1/ Ledbury,  October 1869 – Vicar has a fling with cook and she returns with a baby!

2/ Hope Mansell, November 1870 (Suicide on Son’s Grave)

There’s a grave in Hope Mansell churchyard which was the scene of a melancholy suicide. William Symonds Rootes was a doctor in nearby Ross (on Wye) and had been in financial difficulty, this being so, he was bankrupt and had his possessions sold off at auction. Several months previously his son had died rather suddenly, where he was practising in a London hospital. Don’t forget that in these days there was no Social Security or any help of any kind. Physically and mentally he was drained so he decided on suicide by poison, next to his beloved son.

3/ Green Dragon Hotel Suicide, Hereford, March 1897

A travelling salesman while staying at the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford, decided to end his life in his bedroom. The man had stabbed himself sixteen times in the chest and abdominal area of his body. In the room was found an envelope addressed to “H.S.Green, c/o Miss O’Connor, 53, Abbey Road, St John’s Wood, London”. He was still alive and told a member of staff that he’d been accused of the murder of his housekeeper. (Who was he?)

4/ Orleton Wife Murder, January 1885

5/ Orleton Wife Murder, May 6th, 1885

 

6/ Hereford, (Concealment of Birth) November 1898

Mary Ann Matthews was charged with concealment of birth in April last. Her husband married her in August and afterwards found the body in the cellar. He then panicked and buried it in the garden, but his conscience got the better of him, and he went to police and told them everything.

 7/ Kingsland (Lady’s Suicide) August 1871

8/ Shobdon Court, May 1857 (Two Men Killed)

A tragic accident has taken place at Shobdon Court, the seat of Lord Bateman, resulting in the deaths of two workmen, who were working at the mansion. Some alterations were being made and extensive arches were part of these. As the carpenters and masons were busy an arch gave way, burying several men. Word was sent to Leominster where the families of the men lived, that four had been killed and could they get to the hospital and find out. Eventually, the news came through that only two had been killed, they were Edward Ellis and Thomas Jones, and there were four serious injuries. Shobdon Court was demolished in 1933.

9/ Ashperton near Ledbury, April 1851

A blacksmith called Mattey who lived in the village of Ashperton near Ledbury committed suicide. He had done this kind of thing before, when 17 years ago he worked for E.T.Foley M.P., at Stoke Edith Park, and was fired when he began a relationship with a “disreputable woman”. This depressed him somewhat, and he tried to drown himself in the River Froom but was stopped. More recently the business had dropped off, and the depression started up again.A local bobby saw him go into the workshop at 5 a.m., and shortly after this a sound of a firearm going off was reported, and on inspection, they found him with a hole in his chest and a discharged gun next to him.

10/ Bromyard Family Poisoned, June 1899

11/ Hereford Triple Suicide, June 1864

Three suicides in Hereford on one day. George Brookes, who was experiencing financial difficulties slit his throat, while the family had gone to church. A man rushed into the church while the service was going on and asked for surgeons to help him as a man had attempted suicide. There was great consternation in the St Peter’s church congregation.

Another suicide was that of a man and wife named Went, who lives at Burcot Row and he too had been extremely unlucky recently and suffered misfortune, then hearing about Brookes suicide he thought he’d follow suit. The wife then walked in and thinking she’d be accused of murder, she decided to end it all and picked up the razor and cut a fearful gash across her throat. Brookes died, Went is serious and his missus might well recover.

12/ Bromyard Murder? December 1835

A skeleton of a man was unearthed on the old Hereford Road near Bromyard and lay eighteen inches under the surface. It was in excellent condition and had been covered with a large flagstone, leaning against a rock. It is believed that the corpse was buried about twenty years ago. One such possibility is that of a Welsh drover who used to flash the cash about. He stayed in Bromyard for a couple of days, going in pubs, generally making sure people knew he had a few quid and since then has never been seen again. Someone remembered hearing shouts of “Murder!” coming from a lodging-house in Sheep Street, but locals thought it was a wife beater in the neighbourhood. It is now being treated as a case of murder, as there can be no doubt it is the body of the drover.

13/ Weobley Murder, October 2nd, 1885

Weobley, October 13th, 1885

At Weobley, Herefordshire, the two men John Hill and John Williams, charged with the murder of Ann Dixon on the 30th ult, were committed for trial.

