Works, when a young employee was literally roasted to death. He went to the top of Number Four furnace, with a barrow load of blue billy or purple ore and was emptying into the furnace when a volume of flame burst out, which set him ablaze. The suffering carried on for ten minutes or so and he died on the spot, but he was completely charred to a crisp.

99/ Glasgow Child Murder/River Clyde, September 1885

100/ Broxburn, (Blind Men Drown) April 1885

On Wednesday two blind men named Myles and Macheath, each aged forty years, fell into the canal near Broxburn and were drowned. They were walking to Glasgow.

101/ Coatbridge, (Tramp Buried in Molten Slag) August 1909

Gartesberrie Slaghill saw an awful accident occurred there when a group of tramps, who sleep there at night, had one of them buried alive. Robert Wotherwood and Patrick Burns were there one morning when a fresh load of hot slag was offloaded onto the pile. Burns woke up when he heard the noise and avoided a two-ton boulder rolling towards them. Wotherwood was caught amongst the molten mass and the boulder and was found dead later on.

102/ Eyemouth Harbour, April 1885

The welfare fishing lugger of Eyemouth has been totally lost south of Eyemouth harbour. Four of the crew were saved by the Eyemouth life-saving apparatus, but three were drowned.

The above view is a 1960’s postcard of a picturesque fishing village, but this little place has seen its fair share of disaster. Back in October 1881 most of the male population was drowned in a freak storm which hit the area. Houses were destroyed and all in all, 129 fishermen from Eyemouth vanished into the North Sea.

103/ Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, (Suffocated in a Chest) August 1900

A lad named Charles Thomson, son of a crofter went missing while at the farm of Balnacraig. Everyone thought he’d gone there with his father, who was visiting the place, but nobody saw him. Then after searching for days, his little corpse was found in a corn chest. He had crawled into it and then the lid had slammed shut and locked him in there to suffocate to death.

104/ Leith, (Skeleton in Pub) December 1875

A skeleton was discovered under the floor-boards of a public-house and they are thought to be the remains of a student by the name of Mackenzie, who suddenly vanished from the area some years ago. Police are trying to piece together the evidence in a hope that the mystery from a quarter of a century ago will have some bearing on the matter.

105/ Sanquhar, (Frozen to Death) April 1892

106/ Montgomery Street, Glasgow, (Fatal Fight) June 1899

A quarrel arose on Saturday night in a court off Montgomery Street in Glasgow between two men named Peter Foster and Thomas Jackson, both labourers. It is alleged that Jackson struck Foster a blow on the chest. The latter died a few minutes afterwards and Jackson was subsequently arrested.

107/ River Clyde, Glasgow, (Drownings) April 1899

Yesterday afternoon two boys named Garth and Miller, residing in Fielding Street in Glasgow, were accidentally drowned in the Clyde. One of the lads slipped from the bank and in endeavouring to save him, his companion was dragged in and also drowned. The bodies are being searched for last night.

108/ Bridge of Don, September 1898 (Golf Caddy Death)

A golf caddy at Balgaunie Links, Aberdeen, was found dead in a ditch at the Bridge of Don, with his body in a dreadfully mutilated condition and half of his face having been eating by rats and vermin. We can only guess as to how he died, but the top of the theory list is that he slipped and fell into the water, was knocked unconscious and remained that way until he was discovered.

109/ Muthill near Crieff, March 1892 (Weird Suicide)

110/ Aberdeen Station Suicide, January 1905

A shocking discovery was made on the Caledonian Railway near to Aberdeen Station when a man’s headless body was found on the train tracks. He is estimated to have been in his mid-thirties and is being treated as a suicide.

111/ Dumbarton, (Suicide in Public) May 1834

A skipper of a vessel used for the coal trade betwixt Glasgow and Dumbarton had been drinking heavily one night and got involved in an argument. The next morning he felt some remorse, so he got a blunderbuss and rowed to his vessel which was on the Leven. In front of a crowd, he fired the gun into the air, as though testing it. Then he reloaded it and despite the cries of the people stood on the bank watching, telling him not to do it, he turned the gun on himself and killed himself.

112/ Dornoch (Body Washed Ashore)June 1895

At Dornoch, the body of Prose, one of two seamen belonging to Her Majesty’s ship Jackal who were drowned off the Dornoch rocks on May 21st last by the upsetting of a boat. He was found on the beach a few hundred yards from where the accident happened. Prose was thirty-one and was from Plymouth, where he leaves a widow and family.

113/ Gorebridge (Body in a Trunk) August 1896

114/ River Nith, Dumfries, June 1899

Whilst bathing on Saturday in the River Nith at Dumfries, a young man named Robert Stewart, a joiner, was seized with cramp and drowned before any assistance could reach him.

115/ Musselburgh, (Body Washed Ashore) July 1885

At Musselburgh on the Firth of Forth, a young gentleman on a visit to the place, went with several companions to bathe on the beach. He got out of his depth and after struggling for several minutes, sank in the presence of an excited crowd of spectators, none of whom could render him assistance. His body was afterwards washed up on the beach.

116/ Calton, Glasgow, (Mangled in Cogs) September 1835

An accident occurred at Broomward Mill at Calton, when a young lass who worked there, leaned her back on the door of one of the rooms, which flew open and she then fell into the bare mechanics of the mill. While the cogs and wheels churned around she was slowly mangled to death, also being decapitated in the process. Her remains were put in a coffin and she was buried soon after.

117/ Forres, (Postmaster Suicide) June 1889

118/ Drumpellier Colliery, Coatbridge, (Cage Fall) April 1889

Three men were being lowered into the No.4 pit, Drumpellier Colliery at Coatbridge, when the engine-man in mistake wound the cage up instead of lowering it. The men sprang out, and one named McGinty, fell down the shaft about 140 fathoms and was killed. (Fathom- is approximately six feet or one metre eighty centimetres.)

119/ Dundee, (Crushed in Machinery) March 1885

A lad named Gordon Linton, fourteen-years-old, employed as a band boy at the Manhattan Spinning Mills in Dundee, met with a horrible death on Saturday. He was lying underneath a machine sewing a broken belt when his clothes became entangled by the moving machinery and he was crushed to death.

120/ Kingussie- Central Scotland, December 1852 (Devoured by Pigs)

John MacIntyre, a boatman at Kingussie Ferry, was taking some oats to the miller so he could grind them for him, when he was crossing a rather makeshift mini-bridge consisting of three planks of wood which led from the mill-bank to the mill itself, when he fell over and went straight into a pig-sty where two massive porkers were kept. While laid out cold on the ground the pigs devoured MacIntyre. He was taken out in a mutilated condition and was pronounced dead at the scene. The pigs were shot and buried.

121/ Glasgow, (Fatal Prize Fight) August 1889

122/ Johnstone near Glasgow August 1889

Archibald McGough and John Mullen, iron-founders, quarrelled at their work at Johnstone near Glasgow a few days ago and it is alleged that Mullen struck McGough. The latter died on Tuesday and Mullen has been arrested. McGough’s father, a pensioner, fell dead on Tuesday night on hearing of the occurrence.

123/ Hayburn Street, Glasgow, (Slit Hubby’s Throat) March 1899

Mrs Pitcairn, wife of Thomas Pitcairn an engineer of Hayburn Street in Glasgow, yesterday attacked her husband with a razor and cut his throat so seriously that he was removed to the hospital. She immediately disappeared. Mrs Pitcairn’s mind was apparently unhinged by the death on Wednesday of a child.

124/ Renfrew Ferry/River Clyde, (Suicide?) August 1889

At Renfrew Ferry on the river Clyde, a cab-man named John Ross, for some unaccountable reason, drove straight into the water and he and the horse drowned. A boy who was on the box of the cab jumped off and thereby saved himself. It appears that Ross intended getting on board the ferry, but the boat was at the time on the opposite side of the river.

125/ New Row, Perth, (Murder) June 1895

126/ Motherwell Music Hall, (Public Suicide) April 1884

This story is really creepy and no doubt the building is long gone. At a music hall in Motherwell, while a performance of “Babes in the Wood” was on stage, with 700 children in the audience, a 50-year-old man named Middleton who had brought his family to see the play, had taken his seat at the front of the gallery, with two of his children. When the play was well under way, he jumped up with a razor in his hand and shouted “That is a mockery, this is a reality”, then slit his throat in full view of the audience. Children and adults alike were screaming and heading for the exits, but the manager who had a cool head on his shoulders and remembering what had happened at Sunderland (in 1883 at Sunderland, 189 were killed in a mass panic), he managed to help and usher them calmly out of the doors. He helped up some children that had fallen and ordered the emergency doors opened.

Middleton’s wife said that before leaving he had said to her that he would be dead in two and a half hours. She kept looking in on him, maybe two or three times during the night and he was spotted sitting upright and alert. No sooner had she left the last time than the screaming began and she found out her husband had done what he said he would do. A question remains, that if your other half had said this to you before going out, would you leave your kids with him?

127/ Princes Street, Edinburgh, (Hotel Murder/Suicide) February 1899

128/ Haywood Child Murder, near Lanark, August 1897

Jane Feeley aged twenty-eight was arrested for a probable child murder in the village of Haywood near Lanark. Neighbours were suspicious that something wasn’t quite right and when they showed up, she showed them a flashy substance in a bucket. They could hear something “hissing” on the fire and when they checked the coals, they found a baby’s body. It was thought to be an illegitimate baby boy she gave birth to, found with its head and chest badly charred. Feeley was taken in. This is her second child, but she is very poorly at the time of writing.

129/ Newton Stewart, (Murder by Lunatic) April 1899

130/ Dunfermline, (U.S. Consul Suicide) March 1883

Mr William Yosts, a forty-two-year-old New York merchant, killed himself in the house of Colonel Myers, the United States Consul in Dunfermline. Yosts arrived at the property with General Spencer and was going to stay for a couple of days while touring around Scotland. They had breakfast together and then Yosts went upstairs to get dressed and after a little while, they heard the report of a gun. Colonel Myers went into his room and found him on the floor with a bullet wound to his temple. He had recently set the ball rolling for a divorce from his wife, but this was not successful and it had worried him since that time.

131/ River Clyde Collision, January 1890 (Six Dead)

132/ Baillieston near Glasgow (Pit Deaths) November 1885

Two men were accidentally killed last night in one of the Provanhall Coal Company’s pit’s at Baillieston near Glasgow. The shaft of the pit is being made larger and while two men, Morris and O’Keefe were working on a scaffold,  a large mass of loose stuff fell from the side of the pit, breaking the scaffold rope and precipitating them both to the bottom, many fathoms beneath.

133/ Earlseat (East Wemyss) (Suicide or Accident?) November 1865

Thirteen-year-old David Wishart committed suicide by hanging himself in an outbuilding on the farm of Earlseat, where he worked for a Mr Elder, a farmer. In an amazing coincidence, or possibly a copycat suicide, exactly eighteen months ago, a domestic servant killed herself in the exact same spot as Wishart. He had often asked about the girl and how she could do such a thing, so it is thought that he was re-enacting her death and it went horribly wrong.

134/ Rosemount Station Fatality, October 1885

On Thursday night, as a train was approaching Rosemount Station on the Caledonian Railway, Mrs Gibson aged fifty and from Dundee, opened a carriage door before the train had stopped. She fell between the footboard and the platform and was instantly crushed to death. She was returning from holiday.

135/ Dundee Gas Explosion, December 1900

136/ Edinburgh Suicide, August 1872

A young man and woman walked into a house of ill-repute in Clyde Street in Edinburgh where they stayed until the morning. He had no cash, so he sent his lady friend to go and pawn his watch, then she came back with some money and then he asked a couple of fellow inmates to go out for a ride with him. All three got into the cab when he suddenly said that he’d forgotten something inside and was just going to pop back in and get it. they waited for a minute, then heard a gunshot. On running in to see if he was OK, they saw him prostrate on the floor with a gaping wound in his chest. During that minute or so, he had gone and destroyed all his letters and means of identification, but he left a lady’s portrait in a locket.

137/ Brunswick Street, Glasgow, (Gas Poisoning) April 1899

138/ Lochmaddy, North Uist (Outer Hebrides) (Body Dug Up) June 1879

A strange discovery was made at Lochmaddy on North Uist when some workmen were cutting peat not far from the village, when one of them unearthed the body of a smartly dressed gentleman. It hadn’t been there long as there no sign of decaying in the body, the shirt was still whiter than white and the polish on his boots was still visible. He was a stranger to the area and he was buried quite near to the beach. (Was he ever identified?)

139/ Ballochbine Forest near Balmoral, (Death of Gamekeeper) September 1885

140/ Rattray, (Gamekeeper Shot by Master) October 1886

141/ Waverley Station Deaths, Edinburgh, February 1898

A skeleton scaffold erected in connection with the North British Railway Hotel being built at the Waverley Station in Edinburgh collapsed on Friday morning during a gale. The scaffold had been erected to the height of about a hundred feet and portions of a steam crane were being raised to the top by a hand crane, when a strong gust carried away the crane. Seven men on the structure and a number of men below were buried in the fragments. A bricklayer named Taylor and a labourer named Chandley were killed and three or four more were severely injured about the head and limbs.

142/ Salisbury Crags Death, Edinburgh, September 1885

143/ Portobello Boating Accident, May 1899

A fatal boating accident occurred at Portobello near Edinburgh, in sight of a number of people who were spending the afternoon on the sands. Two of three young men who were thrown into the water by the capsizing of their rowing boat, were rescued by boats from the shore, but the body of the third, John Edgar aged twenty-one, a grocer from Prospect Street in Edinburgh, was carried out by the tide and was not recovered for two hours.

144/ Ruchill, Glasgow, (Potassium Cyanide Burns) May 1899

James Adams aged thirty-three, a benchman and George Smith aged twenty, a labourer, lost their lives at the gold-extracting works at Ruchill, Glasgow. The unfortunate men had been working near a retort in the shed, when, from some cause at present unknown, a quantity of potassium cyanide exploded, striking them in the face and burning them so severely that they both died shortly afterwards.

145/ Kilwinning, (Octogenarian Suicide) March 1898

146/ Brackenridge Moss near Strathaven (Coffin Discovered) June 1887

During draining operations on the Brackenridge Moss, a roughly-made coffin was found and inside was a young man dressed in the fashion of a century ago. A large black Kilmarnock bonnet, blue jacket, blue knee britches and shoes with buckles. This is presumed to be the body of a herd lad who committed suicide while locked up in Strathaven gaol. The usual custom for the burial of suicides was that the laird had them interred in the moss and kept the spot a secret.

147/ Oban Yachting Fatality, September 1885

148/ Wemyss Estate (Body in Moss-Swamp) May 1898

A group of gamekeepers were in Moss Woods on the Wemyss Estate, when they were confronted by a man’s head sticking out of a moss-swamp, with the flesh having been worn away on the face and the lower half of the body was embedded in the moss. The decomposition of the upper portions of the body suggests that the unfortunate man has been there quite a while. It is believed he was a stranger to the district and got caught in the moss-swamp while venturing his way around taking a short-cut to Thornton Junction to catch a train and ended up there.

149/ Bo’ness (Borrowstounness) (Wife Murder/Suicide) May 1899

150/ Lochiel Deaths, January 1899 (Found a Loch Shiel, is that it?)

There was a terrible fatality on board the Glasgow steamer Wharfinger. It arrived at Lochiel (?) with some coal for the new extension of the West Highland Railway to Mallaig. It was freezing cold that weekend and the men battened down the hatches to try and keep the warmth in. The smoke from the stove was blown back in by the wind and two of the men were suffocated. They were Duncan Crawford and Patrick Keenar and there are another three, so badly suffocated, that they are not expected to live.

151/ Helensburgh Storm Fatality, November 1903

152/ Tay Bridge Deaths, Dundee, September 1902

A tragic accident occurred on the Tay Bridge at Dundee. While handfuls of painters were busy painting the high girders, whilst stood on a car which was on rails. The wind got up and the foreman gave the order to pack it in for the day. All of a sudden while they were packing up, a gust of wind struck the car, thrusting it at terrific speed along the line. They tried to stop the car when gravity took hold and it was thrown off, taking the men with it. Alexander Falconer and William Howie fell into the river, a distance of eighty feet and the current took them off. The others managed to grab hold of girders and hang on until help arrived.

153/ Barry/Buddon, (Death on Railway) August 1896

154/ Drybridge Station Suicide, (Kilmarnock) September 1847

A man by the name of Teale, who was station-keeper at the Gatehead Station near Kilmarnock, committed suicide at Drybridge Station on the Troon railway line after being fired from his job. Understandably, he was despondent at losing his employment, so he waited for the up train to arrive. Being told that he had missed it, he went along the tracks and waited for the down train, then threw himself in front of that. The driver slammed on the brakes and peeped his whistle but the two collided and the whole train passed over him. He lingered until the next morning, then passed away.

155/ Loch Fyne, (Regatta Drownings) September 1885

156/ Yetholm (Borders) (Brothers Suicides) August 1863

A story about two brothers who commit suicide on separate days in a small Scottish village on the Borders. The first was George Thomson, who along with his brother, Thomas, occupied Yetholm Mill. George killed himself by hanging in his own granary, the rope being attached to the rafters. Then came his brother Thomas, who although hanging himself by a rope around the neck, he went to the garrets of the dwelling house to do his rash deed. Thomas was being watched, as they thought he might do something similar to himself, but the attendant left him alone for a couple of minutes. Thomas swiftly locked the door, got the rope out and committed suicide. They both seemed happy in their lives with Thomas leaving a widow and family behind.

157/ Craigend Farm near Dumfries, (Fatal Accident) September 1885

158/ Pollockshaws, Glasgow (Triple Murder/Suicide) March 1896

Mrs Ellen Hannah murdered her three youngest children- William, Daniel and James- all under the age of three years, by slitting their throats, then attempting suicide in the same way. Mrs Hannah had been married for nine years and had seven kids and had been in a state of depression for some time. The weird scene in this triple murder, was when she had just killed her kids, then slit her own throat and walked round to a neighbour’s house, drenched in blood and asked her to sharpen the knife for her. Not needing to be Sherlock Holmes to see that something was amiss, they went round and found the three dead children.

159/ Cromarty Firth (Three Drowned) September 1885

160/ Blair Castle Skeletons, Blair Atholl, March 1869

There was great excitement in the Blair Atholl district when it was apparent that three human skeletons had been unearthed at Blair Castle, the Duke of Atholl’s residence. It was the same old story of workmen digging up human remains while excavating in the vaults of the castle, in readiness for a new cellar to be built. They were about a foot and a half under the surface and were all fully grown men. There were no marks of violence and teeth were pearly white on the first one, but the second one which was the biggest had what looked like sword cuts behind the ears. The third was also unmarked in any way. The Duke sent for Dr Irvine to examine the bones and results are expected soon. (Who were they?)

161/ Dornoch/Golspie Railway Accident, (Mound Station) November 1885

162/ Dalrymple/Ayr Asylum, (Viaduct Suicide) June 1875

This one is a straightforward story of a female lunatic in an asylum, who escapes and kills herself. Janet Goudie or McKenzie, lost her husband about eighteen months ago and since then she has been slightly doolally and kept on threatening to kill herself, so she was put into Ayr Asylum. After a couple of months there, she improved enough to be sent home again. Unfortunately, she had a relapse and was taken back to Ayr Asylum. Through sheer luck and a bit of cunning, she managed to escape and made her way to the railway viaduct which crosses a road near Dalrymple, where she climbed the parapet and dived off onto the road below. Death was instantaneous and she narrowly avoided squashing a passing pedestrian on the path underneath the viaduct. The victim was only in her thirties. (Is the viaduct still there?)

163/ West Calder Pit Shaft Deaths, March 1885

164/ Gilmerton Double Murder/Suicide, August 1899

The little mining village of Gilmerton was witness to a tragedy when one of its members poisoned two others and then themselves. The person involved was a forty-five-year-old widow, Mrs Milligan, who had two lodgers staying with her; one was an imbecilic German lad in his late twenties and the other was an octogenarian named Mrs Shaw. The neighbours called at the house but got no reply from any of the occupants, so fearing the worst they burst open the door and saw Mrs Milligan and the German already dead, with Mrs Shaw nearly at death’s door. A nearby doctor was sent for and he immediately put it down to opium poisoning, but the question was, which one of them had done it. That became clear when a note was found and it read:

” I can’t stand this any longer. Please leave the blame on Mrs Bruce, and don’t let her get the things in the house. Mrs Milligan”.

165/ Sound of Mull (Five Dead) August 1885

166/ Goodlet and Co Steam-Mills, Edinburgh, (Caught in Cogs) June 1830

Walter Munro, a mill carter, was returning to the lofts at about seven p.m. and instead of going through the normal passage, he went through another door which leads past the machinery, which by then was at full tilt. Nobody saw him, but his scream was heard shortly after entering and he vanished among the whirling cogs and wheels. They shut off the machine and they witnessed that he had literally been torn limb from limb. He left a wife and four children.

167/ Alexander and Co, Neilston near Glasgow, September 1885

168/ Gartsherrie Ironworks near Glasgow, (Molten Iron Suicide) July 1851

How can I put this? This is freaky with a capital “F”. It happened at the Gartsherrie Ironworks near Glasgow, when a bloke walked in and just starts to saunter around the building, looking around the cauldrons and molten iron being poured out, when he told an employee that he had just tried to drown himself in the local canal but he said it wasn’t deep enough. This should have set the alarm bells ringing, but he continued to meander about the ironworks. He then climbed a ladder to the tunnelhead of one of the furnaces but before he could be stopped, he jumped off into the molten metal. He was burned to a crisp in an instant and even his remains, when found, were down to a fine powdery substance. While walking about the premises he had mentioned that he used to work there a long time ago, but as yet, he remains unknown.

169/ Rona Island, (Two Dead Shepherds) April 1885

170/ Main Street, Coatbridge, (Children Burn to Death) November 1885

1/ Brazil, (Decomposed Stowaways) November 1897

Two teenage lads from Stockport in Cheshire went to Liverpool in order to go to sea. They ended up as stowaway’s on board a ship bound for Brazil. They remained totally inconspicuous, for good reason, because when the cargo was being unloaded in Brazil, the two decomposed bodies were found. One was identified as Joseph Barton of Stockport, only seventeen years old.

2/ Papua New Guinea Cannibalism, November 1878

3/ Indian Pirate Murders, May 1879 (Those poor bugger’s.What a way to go!)

4/ Bermuda Murder, June 1880 (Murdered in 1878)

5/ Vanuatu, South Pacific, January 1890 (New Hebrides is today better known as Vanuatu.)