14/ Weobley Murder, November 5th, 1885

15/ Eastnor Castle Attempted Murder, November 1856

The castle above, was the scene of an attempted murder by a valet, on Lord Somers. As I can make out, it was about a missing item of luggage that the murder attempt was about. The valet was a Swiss national who had been in the service of his Lordship for fifteen years. When the family arrived at Eastnor Castle, the luggage was removed and taken indoors, but when the items were checked it was found that a parcel had disappeared. His lordship sent for the valet and had a word with him in private, in the library. The valet was in an agitated mood and when some time elapsed his Lordship was heard to shout for help. The other domestics ran in and saw the valet standing over him with a small dagger in his hand but he somehow escaped. The strange thing is that the matter was at the time “hushed up” and another servant had disappeared from the estate. (Was he ever caught?)

16/ Hom Green near Ross-on-Wye, (Mother’s Suicide) February 1840

This is a woman with a disturbed mind! Mrs Smith, the wife of a farmer at Hom near Ross, put the three kids to bed put on her shawl and bonnet, went into the parlour, locked the door, climbed out the window and walked as calmly as you like down to the river.  She then took off her hat and bonnet and jumped into the Wye and drowned herself. Mrs Smith was found downstream,  snagged on a bush on the bank. It was found by Mr Smith who had asked where his wife was and when he tried the door and found it was locked, he realised something was wrong. He wandered down the river and saw her body floating in the river

17/ Dinmore Wood Murder, near Hereford, May 1878

The dead body of a woman was discovered in Dinmore Wood, about seven miles from Hereford, in a horrendous state of decomposition. Post-mortem examination results point to the fact that the body had been there at least a month and identification has been impossible. All they know is that she was a woman aged 25-40 and her clothing is of a smart appearance. It seems that some kind of struggle occurred at the scene and drag marks were found near the body, which means she murdered. The unknown woman had suffered two fractures of the skull and may have been sexually assaulted. The place near here is popular with picnickers and there was a large picnic party about a month back, but nobody has reported any missing persons. (Who was she?)

18/ Garway Attempted Murder and Suicide,  December 1870.

19/ Appalling Treatment of Idiot Boy, Hereford.  January 1867

20/ Gun Accident at Ross-on-Wye,  November 1866

An accident, which may be attended with fatal results, has happened to Lieutenant-Colonel Timbrell, formerly of Her Majesty’s 58th Regiment, and late Paymaster of the Sanatorium, Cape of Good Hope. In stooping to pick up some game, one barrel of the fowling piece was accidentally discharged. The shot entered his instep, passing almost through it. the foot has been amputated, but the gallant offu=icer, who has fought his country’s battles unscathed in every quarter of the globe, lies at Ross, in Herefordshire, in a very precarious state. (Did he make it?)

21/  Murder at Tarrington, near Ledbury.  November 30th, 1903.

22/ Wife Murder near Leominster,  November 30th, 1903. (Mortimer’s Cross Inn is still there!)

15th December 1903.

William Haywood, a roadman, aged sixty-one, was hanged at Hereford this morning for the murder of his wife in a quarry at Lucton, near Leominster. The man was found trundling a wheelbarrow in which was the terribly mutilated body of the woman. Haywood behaved with the greatest callousness at the trial, and while awaiting execution in prison.

1/ Wealdstone, Harrow,  January 1894  (Remains of Three Children in a Box)

While cleaning at Weald Cottages, a woman found a box that contained the remains of three children. The police are making enquiries into the cause of death and who put them there. (Whose kids were they?)

2/ Rayners Lane, Pinner, (Childs Body Found) September 1895

Two brothers were picking blackberries down Rayner’s Lane in Pinner one evening when they stumbled across the dead body of a baby boy wrapped in brown paper who had then been stuffed in some nettles. The police surgeon stated that the baby had been born alive and had died from exposure, after living for 24 hours. The corpse was badly decayed, but it bore no signs of violence upon it.

3/ Harrow (Corpse in Haystack) August 1896

This is in the days when Harrow actually had some fields and greenery around it. At a farm in Harrow while cutting hay from last years rick’s, the hay-cutter struck something hard. He pulled out the object and to his horror, it was a human arm. The body, supposedly of a man in working-class clothes, was probably in there since last year’s hay-making. He was unknown and had more than likely been suffocated or covered over by farm workers by accident. It will remain a mystery.