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6/ “Aurania”- the Atlantic Ocean, June 1895 (Wife of Capt.Gorley of the S.S.Domingo. Lived at Church St, Maryport, in Cumbria)

7/ Ballantyne’s Department Store Fire, Christchurch, New Zealand November 1947

This remains to this day (2016), New Zealand’s most deadly fire, with forty-one as the final death toll.

“Thirty-eight bodies have been recovered from the shell of Ballantyne’s Department Store in Christchurch, New Zealand, where it is believed fifty people were trapped in yesterday’s fire. Only one body has so far been identified. Most of the bodies were found near the main door, suggesting that the victims were overcome as they tried to escape down the staircase from the upper floors. Forty-six people are known to be missing and other reports under investigation make it unlikely the casualties will be fewer than fifty.”

8/ Solomon Islands/Bougainville (Papua N.G.) (Pirates Loot and Kill) March 1899

9/ Solomon Islands,(Crew Murdered) March 1885 (N.E. of Australia in South Pacific Ocean)

The schooner Elibank Castle arrived at New South Wales, reported that the vessel had touched at several of the South Sea Islands, amongst them being Point Banquetta, one of the Solomon group. Whilst she was here the natives of the place attacked the crew of the vessel in a treacherous manner, murdering the commander of the vessel and four of the crew.

10/ Kimberley Mines Explosion, South Africa, June 1899

A disastrous explosion has occurred at one of the Kimberley mines. It is believed that the dynamite magazine blew up. Seventeen natives were killed and three Europeans and twenty-seven natives, seriously injured.

11/ Bombay, India,  October 1885

A Reuter’s telegram from Bombay says that one of the houses in the bazaar fell in yesterday. Sixteen persons were killed and eleven were seriously injured.

12/ Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne, Victoria (Eaten by Sharks) June 1888

13/ Congo (Now Congo D.R.) (Abandoned by Locals) March 1899

14/ Congo (Now Congo D.R.) (Cannibalism) May 1899

15/ Congo Cannibalism, September 1885

A letter received from Mossamedes (Angola) reports that certain stations on the Congo belonging to the International Association have been attacked by cannibals and the white men killed, roasted and eaten. The names of the stations are not given and no further particulars have been received.

16/ Tangier, Morocco, (Man’s Killing Spree) October 1885

A tragedy of the sensational order took place yesterday in Tangier. A man named McHugh, formerly an artillery sergeant in the British army, murdered his paramour and then ran through the streets wounding everybody whom he met. He stabbed four Moors, two Spaniards and one Jew. One of the Moors died soon afterwards and one of the Spaniards is dying.

17/ Queensland, Australia March 11th, 1899

Two hundred persons have perished in the hurricane which has been raging off the coast of Queensland.

March 14th, 1899

The hurricane on the Queensland coast has claimed eighty-three vessels. The search steamer which was sent owing to the recent hurricane has returned to Cooktown and reports that three schooners and eighty luggers of the pearling fleet have been lost. It is estimated that four hundred coloured men and eleven whites were drowned during the storm.

18/ China, Missionaries Murdered, June 1899

19/ Hooghly River, West Bengal, India August 1885

The ship “British Statesman”, laden with rice and bound for the West Indies left Calcutta on the 15th inst. and foundered on the 17th at the mouth of the Hooghly. The captain and twenty men are missing. Six men were rescued.

20/ Roebourne,? West Australia, January 1885 (Double Murder in Bank)

The manager and accountant of the Union Bank of Australia’s branch at Raeburne (?), West Australia, have been found tomahawked on the premises. There is no clue as to the assassins.

21/ Hobson’s Bay, Melbourne, Victoria, (Watch, Clothes in Shark) February 1885

The “Melbourne Argus” says the clothes, watch, etc, of Mr Hugh Browne, who was drowned with his brother and a companion while yachting in Hobson’s Bay, have been found in the stomach of a shark that was recently captured. Mr William McDonald Browne’s body had been washed ashore had been mutilated by sharks a week previously.

22/ Kenya, (River Voi/Mombasa) (Killed by Lion) April 1899

23/ South Africa, (English Lady Murdered) May 1899 (Was it solved?)

24/ Valparaiso Murder, Chile, November 1885

Captain Lawrenson of the ship Jungfrau of Swansea, who has been murdered at Valparaiso was sixty-four-years of age and was the part owner of the vessel, the crew of which were almost all from Swansea. John Beavan the carpenter, who is in custody charged with the crime, is forty years of age. His family reside at Swansea.

25/ Egypt, October 1885 (Shipwreck Survival)

26/ Adelaide, Australia, (Suicide at Sea) June 1852

The “Gazelle” arrived in Swansea from Adelaide in Australia with hundreds of tons of copper ore and a number of passengers. One lady who embarked at Adelaide was Mrs Lydia Webber Jenkins, who committed suicide at sea. Approximately nine p.m., she left her cabin, walked past the man at the helm and leapt overboard and was drowned.

27/ South Yarra, Australia,  (Body Parts Found) November 1892

Various body parts were discovered in a park at South Yarra and these include a pair of hands and arms, severed at the elbow. It is being connected with the discovery of a bag containing the lower portions of the legs of a male which were found a week ago at Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne. The police have no clue to the mystery.

28/ Melbourne/Hobart, May 1860 (Dream Leads Man to Suicide)

A bizarre story this one! Mrs Fenwick and her four children left Melbourne for England on the “Royal Charter” and were all lost at sea. The husband and father, Mr Fenwick, stayed put in Melbourne, but five days before the shipwreck he had a nightmare in which he saw his wife and kids drowning, calling him to help them. So vivid was the dream, that he committed suicide by slitting his throat with a razor. Coincidentally, that was the same night that the ship went down.

29/ India, January 1885 (Suicides Coincidence)

30/ South Sea Islands Cannibalism, April 1885

An officer from the German gunboat,”Hyaena”, gave the following details about the fate of two German crews of merchant ships whose contents were robbed, then the men were killed and eaten by the savages on the South Sea Islands.

“Our Christmas holidays we spent near the Anachoretes Islands(?), north of New Guinea. Some natives we proceeded to examine, as it was reported that the natives of the neighbouring Hermit Islands, a warlike race who had been severely punished by us two years ago, had again attacked two vessels, and plundered, then burnt them, afterwards killing their crews and feasting on them at a cannibal banquet. The news was brought by a prisoner of war on the Hermit Islands, he being from Anachoretes Islands, who had escaped and returned home. This was reported to General Consul, Herr Hernsheim.

Our investigations have confirmed these statements to be true. Among the relics of the two burnt vessels was a woman’s chemise, with the initials “A.P.”. We ascertained this was a woman on the schooner named Annie Pagels.”

31/ Chinese Great Floods, September 1885

32/ Pacific Ocean, June 1867 (Discovery of a Pacific Island) (Is this Midway Island?)

A San Francisco dispatch states that a new island has been found in the North Pacific Ocean. It is between 50 degrees west longitude and 40 degrees 30 minutes north latitude. It is twenty miles long, right along the path from vessels on their way to China or Japan from San Francisco. The steamship “Colorado” passed it on her way back and the area is renowned for being misty and foggy. It is also believed that many vessels have been wrecked there and the Government has sent a vessel to explore the island. A company has organized a survey and they will send a vessel to examine, then take possession of the island.

33/ Caulfield Racecourse Fatality, Melbourne, December 1885

34/ Australia Murder/Cannibalism, October 1885 (Found Moresby Island in Canada/Fine Gold Creek in California?)

35/ Port Stanley Mutiny, Falkland Islands, May 1885

36/ Falkland Islands, (Crew Missing) August 1885

 

37/ Atlantic Ocean, November 1884 (Cannibalism Case)

This case caused quite a stir in late 1884 in England. Thomas Dudley, the captain of the “Mignonette” and Edward Stevens, mate, were indicted for having murdered 17-year-old Richard Parker on the high seas. There was great interest in the case as people were trying to decide if they would do the same thing in their position, and that was, would you eat another person to survive, if you were floating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Parker had been drinking sea-water and his health was getting worse. The other two decided to put him out of his misery and kill him then eat his tender teenage flesh. Anyway, they did exactly that and survived. Back in England, they were put on trial for justifiable homicide, but the judge and jury thought that they hadn’t really done anything wrong and got six months imprisonment. There is an incredible coincidence to this story, in that Edgar Allan Poe wrote a tale in 1838 of just such an occurrence and on a boy named Richard Parker. If you don’t hear the theme from the “Twilight Zone” there is something wrong. (Richard Parker’s grave is at Jesus Chapel, Peartree Green, Southampton in England)

38/ Ghana, West Africa, (Natives Executed) March 1885

39/ Ghana (Quitta-Keta in Ghana) (British Sailors Run Amok) February 1885

40/ Algeria (Ships Engineer Murder) February 7th, 1885

41/ Algeria Murder, February 11th, 1885

42/ Daylesford, Australia, (Children’s Body Parts Found) November 1867

On June 30th, three young children went missing from Daylesford and the townsfolk turned out in force to look for them. A man by the name of McKay was walking his dog around that had a child’s boot in its mouth and a portion of the child’s foot in it! The little corpses were discovered near McKay’s hut on the Mack Creek near the saw-mill. Two were found in a hollow tree, which they seemed to have gone in there and embraced each other to keep warm. The third child had very little left of the body, as McKay’s dogs seemed to have enjoyed the vast portion of its body. They had got lost. McKay had nothing to do with their disappearance. Their escape route was impeded by a brush fence and if they had gone a few hundred yards along they would have seen the light on in McKay’s hut, but it was pitch black and they’re out in the bush. It is believed they fell asleep and died of exposure. Two of them were brothers named Graham and the other was named Burman. They were buried at Daylesford.

43/ Hingoli Human Sacrifice, India, April 1899

44/ Tinnevelly Murders/Arson, Madras (now Chennai) June 1899

45/ Khokand Prison Break, Uzbekistan,  February 1885

A terrible outbreak occurred in the town prison of Khokand in Ferghana province, on January 14th between twenty-four hard-labour convicts and their military guards and sailors. The officer of the guard was killed and nine soldiers were wounded by the sudden onslaught of prisoners, while in revenge, ten of the latter were eventually shot dead and eleven others wounded.

46/ Burdwan Station near Calcutta, India, (Mystery of Dead Colonel) May 1920

47/ Orissa Coast Cyclone, India, October 1885

48/ Swan Point Murders, Western Australia, September 1885

49/ Sydney, Australia, February 1885 (Execution Failure)

50/ Australia/NZ/Uruguay, (Detectives Amazing Chase) October 1896

51/ Orange Free State, South Africa, June 1888 (Execution Mishap)

52/ Kimberley Murder, North Cape, South Africa, July 1885

 

1/ Girl’s Body Found in Ilford, Redbridge, March 1899

The body of a young girl which was badly mutilated was found in a cupboard of an empty house. The child had been missing for a number of days and a £10 reward was offered for its return. A watchman found her while doing his rounds, and the body was taken to Forest Gate mortuary. So far the perpetrator of this crime has not been found.

FURTHER NEWS

The little girl, Bertha Russ, went missing from East Ham a couple of weeks ago. She had been dead for a few days and police think she was put there at a later date than the day she went missing. The strange thing is that the house had been searched a few days’ previously but no sign was spotted then.

2/ Wanstead Flats, Redbridge, May 1908 (Romantic Suicide)

Mr. William Alsworth of Romford Road, Manor Park, was walking past the lake on Wanstead Flats (built by East Ham’s unemployed) when he noticed a pile of women’s clothes. He found a policeman who summoned a team to drag the lake. They recovered the bodies of a man and a woman both locked in each other’s arms, and both in their mid-twenties. Inside his pocket was a pawn-ticket from Mile-End which pledged a coat, and small change. Two soggy bus ticket’s from Manor Park to Stratford Broadway were also on his person. A romantic touch was the letter on her person which began  “My Darling Sweetheart” and ended with “Your loving sweetheart”. (Who were they?)

3/ Fatal Accident at Twickenham Railway Station, Richmond-upon-Thames.   August 1889

4/ Wanstead Park, Redbridge, July 1889 (Cricket Death)

5/ Ham, Surrey, Richmond-upon-Thames, June 1953

6/ Richmond, Surrey, August 1849 (Suicide in Police Cell)

An inquest was held at the Marquis of Granby public-house, Richmond,(still there-on Sheen Street) on the body of Joseph T.Wheeler. The 40-year-old Wheeler was locked up for nicking a washtub and towel. The next morning a warder went to wake him up and saw him hanging by his braces from cell bar. A suicide note was left, and in it, he stated that being unemployed for so long had led him to steal so he killed himself. Verdict “Temporary Insanity”.

7/ Richmond Cemetery Suicide, October 1918

Samuel Bridge, aged 60, of Larkhall Rise, Clapham, decided to end it all on his wife’s grave at Richmond Cemetery. He shot himself in the mouth and left the following letter:-

“I have spent some lovely hours in Richmond, dear old Richmond, and I am now sitting on my wife’s grave in God’s beautiful sunshine and feel quite at rest, but quite tired and weary. I am played out, and always since I was about 25 years or so knew that I should commit this at some time”. A verdict of “Suicide during temporary insanity”.(Is his wife’s grave still there?)

8/ Kingston-upon-Thames Drowning, June 1899

A young man named Crane, employed at Kelly’s Printing Works, Kingston-on-Thames, was drowned yesterday morning while bathing in the Thames.

9/ Hampton Court Palace Suicide, January 1834

A domestic servant who worked at Hampton Court Palace killed himself last week. The victim was a footman to Lady Emily Montague (Palace house-keeper), who slit his throat in one her carriages. He was discovered sitting bolt upright having nearly decapitated himself.

10/ Hampton Court Palace, November 1871 (Skeletons Discovered)

There has been excavation and building work going on at Hampton Court Palace, and while digging up the pavement in one of the old courts’ workmen discovered two skeletons. They are both male and estimates suggest that they have been buried for around 200 years. The section where they were found was improved and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren in 1690, so if they’d have been in their present resting place they would have been disturbed at that time. After this Wren rebuild, William the Third and Mary used this Palace and it is well-known that King William met with the accident that caused his death at Hampton Court in 1702. So chances are that the skeletons are from around that period. (Where were they buried after this episode?)

11/ Richmond-upon-Thames (Infants Body) October 1880

A headless corpse of an infant was found in a box of a domestic servant named Elizabeth Greenwood, at number 6, Cardigan Road. An officer from Kent Constabulary produced the child’s head at the inquest, which was discovered in a kitchen grate of a house in Herne Bay in that county. Greenwood had been a lodger at this home in Herne Bay and she was arrested on the charge of concealment of birth. She admitted to beheading the child straight after giving birth to it, with a table knife which was in the kitchen. The knife was found in a W.C. on the same property.

 

 

12/ Hampton Court Fatality, August 1840

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, along with the Earl of Albemarle and Mrs Paget, Maid of Honour, arrived at Hampton Court. They came from the Earl of Albemarle’s residence, Home Park. While climbing out of the carriage three workmen who were working on the roof, leaned over to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty and one overbalanced and fell sixty feet onto the pavement. He landed a couple of yards from Prince Albert and apparently, Queen Victoria was hysterical. The workman died on the spot.

13/ Hampton Court Palace, Royal Gardens, July 1898

While workmen were employed in demolishing a wall in the Royal Gardens it collapsed and fell with a crash, onto a man named John Fuller aged thirty. He was extricated from the rubble but was pronounced dead by a doctor. The wall was fourteen feet high.

14/ Kew Suicide, June 1852

Edward Tolfree, an eighteen-year-old of weak intellect, killed himself by an unusual method at Kew. He set fire to a stable then threw himself on top of it.

15/ Barnes, (Thames River) April 1892

Two young men named Mackey and Davey, aged twenty-five and twenty-seven respectively, were drowned in the Thames at Barnes on Saturday night by the upsetting of an outrigger. Three other occupants of the boat had a narrow escape. The deceased were both unmarried.

16/ Kew Bridge, August 1889

17/ Richmond-upon-Thames, November 1870 (Human Remains)

A twelve-year-old shepherd named Oliver Wilson was gathering a flock of sheep at Lady Selwyn’s park at Richmond when he fell under the wall and landed on a baby’s head. A further search near an elm tree brought the ribs and a portion of the neck. More human remains were discovered over the next couple of days.

18/ Twickenham, February 1899

The naked body of a middle-aged woman was found in the River Crane. The body was identified as that of Sarah Penfold, the wife of a District Council employee, living in Colne Road. The corpse had severe bruising on her face and head.

19/ Richmond-upon-Thames, July 1871

The landlord of the Red Lion at Old Brentford, Joseph Banks, was found by a lamp-lighter hanging by a rope from an attic window at the Star and Garter in Richmond, the residence of his father. The rope was tied around the legs of a large table which was in the bedroom. (Is either pub still there?)

20/ Richmond, (M.P. Shooting) March 1890

 

21/ Richmond Station Suicide, April 1903

An inquest into the suicide of trooper Edward Smith, 1st Dragoon Guards, whose body was found decapitated near Richmond Station on the eve of his wedding. On Saturday evening on Richmond Bridge, he left his bride-to-be, who had just her wedding dress, saying that he was off to get his helmet and sword. The bridegroom’s mother only heard about her son’s death when she turned up to the wedding on Sunday. He was in a kneeling position when the train struck him and this could have been about the fact that he had taken a comrades jewellery and a medal.

22/  Coniston Road Corpse, Twickenham, November 1891

A woman in her mid-twenties was found in an unfinished house in Coniston Road, Twickenham, badly decomposed and partially dressed. Death was estimated at 6-7 months ago, and she had some of the clothes removed and her hands were in a clenched position. (Who was she?)

23/  Avenue House, Richmond Green, July 1870 (Butler’s Suicide)

The body of Richard Robson aged 58, who was a butler to Mrs Cahill of Richmond Green, was discovered in a water-tank at Avenue House. He was last seen alive at 10-30 a.m. on Saturday and twenty minutes later he was found drowned. He became very down in the dumps when his master died a few months ago and never really got over it.

24/ Barnes Green Fatal Accident, May 1899

25/ Barnes, November 1833 (Nervous Suicide)

Miss Mary Watt had just had a game of chess with her father and retired to bed at eleven o’clock, then after a few minutes, a shrill scream was heard coming from her room. The parents ran upstairs and when they got in the room she said: “There’s a wretch behind the door with a razor going to murder me”. Sure enough, Mr Watt found Mr Dumas, the French assistant, stood there with a razor. He said nothing when arrested. Miss Watt, on the other hand, took a draught of Eau de Cologne fell into a fit and died the next morning. Eau de Cologne means to me, the cheap crappy after-shave we give to the men in our family at Christmas, but the Victorian drank the bloody stuff! The inquest of her death said she died from “drinking Eau de Cologne, being under a degree of nervous excitement at the time”. Dumas was held in custody and went to the Crown Inn, Croydon, where he went to bed. The next morning the door was forced open due to him not answering, and he was discovered with razor marks on his arms, and he had also taken some laudanum just to make sure. He pulled through and was sent to his mates in London to recuperate but there he ripped off the bandages and tore open the gashes to try and kill himself again. He was prevented again from doing so but tells everyone he is determined to kill himself.

26/ Hampton Waterworks/River Thames, March 1874 (  Suicide)

18-year-old Charles Hampton was a parcels porter at Staines Railway Station and he left work on January 23rd and didn’t go back. Over a month later his body was fished out of the Thames by a lighter-man. His parents got a letter dated the 22nd January from Staines, in it he said: “I have been so ill recently, I don’t know what to do with myself. I am half afraid I am mad. I feel so ill sometimes that I am afraid of myself, and am obliged to go away from my office or house and plunge into company. My wages have been so low that I have never been able to get a dinner more than once a week, and that and wet feet have brought me so low that I don’t care to live any longer.” He then mentions about somebody robbing his till as an act of revenge, and this also contributed to his suicide. He also said:- “Give my love to all my brothers and sisters and never let another work on a railway. I only wish I could die a natural death and not by my own hand. I do hope you will not feel this much, as I feel quite prepared to die. I have thought of this for months and have been stopped once by a kind friend in Richmond, but it is no good. I feel all my sins are forgiven in heaven; I hope they will be on earth.”. The jury commented on his small wages of only 13 shillings a week and said it was inadequate.

27/ Wanstead Park Double Suicide, Redbridge, March 1898

28/ Richmond Murder?  May 1859

Mr Smethurst, a surgeon residing at Richmond, was up before magistrates at Richmond Police Court, charged with causing the death of a woman with whom he was living by administering poison supposed to be arsenic, to her. The deceased had some property which the prisoner was aware of, and some arrangements had been desired to be made for the disposal of a portion. However, a short time ago, she became ill and was attended by Dr’s Julius and Bird of Richmond, who administered the proper medicine for the disease from which she was suffering. All their attention and medicine acted quite contrary to the desired effect, when, on Monday she became so ill that suspicions were excited and police were called in. The deceased expired on Tuesday morning and the medical gentlemen’s opinion was that she had been poisoned. Traces of arsenic were found but not sufficient enough. The contents of the stomach were yet to be analysed.

29/ Richmond/River Thames, March 1905 (Body Found)

The lifeless body of a lady patient who mysteriously disappeared from the residence of Mr Thomas Chant of East Twickenham was found on Friday in the Thames at Richmond. They have been identified as the daughter of Mr Horace Smith, one of the London magistrates. She was an artist of considerable talent but overstudy had brought about her mental trouble.

30/ Richmond Murder/Suicide, September 1906

 

31/ Richmond Park Fatal Accident   August 1870

32/ Child Remains at Pagoda House, Mortlake Rd, Richmond.  November 1870 (Mis-print/ Paper folded when printed)

33/ Decomposed Remains Found in Richmond Park,  October 24th, 1903. (Miss Sophia Frances Hickman)

Saturday, October 31st, 1903. Missing Tabloids and Syringe.

The mystery surrounding the death of Miss Hickman has, in view of the latest discovery, become more complicated than ever. A medicine bottle with a dark-coloured sediment adhering to its interior was discovered in the plantation not far from where the deceased’s body lay; a surgeon’s scalpel was, a few days later, found outside the plantation fence, and now it has been ascertained that two days before her departure from the Royal Free Hospital she purchased a quantity of morphia tabloids. On the same occasion, Miss Hickman regained possession of a hypodermic syringe which was undergoing repairs. it may be that these will subsequently turn out to have had nothing to do with her death. On the other hand, they furnish evidence on a very important point, viz., that the deceased lady was in possession of a poison at the time she went away, and had the means, if she felt so disposed, of taking her own life.