4/ Grove Hill Car Crash, Harrow,  March 1899

 

5/ Harrow (Gets Step-daughter Pregnant)  October 1906

This is a stomach-churning story of a man taking advantage of a young girl. John Jolly aged thirty-nine from Harrow was charged with abducting 15-year-old Mary Alice Johns. He had been living with her mother but had had sex with her before she was thirteen. The result of this was a child born in February 1904  and she had pleaded with him to marry her but he said it was no use until she was sixteen. The mother promised not to tell anyone as he promised to mend his ways and give up drinking. The child was put on the birth register as Johnson. (What happened to the dirty old git?)

6/ Harrow Station Railway Disaster,  December 14th, 1870  (The Inquest)

7/ Harrow Station Railway Disaster,  December 16th, 1870  (The Inquest)

1/ Crouch Hill (Mother/Child Deaths) July 1880

A house in Stroud Green Road, Crouch Hill, was being looked after by a servant girl while the family were away. She was not seen for some time and police were called to the address where they found the young girl and the body of a new-born child. Both had died from lack of medical attention, but she had made the effort to keep the child warm by wrapping it in clothing

2/ Wood Green Suicide, October 1877 (Weird Letter)

Here’s a suicide note that Sherlock Holmes would have struggled to work out. It was 28- year -old Karl Hildenbrand, found in a field by a gentleman’s dog on Saturday evening. He was ten yards from the path and had a gold watch and nearly a £1 in money and some papers left on his person. There were two gunshot wounds, one in the ribs and then the deadly one in the forehead. The police surgeon reckoned that he had run some distance after the first shot before putting the gun to his head and pulling the trigger. An address card had Karl Hildenbrand written on it, and also “Take care, there are some more shots in it”. Another scrap of paper was also on the body and this little outburst of gibberish read: “Hampstead Heath (erased) Unique scalping; Red Indian jungle; unmitigated international atrocities; Almighty moonshine; Ichthyosaurus Hyperborean; Atheistic outlaw; Departure to the Styx of two honorary members of the Skeleton Club”. Go figure that one out!

3/ Alexandra Palace Acrobat Death, May 1899

Did Hardy survive or did he die from his injuries?

4/ St Ann’s Road, Tottenham, (Childs Head Found) January 1890

The charred head of a child has been discovered in the garden of a house at St Ann’s Road in Tottenham. It was taken to the local mortuary to await an inquest. (Who was it?)

5/ Alexandra Palace, May 1887 (Child Remains)

Whilst a police officer was on his beat around the premises at Alexandra Palace, he found a fish-basket which when opened contained the dead bodies of two baby girls. They were wrapped in sack-cloth, and there has been no sign of an identification. The remains were taken to Tottenham to await an inquest there.

6/ Tottenham Suicide, September 1847

There was much chatter about the streets of Tottenham regarding the discovery of a foreign-looking gentleman who had committed suicide. Workmen were near the banks of the River Lea when they saw him come running down towards it. They realised his intentions and went after him, but when he got the water’s edge he pulled out two pistols and pointed one at his head and fired. He fell into the Lea and his lifeless corpse was dragged out. He was quite dead and had no identification on him.

7/ Tottenham, July 1895 (Death by Tickle?)

8/ Quernmore Road, Stroud Green, (Chemistry Set Suicide) February 1918

The 14-year-old schoolboy, Arthur George Easterbrook, who resided with his parents at Quernmore Road, Stroud Green, had a huge interest in chemistry. Unfortunately, his parents never bought him any chemistry equipment so he nicked some bit and bobs from Hornsey Council School. The teachers had noticed stuff going walkabout and two of the masters went to Easterbrook’s home to see what apparatus he had there. A short while later the boy went to his room, wrote a letter saying he hoped that the verdict would not be “Temporarily Insane”, and put his chemical knowledge to some use when he next took some cyanide of potassium and killed himself.

9/ Ridley, Whitly and Co, West Green, Tottenham, February 1895

A terrible accident occurred on Thursday at Messrs.Ridley, Whitly and Co’s oilcloth factory at West Green, Tottenham. A young fellow engaged in the machine room, named W.F.Goodchild, aged 18 years, was caught by the belting and was whirled up into the shafting, being instantly killed.