Saturday, November 7th, 1903.  (Resumed Inquest)

34/ Attempted Wife Murder,  March 1904. (Annie Mortimer certainly is not good at choosing a good man!)

35/  Murder/Suicide at Salisbury Road, Richmond-on-Thames.  September 1906

36/  Suicide in a Nursing Home, Upper Richmond Road, Barnes.   December 1906

37/   Tragic Death at Strawberry Hill Station, Richmond.  November 1880

38/  Death at Hampton Court Palace.  October 1880

We have to record the death of Lady Gore, which occurred on Sunday at Hampton Court Palace. Her ladyship, who was in her 78th year, was Sarah Rachel, daughter of the late Hon. James Fraser, Legislative Councillor of Nova Scotia, and married, in 1824, General the Hon. Sir Charles Gore, G.C.B., and K.H. (sixth son of Arthur Saunders, second Earl of Arran), who died in 1869, and by whom she had three sons and two daughters. Her elder daughter is the Countess of Erroll.

1/ Henley Bridge Suicide, July 1909

An unidentified man, dived fully clothed into the Thames, swam a few yards, then kind of gave up the ghost and let himself go under. Police dragged the spot where he went under and brought up the body. One clue to his identity, however, was a set of three South African medals on his chest.

2/ Didcot Station Suicide, March 1861

A train pulled in at Didcot Station at 9:55 in the morning and off steps a well-dressed chap with a “vacant look” on his face. He said one or two things to the guard, which he realized was not normal behaviour. The guard ushered him into a room at the station and left him for fifteen minutes or so to calm down. The guard returned, only to find him lying on his back with a huge gash in his neck, drenched in blood; there was a pen-knife by his side. They searched his pockets to find out his identification and as it turns out it, he was a Mr.Gale from Oxford. Apparently, friends of his said he’d been under a lot of strain recently and his behaviour had been erratic, but he was never suicidal in his tendencies. The verdict was “Deceased inflicted the fatal wound while labouring under insanity”.

3/ River Cherwell Suicide, Oxford, December 1869

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A fifteen-year-old lad named John Arthur Hone, whose father was a vicar in the parish of Bradleigh near Redditch, succumbed to pressures of a youngster studying at Oxford and went down to the Cherwell and dived in. Hone had a twin brother with him and went to school with him the day he committed suicide. He explained that he was sometimes depressed and found the school-work difficult. He left this note; “Darling Brother-I feel that life will only be a burden to me and my parents if I live any longer. It is all right. I hope to be soon in heaven. Don’t trouble about me; I will soon see all your happy faces again with all the angels in Heaven. I quickly commit myself to God, in hope that I shall be soon with him- I remain, your dear brother, JOHN.” – Coroner’s jury found that he was insane.

4/ Oxford Executions, March 1892 (See Hertfordshire for Puddephat)

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5/ Near Oxford, (Railway Suicide) July 1890

6/ Yarnton Murder?, February 1901

7/ Blenheim Park Murder, August 1885 (See clippings below)

This was the murder of gamekeeper, William Beckley, in Blenheim Park, by George Boddington. He stated that Beckley was already dead when he found him under a tree in the park. Beckley had a history of illness and had been seeing his doctor for ailments such as diarrhoea, prostration, and heart disease. When a doctor was sent to Beckley, the man who saw the doctor said that he was dead, but didn’t mention the head wounds or cuts. A certificate was issued that death was of natural causes, then the body was taken to Water Meadow Lodge, the home of Beckley. Inspector Oakley went to see the daughter that evening and to examine the corpse and he assessed that the man had been savagely beaten with a blunt instrument, such as a spade. Oakley sealed the bedroom in which the corpse lay and got hold of the doctor who pronounced his death as natural. He said that he was just told that he was dead, and nothing else. Boddington was arrested for the crime and later confessed to murdering him while at Oxford Castle and also said he battered him with a pick-axe. The reason for his attacking him was that an argument had arisen. The murder weapon was found near to the murder scene.

8/ Blenheim Park Suicide, April 1859

This is the story of the Spanish gentleman who committed suicide in the grounds of Blenheim Park. He left the name A.Arrom de Ayala on his suicide letters and he went to Blenheim to do some drawing of the parkland and house. He left the inn at midday and asked for dinner at six o’clock. A labourer by the name of Josiah Wickson was walking along the Combe Bottom, in the park, when he spotted an umbrella, then a person lying near the trees. Upon further examination he found the man bleeding from a bullet wound in the head. He had the pistol in his hand and he had put the gun in his mouth and fired. A letter to the Duke of Marlborough was found on him, it read:-

“My Lord-I humbly ask your Lordships pardon and forgiveness for the great liberty I have taken in coming to put an end to my dreary and miserable existence in your park. It may be a childish feeling, but one cannot blow his brains out on a common road, or a field full of cottages, and life, and civilization, and railways, and establishments of all kinds, of which your blessed country of England abound. So I have not found another proper place to die decently than your handsome park, and you must bear the inconvenience of a dead man in your grounds. I visited your house yesterday, hoping the sight of good things, chiefly paintings, could do me good, and soften the wild ideas that had led me to put an end to my life; but all of no use. Your manor is the most noble, splendid things I saw in my life. You have the finest Reubens that can be seen; that should have a great attraction for me under other circumstances, but now they have no use. I hope with that splendid house, and park, and paintings, and library, you are happy my Lord. If that is the case you have a kind heart, and pity the poor devil come to die on your grounds. If, on the contrary, you are miserable also, as wealth is a medium, and do not constitute happiness, then you will say like old Dido -“Non ignara mali,miseris succurere disco”-and pity me,and order that they shall leave me quiet, and bury me in the spot I have died, and put a cross on it in the Spanish fashion.I will be very grateful in the other world for it if you do so and wish not to trouble your Lordship any more about me. I am, my Lord, yours respectfully, A Arrom de Ayala”

The next one is a letter to the landlady of the inn he was staying at:

“My Dear Madam-Pray do not be alarmed when you know I am dead, on account of my payment of expenses at your comfortable place; I had rest and quiet for my last arrangements at your hotel, and comfortable accommodation, and I am grateful for it. I wrote to my friend I London, Mr Albert Rottman, 26 Duncan Terrace, Islington, who will come, open my carpet bag, and pay my last bill on earth. If the letter is lost, and he does not come, nor any of my friends or relatives to settle your bill, I authorize you to open my carpet bag and take £4 out of the £11 you will find in my purse, and send the bag, with my watch, chain, a ring with the coat of arms of Spain, and all its contents to Messrs.Doft,Gordon and Co., 79 Great Tower Street, to be sent to my wife in Spain. Pray forgive me the trouble I cause you. Yours obediently-A.Arrom de Ayala”

9/ Blenheim Park Murder, August 15th, 1885

Blenheim Park Murder, August 19th, 1885

George Boddington, who is in custody on a charge of murdering William Beckley in Blenheim Park, has made a full confession of the crime. He admits that he quarrelled with Beckley and the terrible wounds on the face and head of the deceased were caused by him with blows by a pick-axe, which had been found near the scene of the crime. The prisoner will be brought before the magistrates at Woodstock.

10/ Blenheim Park Murder, August 20th, 1885

11/ Blenheim Park Murder, August 28th, 1885

12/ Blenheim Park Murder, October 28th, 1885

13/ Oxford, April 1878 (Father and Daughter Suicide)

Mrs Weaving, the wife of a surgeon, drowned herself in a tank in the house. The tank itself was only ten inches wide. Evidence was put forward that deceased had fallen into the river three years ago and she’d shown symptoms of mental derangement and also tried to get poison and other chemicals from the surgery. On the day she killed herself, her father had poisoned himself in Birmingham, but this fact was unknown to her at the time. The verdict found that she had not been in her right mind and suffocated in the tank.

14/ Wantage, June 1830 (Boy in Well)

At Lockinge Kiln Farm near Wantage, W.Giles, a seven-year-old boy, fell into a well that was 125 yards deep. The boy was throwing stones in the well when he fell down, and to make matters worse the father had a fit while on his way home and he fell off his horse. Also, the chap who fished the boy from the well by bucket nearly died from the inhalation of the noxious gases at the bottom of the well. He was struck dumb for three days.

15/ Woodstock, October 1832 (Child Hangs by Accident)

Harriet Hitchman, a year and half old child, was climbing on some railings outside her home, and when she tried to get down the railing caught the front of her bonnet and the material beneath her chin formed a sort of noose and she hung herself accidentally. A sister went to get her mother but the child was dead when they arrived back.

16/ Abingdon High Street, March 1830 (Accidental Hanging)

A dreadful accident occurred at the High Street in Abingdon. The only son of Mr Richardson, who wasn’t quite two years old, was put to bed to have a nap and it somehow got its head into the loop of the curtain, which was on the pillow, and strangled himself. He was hanging a couple of inches from the ground and was found by the child’s nurse.

17/ Oriel College Fatal Accident, March 1849

Oriel College was abuzz with a morbid excitement when the body of nineteen-year-old John Key, a commoner from that college, was found in the quadrangle near the chapel door and close to the hall staircase, within a few feet of the wall. His injuries bear the hallmarks of him falling from a window or off the roof, about a forty foot drop. The deceased had a blood-soaked face, with the gravel stuck to it, a dislocated shoulder and a broken right wrist. Evidence suggests that he had been drinking and was put in his room, but he got mad, so his friends had blocked the door with a sofa. Chances are he probably climbed out of the window and tried to get to the room of another student, but slipped and fell to the pavement below. The verdict: “John Key having fallen over the parapet, was killed by the fall”

18/ Kingham, August 1885 (106 year old in 1885!)

19/ Banbury Suicide, January 1894

William Sulston, living near Thame in Oxfordshire, died at Banbury in a strange manner. He had brought a horse for sale at the Fair and he was tricked by some dealers and ended up out of pocket. The solution nowadays would be to get it back or report them to certain authorities, but he thought suicide was the best option. He chose an original way to do it. He bought a bottle of gin, went to his room at the inn, and downed it in one. He was discovered later on and was dead the following morning.

20/ Kidlington Double Murder/Suicide, July 1908

This awful tragedy occurred in the village of Kidlington, about six miles from Oxford. (Not now it’s not). Mr Joseph Cleworth, a pensioner, went for a boat trip on the river with his two daughters, Eileen, six years old, and Josephine, aged just four. When the bodies were found in the river, the girls had been fastened to the father with a rope, which gives you the impression that he had intended to commit suicide and take the girls with him.

21/ Middleton Hall Suicide, February 1836

The Earl of Jersey’s family is in shock at the suicide of Susan Garrett, a favourite servant of the Countess. Garrett had been with them from being a child and had given great service over the years. Her body and that of a small child were found in a cistern at Middleton Hall in Oxfordshire. Verdict-“Drowned herself in a state of temporary derangement”. (Is Hall still there?)

22/ Osney Bridge Collapse, December 1885 (Did Miles survive?)

23/ River Cherwell, October 1915 (Body Found)

The body of an unknown man was found floating in the Cherwell near to Magdalen Bridge, Oxford. He was about forty years old and was wearing military type clothing and boots.

24/ Chipping Norton, January 1868 (Child Skeletons in House)

Rebecca Townsend passed away recently at Kingham near Chipping Norton, aged eighty-three years. She had lived a solitary life and never got married and been alone for at least fifty years. The village bobby and the rector had the job of taking an inventory of her belongings because she had no friends or living relatives. While going through the stuff, a box was found under the bed. They had to check everything, so they opened it and saw three little compartments and in each was the remains of an infant. The bones were approximately forty to fifty years old. The verdict was “Found dead, but how the infants came by their death there is no evidence to show. (Probably children who died in childbirth, but she decided to keep?)

25/ Sonning Murders near Henley, February 1908

A multiple murder was committed by a man named Holmes. Early one morning a smartly dressed man was banging on the door at Sonning Vicarage, about six miles from Henley. The vicar called from a window as to what he wanted and he replied he wanted to be let in. The vicar told him to go to the Bull Hotel and he went away mumbling to himself. When the vicar heard about the murders, he connected it with the early morning visitor. The previous vicar was Canon Holmes and the visitor was Mr Holmes, his brother, who still thought that he lived there. The story was as follows:-The gardener found the four dead women at Crossmore House at Fawley. Lizzie Hayes aged twenty-one, the cook and Ethel Morris aged seventeen, then found Mrs Holmes, his wife and Miss Holmes, his daughter, dead in a bedroom. They had all been shot at point-blank range while they slept. The gardener who found them was engaged to the cook, Lizzie Hayes. Mr Holmes committed suicide rather than face justice. Clearly mad!

26/ Abingdon Murder, August 13th, 1885

27/ Abingdon Murder, September 11th, 1885

28/ Bagley Wood (Murder or Suicide?), near Oxford, October 1893

A gruesome discovery has got tongues wagging in the neighbourhood of Kennington, south of Oxford. A middle-aged woman’s body was found in Bagley Wood. A couple of blokes were gathering wood and the wheel of their cart drove over the body, which was covered over with leaves and bracken. Post-mortem suggests that the body had been there two to three months and the tags on the underclothes bore the name “S.Hall”. A couple of yards from the head was a bonnet, with a handkerchief in it. A few more yards away was a woman’s boot. It looks like murder but it is deemed to be a suicide. The identity of the woman is currently unknown.

29/ Tackley Murder, October 1904

Frank Ernest Allwood, a twenty-nine-year-old carpenter from Birmingham, left home about a month ago in order to seek work elsewhere. He took with him, his £7 he had saved as a back-up. His body was discovered in a barn, covered over with straw. Two tramps were seen in the area watching him and police are yet to find them. “Wilful murder by some person or persons unknown.”

30/ Oriel Street Suicide, Oxford, September 1868

Mr Reynolds, a university grocer of Oriel Street, threw himself from the top floor window onto the pavement below. He was an elderly gentleman but his health had been in decline for quite a while and had recently started to have epileptic seizures. The day before his death he had expressed his wish to kill himself, so with these words friends and family were looking for a place in the lunatic asylum. He was cared for by a nurse at home, but while they were busy he managed to get to the top floor and realize his wish.

31/ River Leach Murders, July 1893

Two children from Little Farringdon in Oxfordshire went missing. The next day, the body of the youngest child, only five years of age, was discovered in the River Leach, and the day after that, the elder child only seven years old was found near the river-side with its throat cut and body mutilated. Police arrested a man, James Lapworth, for the monstrous crime, as he’d been seen hanging around the area.

32/ Harwell Policeman Murder, Oxfordshire April 6th, 1899

Constable Charlton of Harwell in Berkshire, was on Monday set upon by two men and severely kicked. He died on Tuesday night. A hawker has been arrested.

33/ Harwell Policeman Murder, April 7th, 1899

An inquest was held on the body of the policeman Charlton, who died from injuries received in a struggle with two hawkers named Joseph Slatter and Robert James, whom he and another constable had ejected from a public-house. The men attacked them in the road and Charlton was thrown, kicked and fatally injured, with the skull being fractured. A score of bystanders watched the struggle without rendering assistance and Charlton’s comrade was left to cope with his assailants, whom he felled with his staff. A verdict of “Wilful murder” was returned against Slatter and James, who are in custody. (When people stand and watch a brutal attack or murder, it is known as “Genovese Syndrome”. Named after Kitty Genovese, who was murdered in New York and with nobody helping her. Clint Eastwood got the idea for “High Plains Drifter” from reading about the Genovese case.)

34/ Harwell Policeman Murder, April 13th, 1899

35/ Harwell Policeman Murder, June 17th, 1899

36/ Faringdon, April 1899

A young man named Pepler, while handling a toy pistol near Faringdon in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) on Sunday, shot a younger brother, who died on Monday night.

37/ Goring Suicide, July 1887 (Who was she?/Where is she buried?)   – Really sad this one!

The body of a young woman was found in the river at Goring in Oxfordshire. Details that followed the inquest were extremely painful and it seems she was a tall, good-looking lass and arrived in Goring with a gentleman and they rented an apartment at Stanley Villa, living as husband and wife. They both left after a few weeks, but she came back a couple of days later. Mr C. Jewell said that he had met her in Soho where she lived in scruffy digs, but he became interested in her life story. She had been an actress but she had an accident and that stopped her following her profession. She had also been a mistress to an officer who was killed in action in Egypt. Jewell said that seemed unhinged. In a letter from Goring to him, she wrote that she couldn’t stay there and was tired of life. She went back to her apartments in Osnaburgh Street, Regent’s Park, then he heard that she’d gone back to the country and would be back the next day. He thought that was Goring. While they lived in Goring she seemed dependent on him, passing off as man and wife. Notes in a pocket diary were found on her body and they read as follows: “Sunday afternoon. Still here. Cannot bring myself to die in the river. I am not mad. I go, therefore, being quite sane. I am backward to destroy my life. Wood and river full of boats and people. Must remain close. Am so untidy and so ashamed to be seen. July 1st, 9,10. Sunday morning.”

“In the Lockheart Woods, two nights wet through and found no food since I left town last Thursday. For one so carefully hard to bear. The fearful pain in my heart. The dark and lonely woods add to my wretchedness. Yet, alas; I would sooner be this miserable than return to town, where deep and unknown sorrow will be my fate. It’s hard to die young and I try to struggle against it. This unhappy death. I think if some kind friend was only here now, I would listen to advice. But too late. I must die- A.D.”

The letter found on the river bank read:- “Nothing much. Had I been able I should have done the deed last night, but meeting a young Oxford man who so kindly talked to me. How can I forget his sweet manner, and I am now glad I met him, for he unknowingly prolonged my stay on Earth. I only wish I had met him before. Perhaps this never would have befallen me-to die so young as I am- A.S. whoever finds this bag, let this be sent to my friends. P.S. July 8th, 1887- Have been in woods all day with nothing to eat. Am tired and weary tonight. It will soon be over, and after all, what have I to make me stay here?”

38/ Didcot Station Birth, January 1865

 

39/ Deddington- Solicitor Disappears.    July 1870

40/  Eynsham Hall Hunting Fatality,  December 1870  (Eynsham Hall is now a hotel and is at North Leigh)

41/ Fatal Accident to the Superintendent of Berkshire Constabulary, Faringdon.  May 1866

42/ Death of a Lady by Burning, Henley-on-Thames.  October 1866

43/ Two Drown on the Cherwell, Oxford.  June 1903.

Mr C.F.Werren, Queen’s College, Oxford, and Mr C.E.Clemens, Magdalen College, two undergraduates, went out in a canoe on the Cherwell at Oxford on Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday the boat was found in Sandford Lasher. The bodies of the young men have nor been recovered, but there is little doubt that they lost their lives through the capsizing of their frail craft in the swollen stream.

44/ Vicar and a Lad Drowned, Wheatley Railway Bridge,  July 1903.

45/ Body Found in the Thames, Wallingford.  October 1903

46/ Murder by an Organ-grinder, Ewelme.  February 1904.

47/  Confession to a Murder near Woodstock.   February 1906 (Confessed in Lincoln Prison)

48/  Death in University Parks, Oxford.   November 1906.

A painful incident occurred during a game of hockey in the University Parks of Oxford yesterday afternoon. While a practice match was in progress, Mr Claud S.Austin, an undergraduate of Pembroke College, suddenly fell to the ground. Two medical men who happened to be in the Parks made an examination and pronounced life to be extinct, death being due to heart disease. Mr Austin was in his second year of residence. His parents reside in Highbury, London.

49/  Man Run Over by a Train, Banbury?   October 1880

50/  Bicester Gun Fatality.  October 1880

At Bicester, on Saturday night, a labourer named Whitton, who is supposed to have been out poaching, was returning with a loaded gun in his pocket. Within a few minutes walk of his house the gun fell to the ground and went off, and the contents were lodged in his stomach. Medical assistance was obtained, but he died about 5 o’clock the next morning. The deceased, who was about twenty-two years old, leaves a widow and two children.

51/  Suicides at Oxford ( One at Cranham Street)  December 1880

1/ Newark Railway Station Suicide, April 1870

 

 

2/ Rampton, (Childs Body in Trent) April 1884

3/ Nottingham Canal, March 1909 (Mutilated Body Found)

A woman’s leg was fished out of the Nottingham Canal and when later it was dragged, a top half of the body was discovered without any legs. Foul play was ruled out when the surgeon who examined the cadaver, stated that they were torn off, probably by barge propellers. It was also proved that she was dead when the mutilation occurred. The body remains unidentified. The verdict was “Found Drowned”

4/ Trent Railway Station Suicide, Nottingham, May 1867

A young man named Buckoll arrived at the Trent Railway Station and went off to the toilets. Time was passing and the porter hadn’t seen the fella come out, so he decided to see if he was OK. The porter went into the toilets and found him lying on the ground with a knife wound on his throat. He was taken to Nottingham General but died the next day. Buckoll had been despondent for some time and its thought that his recent medical exam failures were the cause of his suicide.

(Trent Station was in Derbyshire strictly speaking, but a few miles from Nottingham)

5/ River Trent, (Infant Remains) December 1880

Human remains were discovered in a cellar in Nottingham and at the same time, a dead child was recovered from the banks or the Trent. An examination was made and it is strongly believed that the young woman, Durant, had given birth in her mother’s house. This got the alarm bells ringing and a search of the cellar in the Durant’s lately occupied, literally dug up some ghastly finds. About seven or eight infants have already been dug up and even more grisly is the finding of a “bricked-up cavity”, and therein were two babies skulls.

6/ Wellesley Street Suicide, Nottingham, March 1892

7/ Mansfield Murder, January 1842

19-year-old dressmaker, Mary Hallam was murdered in Mansfield.John Jones, aka Samuel Moore, shoemaker, came to the area about three years ago and lodged near to Mary’s house. Jones and Mary started to see each other but her parents told him to stay away, he was bad news and a borderline alcoholic. Jones coaxed her into visiting him at work but she made it clear that she wouldn’t marry him. Jones grabbed a knife and cut her throat then left her to bleed to death. He then went out for a few beers with his mates and acted as though nothing had happened. Mary’s father was worried sick and he and others went to look for her. They found her at Jones’s workshop, then he was arrested and then confessed to her murder. Jones was charged with wilful murder at the relatively young age of twenty-four. (Was he hanged?)

8/ Nottingham Skeletons, April 1900

In Nottingham city centre some labourers were working near the front porch of a hotel, when they came upon two skeletons side by side, about a foot below the surface. The medical officer stated that he believed them to have been mutilated then buried as the bones were crushed and holes found in the skulls. No sign of any coffins suggests that these two were buried in a hurry and are suspected murder victims. (How old? Identity found? Where are they now?)