10/ Crouch End Station Suicide, December 1896

John Dexter from Highgate, a well-known evangelist who was a missionary to the men of the Great Northern & North London Railways, stood calmly in front of the 3-52 from High Barnet to Broad street at Crouch End Station. There were numerous passengers waiting at the station and they witnessed Dexter methodically jump on the tracks and face the oncoming engine. He waved an umbrella (Why is not certain?), and as the driver slammed on the brakes the whole train passed over him. Amazingly, he was pulled from under the train alive and rushed off to the hospital but he died a few hours after admittance.

11/ Philip Lane Murder, Tottenham, November 1910

This is a tragedy that could have been named after this website but that stemmed from the jealousy of the boyfriend, which is another common cause for murder in Victorian Britain. Harry Bright from Steele Road, Tottenham, went to see his girlfriend Bessie Lister, at her house at No 46, Durham Road, Philip Lane. They were chatting away in the back passage for quite a few minutes when Bessie came scampering into the kitchen holding her throat. Her step-mother caught the poor girl and a doctor was called for. He arrived too late and pronounced her dead, due to the jugular vein and carotid artery being slashed. The obvious murderer, Harry Bright, didn’t try to escape or flee but he walked into Tottenham Police Station and gave himself up. The murder weapon, a cut-throat razor, was found on him.

12/ New River near Umfreville Road, Haringey, (Drowning) March 1899

13/ No.6, Spencer Road, Tottenham, May 1884 (Child Murder)

A tragic case of child murder discovered purely by accident occurred at a Victorian equivalent of a council estate. The Industrial Dwelling Association has an estate in Tottenham, and are a group of houses for working-class families at an affordable rent. The company boss employed a cleaner named Miller to polish up the houses ready for when a new tenant was due in. Miller got told to go and clean No 5 Spencer Road, but she went into No 6 by mistake. She saw blood stains on the floor and which formed a trail to the cupboard. The dead body of a child covered in blood was the cause of the blood spatters and police surgeons reckon that due to the decomposition. It was estimated that it had lain there for at least three weeks.

14/ Holmdale Villa, Palace Road, Hornsey, August 1885

This is the suicide of a lady named Annie Wilson aged thirty-three, and living at Holmdale Villa, Palace Road, Hornsey, and the amazing nature of it. Recently she had been showing signs of hysterical mania, and due to these outbursts, she had to have a woman by her side in case she attempted anything serious. Dr Chitty advised that she be admitted to St Luke’s Asylum, and on the day she was due to be taken there she asked Dr Chitty if he could come with her to the institution. She also gave him some coffee granules and said it had poison in it, and could he analyse them for her. Chitty left but was back within the hour as she had taken the stopper from a bottle of shampoo and rammed it down her throat causing her to choke violently, then die. Many efforts were made to remove it but it was so tightly crammed in there it was not possible to get it out. A letter from Wilson to Dr Chitty read: “I beg you in God’s name to give me something to poison me. Think what an object of horror I am. I shall never sleep again. God forgive me. To Dr Chitty.”. The coroner mentioned that if insane people wanted to kill themselves they would somehow find a way. He told of a case of a clergyman who had suicidal tendencies and had four attendants watching him day and night, but he got tiny pieces of rope from the books he was brought, and over a nine-month period crafted a home-made rope from them, then hung himself.

15/ Moselle Avenue, Noel Park, Wood Green, November 1906 (Double Murder)

A lodger at the house at 149, Moselle Avenue, Noel Park, Wood Green, by the name of Arthur Chopping, a baker by trade, murdered in cold blood the two children that also lived there. The mother, Mrs Yorke, put 4-year-old Francis, and two-year-old Beatrice to bed at 7-30 p.m leaving Chopping alone with them. She came back an hour later and found the place was pitch black, and when the light was put on there were bloodstains everywhere. On running upstairs she found Frank lying on the bed with his throat slit and a razor also on the bed, then moving to another room she found her daughter had also had her throat cut. Chopping had walked to the police station and started a violent scrap with a policeman while screaming “I want blood”. He collapsed with exhaustion and was put in a cell. Chopping was charged with the murder of the two children.