9/ Nottingham Homicide, November 1885

10/ Arnold Murders, July 1909

The inquest on the bodies of Matilda Lambert and her three children, John aged eight; Anne aged five and Samuel aged only two, reveals that the murderer Samuel Atherley tried to commit suicide by cutting his own throat. A coal hammer had been found and the medical examiner said that all of the dead had been smashed on the head with the hammer. Matilda was smacked on the head, lost her bearings or consciousness then had her throat slit by Atherley. The sister of the murdered woman, Mrs Sarah Sabina Watson, stated that her sister had left him many times because of his violent mood swings. (Did he survive?)

11/ Nottingham, (Suicide Revival), June 1845

Richard Fowler a publican at the Masons Arms, Leeming Street in Mansfield who was a dabbler in horse trading left Mansfield and went to Nottingham to pay a Mr Chesters at the Reindeer Inn on Wheelergate for a horse, then went to Mr Weaver at the Talbot Inn where he bedded down for the night. The “boots” went to call him in the morning, but no answer, so they entered and found him in bed, not moving a muscle. The doctor thought he’d been poisoned so they pumped his stomach but nothing came out. They took him to the hospital and applied a good old Victorian cure for most ailments, electricity! He jolted up in bed and exclaimed “Oh God!”, then was well enough to have a cuppa, and then fully revived. He told staff he’d attempted suicide with laudanum and he was carted off to a lunatic asylum. Before going out that day, he’d told his wife that he was going to kill himself but she just laughed it off as if he were attention-seeking.

12/ Nottingham Gaol Suicide, April 1870

A prisoner at the borough gaol in Nottingham, George Moss, who had been given a year inside for “unnatural assaults upon his daughters”, killed himself by hanging. A warder found the dead man in the blacksmiths’ shop where he’d been on working duty, hanging on a staircase.He was about fifty years old and had only been there three months.

13/ Cockflett Hill Hunting Fatality, November 1885

14/ Colwick Hall, (Child Manslaughter), December 1857

A tragic accident occurred at Colwick, when a little girl named Mary Taylor, only eight years old, whose parents had died so she was adopted by her uncle, Richard Caunt, a gamekeeper at Colwick Hall. Mr Caunt went out one morning and rather stupidly left a loaded gun lying around, then Mrs Caunt went out and left the five-year-old daughter and Mary in the care of the nephew, James Caunt. He found the gun and started messing about and his cousin told him to stop messing around with a gun as it may be loaded. He told her it wasn’t, then tried to scare Mary by pointing it at her and it went off shooting her in the chest. Death was instantaneous. An inquest at Colwick Hall, where the accident occurred concluded that it was accidental but told the gamekeeper to keep his guns locked up in future and the boy was told off for messing about with the gun in the first place.

15/ Radcliffe Station Suicide, October 1908

A suicide at Radcliffe Station on the Great Northern Railway near Nottingham was the talk of the town. Frederick Tipler aged fifty-five had been incarcerated in the Nottingham Lunatic Asylum and was being escorted home by his wife and daughter. On the platform at Radcliffe Station, he saw an oncoming express and dived in front of it. When the body was recovered it was badly mangled and thankfully his death must have been instant.

16/ Nottingham Transvestite Suicide, August 1893

A 53-year-old labourer named Chambers was taking care of his sick wife who was bedridden, when he suddenly got hold of her clothes and went downstairs. An hour later he put them on and hung himself from the door, and even went as far as putting on her earrings.

17/ Peas Hill Road Murder, Nottingham, November 1881

18/Newark Railway Tragedy, June 1870 (Fifteen Dead in Train Accident)

A train from King’s Cross, London, was coming into Newark, when a goods train coming in the opposite direction, came off the tracks and went into the path of the passenger train. The result was fifteen dead and dozens injured, some seriously. (The end death toll was eighteen dead/forty injured). The goods train was a Manchester one, which had left Retford. The accident occurred about a mile south of Newark.

19/ Hyson Green, Nottingham, October 1889 (Suicide by Steam Roller)

This is one of the more remarkable suicides I’ve written about on this website! It happened at Hyson Green when a steamroller was being driven along a newly prepared road when suddenly a young man rushes out from the footpath and laid himself under the giant machine. They are not renowned for quick braking and before anyone could do anything, the roller had squashed the poor lad flat. Later on, it was revealed the name of the victim was Frederick William Perrons, a twenty-two-year-old clerk.

20/ Nottingham, (Child Neglect), September 7th, 1885

Nottingham, September 14th, 1885

At Nottingham Town Hall on Saturday, a single woman named Harriet Hitchcock was charged on remand with abandoning her children. The prisoner put her two illegitimate children, twins of six weeks old, in a hamper and placed in each of their mouths the nipple of a feeding bottle containing food and having addressed the hamper to a man at Beckenham in Kent, who she alleged is the father of the children and then forwarded it by the Great Northern Railway from Nottingham. At Cannon Street Station the cries of the children caused the officials to open the hamper and the babies were taken to the workhouse hospital.

21/ Ranskill,  May 1891

A Somerset woman, Eliza Annie Hill, residing in Ranskill killed herself by taking prussic acid. This letter was found on her:

“Dear Mother- I am writing to say goodbye, for by the time you get this I shall be passed away. I am tired of life, and I cannot bring another life to share the misery I have borne and so I am simply going to take some poison to end it all. I should like to have seen you again, but that is past now. The workhouse people will put me away, and so don’t trouble anything about it. With very best love from your loving child, ELIZA.”

The chemist to whom she was a housekeeper in Ranskill, William Dutton, said that they had two children together and he’d promised marriage now and again. She wore a ring and pretended to be his wife. Dutton was condemned for his lax way of keeping his poisons, and his immorality and that he must bear the blame for her suicide.

22/ Nottingham Station, (Body in Parcel), December 1872

A parcel arrived at Nottingham Midland Railway Station, from Bath in the West Country. It had the address “Mr Turner, Cloak Room, Nottingham. To be called for.” Unfortunately, nobody bothered asking for the package and it began to give off an awful stench. Officials opened it and found a body of a full-grown child. Police are investigating the matter.

23/ Retford Suicide, June 1881

24/ Nottingham Lunatic Asylum Suicide, May 1887

In September 1886, Sarah Ann Shaw, a 42-year-old domestic servant was admitted suffering from melancholia. (Depression?) She told them that she had committed a terrible sin and her condition was hopeless. One morning she went missing but a search of the Asylum revealed her body in a bathroom, drowned. She got a ten-pound lump of coal, fastened it around her neck with apron strings then filled a bath and then plopped herself in it, face down.

25/ Gonalstone Railway Fatality, September 1846

A train was on its way to Lincoln when it started to judder up and down; the driver shut off the steam, and next thing he knew he was flung head first off the engine. Henry Glover the stoker, lost his footing and fell between the engine and the tender. The passengers started screaming and shouting and poor Henry could not be wangled out. Horses were used to eventually remove the engine and tender and he was rushed to Hospital. He was that badly mutilated even amputation was impossible and the lad died a few hours later.

26/ Nottingham Wife Murder, September 1885

A labourer named Frederick Mann is in custody at Nottingham charged with causing the death of his wife. It is alleged that on the 16th ult, Mann, on reaching home, flung his wife violently out of the room and then brutally kicked her. The woman was in a delicate condition at the time and she subsequently became seriously ill. Her depositions were taken by one of the borough magistrates on Monday, and sadly she died during the night.

27/ Pedge Level Crossing, Beeston? 1883

28/ Milton Street, Nottingham,  September 1858

James Astley, a photographer, asked his wife to remind him to post a letter. She forgot and he told her off for her forgetfulness. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, because she then walked up to the cupboard where he kept his photographic chemicals and took a swig from a bottle, then asked: “Do you think I have taken enough to kill me?”. He replied, “Why you have not taken any have you?”. With that, she fell down dead.

29/ Mansfield, (Concealing Birth) July 1852

This is a sinister case of a concealment of birth. The four who were implicated were Ann Rayworth, John Harvey, John Heald and Ann Gascoigne. About two months ago Rayworth gave birth to a child, and soon after the birth Harvey was digging in his garden at midnight one night. A small bundle was placed in the hole and then filled in. He went back to the house where Heald (a local quack) was. Ann Gascoigne (Rayworth’s mother) heard Heald say “How deep have you buried it?”, Harvey replied, “About a spade deep”. Later on, an argument broke out between mother and son, when the son in a moment of anger said he would tell someone where the kid was buried. Heald said, “If you say anything about it I will kill you”. The witness told police what had happened and then the garden was dug up and the little corpse taken to the morgue for examination.

30/ Gedling near Nottingham, June 1901 (Fatal Carriage Accident)

A large brake (carriage) with a group of schoolchildren from Bulwell was on its way to Hoveringham Ferry, where they were going to stop for a picnic and was going downhill at Gedling when the harness snapped, causing the driver to lose control. The horses galloped down the hill at a tremendous speed, then overturning at the bottom. A sixteen-year-old lass was killed outright and several others injured.

31/ Lenton Fatality, March 1898

On Friday, William Barrowcliffe, joiner aged about forty was at work upon a scaffold about fourteen feet in height, at some new villas which are in the process of being built upon the Derby Road at Lenton, when he fell to the ground and was instantly killed.

32/ Nottingham, February 1895 (Accidental Death)

33/ Sneinton, Nottingham, December 1880 (Children’s Remains)

Eliza and Kate Durant, mother and daughter, were charged with concealing a birth of a child. Police were searching the premises of Durant when they came upon the remains of several new-born children. In one spot there was something akin to a mini vault which contained bones and remains. Police couldn’t find Kate’s child but the mother gave herself up and soon after the daughter was arrested. The mother’s house was in Cottage Grove, off Walker Street, Sneinton. The two women legged it when police started asking questions. (Did they ever find the child?)

34/ Torworth Grange Suicide, near Retford, May 1873

A young man named John Lancaster, a farmer by trade, hung himself in one of his own chambers at Torworth Grange near Retford. The evidence was sketchy but it was adduced that a few days ago a favourite shepherd’s dog crossed his master’s path and he was so mad that he took it to the barn and hung it. Lancaster had been drinking for a number of days before he killed himself. The family doctor confirmed that he thought that the lad was insane.

35/ Nottingham, February 1879

Myra Widdowson aged sixteen, committed suicide, due to her feeling depressed about rumours that were going around that she had slept with her friends’ husband. Myra was a bridesmaid at their wedding and somehow these vicious rumours started to circulate, so she got some poison and took it. I hope the rumour-mongers were caught.

36/ Seven Stars Inn, Hucknall, June 1888 (Still there-on West Street)

37/ Nottingham, (Decomposing Body) July 1866

A policeman from the Nottinghamshire Constabulary named Beardsley, was fired for incompetency early in 1866. He was married and co-habited with another woman. Then a month ago he went missing, then the woman who he co-habited with asked the magistrates what she should do with his kids. One morning a man named Guy went into an abandoned house in Great Alfred Street, when he smelt something awful. It came from a W.C. and the door was jammed, but when forced open, he found the body of a man on the seat whose face had been eaten away by maggots. A bottle of Prussic acid was next to him and physically he could not be identified, but fortunately, papers and other bits and bobs were taken to be the property of Beardsley.