16/ Noel Park, Wood Green, December 1885

17/ Alexandra Palace Fire, August 1873 (Bodies Found)

(The Ally Pally opened on May 24th,1873. Sixteen days later it was burned to a cinder, killing three members of staff. It was reopened in 1875.) This was the appalling discovery of the bodies of two sisters, Mrs Everett, of 13 Grove Road, and Mrs Constable of Seven Sisters Road in Holloway found amongst the rubble and ashes of Alexandra Palace. They left home on the 24th June to visit the horse show at Alexandra Park and hadn’t been seen since. Richard Hughes was working on the tidying up operation of the building when he came upon the two decomposed, partially buried women. The only thing that could identify them was remnants of their dresses and Mr Everett confirmed that they were the clothes worn by both women. Police ruled out foul play by the position they were found in which was lying face down with masonry on top of them, and arms interlinked, showing that they had been suddenly been overcome by some sort of disaster. Mrs Everett’s skeletal right hand was clinging to both ladies parasol’s.

Alexandra Palace Fire, October 1873

The body of the night watchman at the Alexandra Palace, Richard Norman, has been found in the rubble of that building. He was killed by suffocation and severe burns and was found near the place he was last seen.

18/ Hornsey Wood Bridge Suicide, September 1863

Henry Alfred Powell, aged 23, killed himself under some circumstances at Hornsey Wood Bridge on the New River. He had lived with his father until recently when his sister spotted an ad in the Clerkenwell News from a young girl saying “Henry meet me”. When asked if he was the Henry mentioned he flew into a rage and left the house and vanished for several weeks. When he finally came back his clothes were in tatters and he was emaciated. He told them he had been all over the country. He didn’t stay long, and this was the last time they saw him alive. A chap named Wagon, saw Powell lying on a table in the Manor House Tavern (also where the inquest was held), then he got up and walked down Green Lanes towards the New River. Very early one morning a policeman found his body floating on the New River while he walking over the Hornsey Wood Bridge. He had gold jewellery on him and a bit of cash, so he wasn’t robbed or beaten up by anyone else, so it must have been suicide.

19/ Tottenham, (Remains of Baby) December 1906

20/ Seven Sisters Road/New River, April 1885

 

21/  Northumberland Park Railway Death,  August 1870     (Northumberland Park Station used to called Park Station)

 

22/ Hornsey Station Fatality,  September 1870

23/ Body Found on Tottenham Marshes, February 1902  (plus George Woolf Execution at Newgate)

May 10th, 1902.   Execution at Newgate of George Woolf.

24/  Tottenham Butcher’s Suicide,  September 1903.

25/ Boy’s Body Found in the River Lea,  July 1903.

26/ Double Suicide on Lordship Lane, Tottenham.  November 1904.  (Married Man and Teenage Girl Take Poison)

27/  Double Child Murder at Wood Green.  November 19th, 1906

December 1906.

At the Central Criminal on Thursday, Arthur Chopping, indicted for the murder of Francis and Clara Yorke, aged four and two respectively, the daughters of his landlady at Wood Green, was found guilty, but insane, and he was ordered to be detained during the King’s pleasure. The day before the tragedy, Chopping had been told he could not stay in the house any longer. The children’s heads were severed with a razor.

28/  Two Men Suffocate to Death, Tottenham.  November 1880

29/  Fatal Railway Accident, near Hornsey Station.   October 1880

30/  Finsbury Park Murder. November 1880 (William Herbert shot Jane Messenger)

Tuesday 30th November 1880.

Monday, December 13th, has been fixed for the execution of within the walls of Newgate Gaol, of William Herbert, who was convicted of the murder at Finsbury Park. A communication by the Sheriffs to this effect was received without emotion or apparent concern.

1/ Southsea Pier Fatality, June 1907

 

Three workmen were employed in the reconstruction of the Pier at Southsea when in a freak accident, a half ton girder fell into the water and sank the boat in which they were working. Two of them were rescued but Thomas Pinchborne aged thirty-six years was consumed by the Solent.

2/ Woolston near Southampton, May 1879 (Twisted bloody family or what?)

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3/ Aldershot Murder, September 1884

 

5/ Woolston near Southampton, April 1903 (Young Girl’s Remorse)

This is a story of remorse and how it can affect you. Kate Ranger took her little sister out for a walk on a Bank Holiday and lost her. This had a terrible effect on the sixteen-year-old lass. Thinking she’d be lying dead somewhere, she proceeded to hang herself. Tragically just after finding her body, it turned out that her sister had been found and was safe and sounds with family friends.

6/ South Cavalry Barracks Suicide, Aldershot, August 1896

7/ Strange Aldershot Fatality, October 1896

8/ Eastney Barracks Murder/Suicide, Portsmouth, January 1910

A sergeant of the Royal Marine Artillery was found with a female on the beach near Eastney Barracks in Portsmouth. Henry Cheeseman and his sister-in-law, who had been living with Cheeseman and his wife and family, is believed to have killed her first and then himself. A letter was found with the bodies, but police never disclosed any of the details therein. Police have questioned neighbours and it appears that a shot from a rifle was heard the night before and in the area where the bodies were discovered. They were found by a coastguard, while he was patrolling the area and judging by the injuries sustained it seems that Cheeseman stood over the woman and shot her at point-blank range with his Lee-Metford rifle, then walked up the beach for a few yards and then shot his own brains out. Her brains were protruding and he only had half a head. The woman held a fur boa to her head when she was shot and has been identified as a domestic servant named Lefevre, twenty-one years of age.

9/ Southampton Suicide Pact, March 1919

A suicide pact between two girls was committed at Southampton. Ada Mary Brown who was eighteen and Daisy Winifred Holloway, aged sixteen were both found drowned in a pond with their wrists tied together with a scarf. A letter was posted by Daisy, shortly before her suicide and arrived the day of her death and it read:

“I am, oh, so tired of life, and so have put an end to my miserable existence. I must close now, my time is very short, Your broken-hearted daughter, Daisy P.S.- I am not alone in doing this thing. I don’t think I should have the courage alone, but Ada is going with me, mother. I am too tired to wish to live. Life is such a mockery.”

10/ Dogmersfield Park,  April 1875 (Butler Suicide)

The butler to Sir H.Mildmay of Dogmersfield Park, Hampshire, had just attended to his duties, then he went upstairs to his living quarters and cut his throat with a pair of scissors. Other servants found him sitting on the floor trying to get his fingers in the wound and pull it open. Doctors tended to him and managed to keep him alive, but he eventually slipped away a day later. The verdict was “Temporary Insanity.”

11/ Aldershot Fatal Affray, July 1885

12/ Gosport, February 1901 (Murder/Suicide)

William J.Cooper, murdered his four-year-old son, Albert Edward, by shooting him in the head as he lay in bed and then he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head also. Cooper was a widower and had a couple of kids, but since he lost his business and his wife, things got on top of him and he decided to commit this heinous crime.

13/ Aldershot, August 1918 (U.S. Soldiers Suicide)

A United States engineer, Private Leslie B.Handy, aged twenty-six, shot himself at Cowshot Camp while under detention. Captain Axtell of the U.S.Army said some money went missing, so the men in the tent were searched and the money was found in Hardy’s possession, so he was placed under detention in his own tent. The guard left him alone for a moment and then heard a shot.

14/ Eastney, Portsmouth September 1906

The Reverend J.White, retired minister, was drowned while bathing at Eastney, Portsmouth. His brother-in-law made desperate but ineffectual efforts to save him.

15/ Swanwick Murder, April 1899

Charles Maidment, a market gardener aged twenty-two, fatally shot his sweetheart, Doris Houghton at Swanwick near Fareham. He afterwards surrendered to police. It is believed that there had been a quarrel between the couple.

16/ Andover Suicide, January 1905

George Gould came into Andover with his mother to see his brother, who was in the hospital with influenza. They booked in at the Star Hotel, then went to the hospital to visit him. On returning from the visit, George went up to his room and when he didn’t answer her calls, she opened the door and found him covered in blood. The hotel manager sent for Dr.Gillett who pronounced him dead, due to his self-inflicted gash in his throat; the razor was by the side of the bed. Gould himself had recently had a bout of influenza and he had been very down in the dumps of late.