38/ Nottingham Synagogue Suicide, October 1859

At 6-30 p.m. an explosion rocked the synagogue staircase at Nottingham. An investigation revealed a man’s body on the bottom step and blood pouring from a head wound, with a gun next to the body. In his pockets were a lot of pellets and a couple of letters as well. He was a Jewish man by the name of Henry Abrahams, who turned up in Nottingham a while back in a state of destitution.

39/ Retford Workhouse Death,  June 1895

40/ Nottingham Gaol Suicide, January 1870

Henry Sharpe was in Nottingham Town Gaol for eighteen months hard labour for bigamy. He clearly couldn’t take prison life, so he threw himself over the railings in the gaol and was caught by the neck by a warder, but he scrambled to get free and fell to the prison floor. He then ran up the steps and dived off onto a sky-light, around twenty-five feet high and this did the trick as he died next morning. In his cell he had written on a slate-“Rather than submit to be duped, I have done this-5th January 1870. Give love to all my friends, and tell my two brothers to keep clear of getting into any trouble to get into prison, it will ruin them. It will break my poor mother’s heart; give my love to her, and tell her that I was compelled to do it. I have not any blood in me. I have been dying upwards some time. I am in my sober senses, but it is tried to be made out I am not. My head is clear as ever it was.”

41/ Ratcliffe Gambler’s Suicide, May 1877

Thomas Newham, stocking maker aged fifty years and from Burton Joyce, like most Victorian men enjoyed a flutter at the bookmakers. On Whit Monday and Tuesday he went a handicap meeting at Sheffield and lost a s**tload of money. He still had a few quid left but was down in the dumps and then the next night he was at it again, but before he went, he gave his son a tenner and told him he was off to see his sister in Whittington in Derbyshire and wasn’t coming back, so he could have the home and all its contents. He never went, instead of going to Ratcliffe, over the Trent, where he went to a few pubs and then shot himself in the mouth with a revolver. There were a load of betting slips in his pockets and some letters. Newham was placed in an asylum many years ago and was thought to be insane.

42/ South Wheatley Murder, near Retford, November 12th, 1881

43/ South Wheatley Murder, December 10th, 1881

44/ Nottingham Double Murder, November 1900

In 1898 Charles Edward Canham arrived in Nottingham from Birmingham to take up the post of district agent for Gresham Assurance Company. The forty-nine-year-old was married and had eleven children to clothe and feed. One night, the youngest boy aged three years, slept with his mother, but the next morning as they didn’t make an appearance when one of his daughters went to knock on the door. The father told her not to disturb them as they were OK. When a few hours had gone by and still no sign of them, the elder kids decided to force open the door. Mrs Canham was lying on the bed with her face and head smashed in with a coal hammer. The child’s throat had been slashed with a carving knife. Meanwhile, the father had taken some poison and was in a semi-conscious state. (Did he survive?)

45/ Nottingham Murder, May 11th, 1885

A man named Joseph Tucker, a shoe riveter, is in custody in Nottingham for committing a dreadful assault upon a woman named Williamson with whom he lived. He went home on Saturday night in a drunken state and beat her severely, then poured some paraffin over her and deliberately set fire to her by lighting it with a match. The woman was fearfully burned and was taken to the hospital, where her depositions were taken yesterday. Last night she lay in a hopeless condition.

Nottingham Murder, May 16th, 1885

Elizabeth Williamson, whose paramour Edward Tucker is charged with unlawfully wounding her, died in the Nottingham General Hospital yesterday. On Saturday night while drunk, Tucker poured a quantity of paraffin all over her then set fire to it.

46/ Nottingham Murder, July 14th, 1885

47/ Nottingham Murder, August 3rd, 1885

Mr B.H.Cockayne, of Nottingham, who has been working to secure the commutation of the sentence of death passed on the man Tucker, for the murder of his paramour, Elizabeth Williamson, by pouring paraffin on her then setting light to her, has received a reply to a number of petitions to the effect that the Home Secretary has been unable to find any sufficient grounds to justify him advising Her Majesty to interfere with the due course of the law. The petitions alleged that the prisoner was so drunk at the time as to have no consciousness of what he was doing.

48/ Nottingham Murderer Execution, August 4th, 1885

49/ Gringley-on-the-Hill, (Motorcycle Fatality) May 1920

50/ Misterton/Stockwith Suicide, December 1897

51/ Walkeringham Murder, March 1860

Charles Spencer, a cattle-dealer, lived at Walkeringham, and his body was discovered in a ditch, not more than fifty yards from his front door by some labourers on their way to work. He had suffered two gunshot wounds to the face, plus he had his neck slashed twice, extending from the back of the head to the wind-pipe, dividing the carotid artery. Deceased had been to Gainsborough Market and had been paid a large sum of money and on his way back home, stopped off at the Walkerith Ferry pub. He was joined by three other men, Mr Anderson a farmer, John Fenton the landlord of the Three Shoes pub, Walkeringham and a labourer named James Fenton. They all crossed the Trent at 10-40 p.m., and after crossing the two Fentons went in another direction and Anderson saw him when he got home and carried on a bit further. John Fenton was taken into custody, having gun caps on his person and having bloodied clothes at home, being washed. (What happened after that?)

52/ Saundby Marsh Railway Death, November 1884

On Saturday a fatal accident occurred on the Great Eastern Railway near Gainsborough. A cottager named James Matthews, a resident at Bole, was with two grand-children driving some beasts across the line at Saundby Marsh when the two o’clock last train from Doncaster to Lincoln was due. A calf escaped down the line and Matthews, who was seventy years of age and very deaf, pursued it. The train at that time was travelling at high speed, struck the unfortunate man violently and death was instantaneous.

53/ Misterton/West Stockwith Tragedy, March 1900

A dreadful tragedy has been reported from near Gainsborough. The district relieving officer found an old and destitute bedridden woman, along with four destitute children in the village of West Stockwith. Nearby was the corpse of an infant who had died three days ago from typhoid. A search and further questioning concerning the whereabouts of the parents was partaken of. It was presumed the two of them had abandoned the waifs, but the bodies of the couple were discovered drowned in the idle Misterton Pumping Station.

54/ Bole Railway Crossing, April 1886 (Accidental Death)

 

55/  Newark Railway Tragedy,  July 1870. (Public Meeting)  June 21st 1870, two trains collided killing eighteen passengers and injuring forty others.  The investigation found that an axle broke on the goods train, and the excursion train collided with the debris on the track.

56/ Nottingham Railway Station Fatality,  August 1870.

57/ Radford, Nottingham (Fatal Explosion)   September 1870

An inquest was held on Friday afternoon at Nottingham General Hospital, before Coroner Browne, on the body of Samuel Rice, who met with his death on the previous day. About six o’clock in the morning, as the workpeople employed by Messrs. Stevenson and Musson, of Radford, were assembling for work, they heard a loud crash, and it was then found that the boiler had exploded and that the deceased, who was a fireman, was fearfully scalded. He was rushed to the hospital, where every assistance was rendered to him. The unfortunate man lingered until night and then expired. Jury’s verdict- “Accidental Death”.

58/ Newark Boating Death,  May 1902.

On Monday morning four members of the Newark Rowing Club went up the Trent in a small boat and put up sail near Farndon. A strong wind capsized the craft, precipitating the occupants into deep water. Two of the men only could swim, and they made a gallant effort to save their comrades, but unfortunately, Jack Castle, aged twenty, son of Mr Castle, coach-builder, Newark, was drowned.

59/  Suicide at the River Trent near Newark, March 1902  (Girl had allegedly been raped in Skegness)

60/  Two Drown on the River Trent, Colwick.  October 1903.

A boating accident, resulting in the loss of two lives, which occurred on the River Trent at Colwick, near Nottingham, on Sunday afternoon, formed the subject of a coroner’s inquiry yesterday. The names of the deceased are William John Maddocks, a petty officer in the Royal Navy, who was home on furlough, and William Simpkin, a local civilian. At the time of the accident, Maddocks was rowing, and when, through a sudden movement of his companion, the boat capsized he made a gallant effort to swim ashore with Simpkin under his arms. A verdict of “Accidental Death” was returned.

61/ Murder/Suicide at Nottingham,  October 1903.

Henry Smedley, a tinman, aged sixty, of Nottingham, yesterday attacked his son Frank, aged fourteen, with a table knife whilst in the boy’s bedroom and inflicted a deep gash in his throat, which proved to be fatal in a few minutes. The man afterwards cut his own throat and died almost immediately. The discovery of the bodies was made by Mrs Smedley, the only other occupant of the house, who was at the time engaged in the domestic duties downstairs. It is said that Smedley behaved strangely of late.

62/  Drowning in Retford Canal,  February 1903.

63/ Jane Doe Dies on the Streets, Nottingham.  October 1904. (A sad story that sums up life in the Victorian era)

64/  Midland Station Fatality, Nottingham.  July 1904

65/  Man Cuts Throat of Granddaughter, Retford.   September 1905

66/  Strange Death of a Child, Worksop.  June 1905.

The three-year-old daughter of John Gillespie, pit sinker, of Worksop, has been drowned under strange circumstances. Her father, while fishing in the River Ryton, saw his little daughter disappear in some nettles. The child had slipped into a large drain and was carried by the current into an eighteen-inch drainpipe, where she became fast in the centre. The father secured a spade, and having dug the earth from the pipe, smashed it open with a hammer, but when the child was got out she was dead. At the inquest, on Tuesday a verdict of “Accidentally drowned” was returned.

67/  Fatal Fall From a Window, Forster Street, Nottingham.   August 1905.

68/  Nottingham Wife Murder,  March 1906.  (Annie Brown Langstaff murdered by her husband)

69/  Drunken Quarrel Ends in Murder, Nottingham.   December 1906 (The actual murder occurred in Hungerhill Road, Nottingham. Mary Hutchby was reprieved, from capital sentence to one of penal servitude for life. It was alleged she was subject to severe cruelty and the jury recommended mercy on the grounds of provocation)

70/  Murder in a Travel Agents, Nottingham.  December 1906 (William Sanday murdered James Smith in a branch of Thomas Cook)

71/  Three Children Murdered, Nottingham.  August 1907

A shocking tragedy took place in Nottingham on Tuesday night. A gardener, Stephen Ross, in the employ of Alderman F.R. Radford, of Cedar Lodge, Tunnel Road, The Park, in the absence of his wife, attacked four of his five children, cutting the throats of three, including a twelve-month-old baby, so badly that they died before medical assistance could be procured, wounding a fourth boy, and then cutting his own throat so severely that he was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

72/  Sad Death in a Village Chapel, Scrooby.   March 1907

During service at the Wesleyan Chapel, Scrooby, on Sunday evening, some confusion was caused by the sudden and fatal illness of a young girl named Violet Bell. The deceased was eighteen years of age, and a native of Mattersey, near Retford, was in domestic service at Scrooby. She appears to have enjoyed good health, and it is supposed that heart failure was the immediate cause of death. As soon as it was seen what had happened, Dr Johnson was summoned, but the girl was past medical aid and seems to have expired at the time the service was interrupted.

73/ Attempted Murder/Suicide in Nottingham.   September 1907

74/  Guard Killed at Retford Railway Station.   August 1907

75/  Discovery of Human Remains, Nottingham.  December 1880 ( In a terrace off Walker Street, Sneiton, named Cottage Grove. Police dug in the cellar and found the bodies of several new-born children. The cellar was a miniature cemetery)