17/ Southampton Servant Suicide, March 1918

A domestic servant, Kathleen Jane Palmer aged seventeen years, drowned herself in the river. Palmer had been told off by her mistress for borrowing her clothes to go out to the theatre in. Suicide during temporary insanity was the verdict at the inquest.

18/ Southsea Filicide, November 1902

19/ Basingstoke Canal near Aldershot, March 1897

The body of a young female was found floating in the Basingstoke Canal near to the Government Sewage Farm. Her identity was established as that of a girl who was locked up a few months ago, by the name of Mabel Andrews, but she was taken back to London by her father and said her name was Louisa Turney. The corpse of the woman had been in there for about a month or so and she was badly decomposed. (What happened here?)

20/ Portsmouth, January 1899 (Suicide on a Warship)

At 11-30 a.m.on New Years Day, a dreadful discovery was made on board her Majesty’s torpedo destroyer Star, moored at Fountain Lake near Portsmouth. The warrant officer, Mr Collins, had to go to the commanding officer’s cabin, who is absent on leave, when he found the body of Robert Bowman who was a first-class petty officer, on a chair just inside the door. Between his legs was a rifle and the muzzle was placed in the mouth and the bullet passing through the back of his skull. He had taken off his boot and sock on the right foot and pushed the trigger with his toe. A man on a boat near the Star, the Flying Fish, heard what he thought was a gunshot, but passed it off as nothing. The deceased was from Edinburgh aged thirty-three and had no wife or children.

21/ Arundel House, Grayshott, December 17th, 1915

Grayshott Murder, December 23rd, 1915

22/ Hilsea Barracks Suicide, Portsmouth, June 1869

An 11th brigade gunner, Royal Horse Artillery, by the name of John Merry, at Hilsea Barracks near Portsmouth, was told a week ago that he was reduced from the rank of Bombardier for serious misconduct. This week he was found sitting down in a water-closet, with a carbine rifle tucked between his legs and his brains blown out.

23/ Pure Drop Public House, Southampton, September 1894 (Attempted Murder/Suicide)

The landlady of the Pure Drop public house in Broad Street, Southampton, only had two customers in the bar, so she left them alone, while she did some chores. A few moments later she heard screams coming from the bar and she found the woman laid on the floor with her head nearly severed off. She rushed outside to get help and quickly returned, where she saw the man with his throat slit. When the body was identified later on, she had the name of Jupes and the man, named Rogers, had been harassing the poor woman. Rogers was a seaman and had done some prison time for assaulting her husband and the attack on her was down to the prison term and her constant refusal to have anything to do with him. (Is pub still there?)

24/ Russell Street Fire, Southampton, February 1899

25/ St Paul’s Square, Southsea, March 1894 (Murder or Suicide?)

A shocking discovery was made at 37, St Paul’s Square, Southsea, home of Malcolm Stace a retired naval surgeon. Mrs Stace left the house several days ago and had not been seen since. After his wife’s disappearance, they searched high and low for her until someone suggested that they try the locked kitchen door, but Mrs Stace was the only one who had a key for it so they left it. Later on, they decided to force open the door and went into a disused coal cellar. There on the floor of the cellar was his dead wife, but as of yet, it is uncertain whether it was suicide or a tragic accident.

26/ Portsmouth Murders, September 1885

27/ Cottonworth near Andover, December 1903

William Walter Hart from Salisbury had been visiting relatives in Cottonworth near Andover, when he was found dead in the garden with his head blown away and a discharged gun next to the body. This one is a bit of a mystery, looks like self-destruction, but it seems to be a terrible accident.

28/ HMS Royal Sovereign Suicide, Portsmouth, June 1891

The HMS Royal Sovereign was lying in the repairing basin at Portsmouth Dockyard. The men all left on Friday night, from their reparations on the ship, but one of them was not seen. Thomas Richard Dale, shipwright, didn’t clock out and he was next seen on the following morning hanging from a beam in one of the after coal bunkers by a driller. No reason is attributed to the act and the fellow had been only been married less than a month.

29/ Aldershot Landslip, October 1885

 30/ Milton Lunatic Asylum Suicide, Portsmouth, May 1899

At the lunatic asylum at Milton, Portsmouth, Thomas Hardwick, a 28-year-old who had been in the Army in Egypt and was declared insane. An attendant named Arthur Himmens was slicing bread for breakfast and Tobin, another assistant, was buttering it. A group of inmates were hanging about waiting for breakfast when Hardwick spotted the knife not being used, grabbed it and ran off. Tobin and Himmens ran after him but Hardwick stopped and slid the knife across his throat. He died twenty minutes later.

31/ Titchfield Murders, April 1892

32/ Portsmouth, June 1899

An inquest respecting the death of William Clark of Malsham, Wiltshire, who was shot by Private Day of the Rifle Brigade. Clark was lying in a bush and Day, seeing some movement, fired into the bush under the impression that a rabbit was there. A verdict of death by misadventure.

33/ Aldershot Camp, August 1890 (Struck by Lightning)

34/ Aldershot Manslaughter, February 1900

Private John Adams of the 3rd East Surrey Regiment, died at Cambridge Hospital, Aldershot. He was brought in from Woking in Surrey, totally unconscious and he never came out of it. He had terrible injuries to his body and head and this was as a result of his comrades giving him a good kicking because he didn’t volunteer for active service. The military has been greatly embarrassed by the situation and promised to look into it in great detail.

35/ Portsmouth, September 1846 (Attempted Murder/Suicide)

A private from the 13th Regiment killed himself at Portsmouth, by shooting himself. The unnamed soldier had been residing in Popes Lane with a girl, but one night he became jealous and he went his barracks, got his rifle and fired at her, missed, then turned the gun on himself by tying it to a window sill and attaching a piece of string to it and then pulling the trigger. (Did she make it ?)

36/ Southampton, October 1875 (Greedy Undertaker)

The premises of an undertaker named Blundell were found to contain the bodies of thirteen children. It is thought that he’d taken the money for kids to be buried, then cruelly just left them to rot on his Southampton premises.

37/ Shirley (Wife Murder/Suicide) March 1885

38/ Bishopstoke Suicide, near Eastleigh, December 1848

An inquest was held on the body of Mrs Twynam, wife of Dr Twynam, of Knowle Hill near Bishopstoke. She had long been in a depressed state and this culminated when she shot herself in the head. The jury had to view the body and some were horrified to the state of it, with half of the face blown away. Sarah Barber, the housemaid, said she saw her take breakfast with the doctor and then go for a walk. On her return, she asked the cook what she wanted for dinner, then told Barber to dust her bedroom. (Typical day of a Victorian lady, it seems!)

When Barber finished dusting, she came down and went into the front room, which smelled of gunpowder and was a bit smoky she said. Another servant, Mrs Vear, came in and saw Mrs Twynam, and Vear covered her head with an apron. The staff had been told to keep the knives out of her way, as she had cut her arm with a knife about a month ago. She had also attempted to poison herself, so clearly a suicide risk for some time. Mrs Twynam was sat in a chair, head tilted to one side, left side shattered, dark gunpowder burns on it as well. The gun was wedged between her legs with the barrel pointing upwards and the poker she had used to push the trigger, was near the body. Apparently, she had “disease of the brain” which effected her nervous system (Parkinsons?). Verdict “Temporary Insanity.”

39/ Browndown Camp Fatal Stabbing, Gosport, January 1899

40/ South Stoneham Double Suicide, June 1848

Two young girls were found in a stream at South Stoneham near the river Itchen, clutched in each other’s arms in what seems to be some sort of suicide pact. The stream runs through Farmer Sly’s meadow, behind the church at South Stoneham. The two girls were sisters, Ellen and Jane Hughes, aged fifteen and nineteen respectively. They both worked for F.Cooper, a surgeon in Southampton, but one was sacked three weeks ago and the other left with her sister. A boy had noticed something in the stream about a week ago but never investigated any further, which suggests they had been there for a week or so. They were locked in each other’s arms and found next to the wooden bridge.

41/ Winchester, July 1895 (Homosexuality?)

42/ Duke of Buckingham Pub, Portsmouth, July 1905 (Murder/Suicide)

Frederick Woodward, a gunner of the Royal Garrison Artillery shot Lizzie Dyer in the Duke of Buckingham public house. They met three months ago and Woodward was described as obsessed with Dyer, who was married to a Marine who was at sea but told him she was not seeing anyone. Dyer came in the side door of the pub and Woodward came in soon after and both were chatting for some time, when three shots were suddenly fired, followed by the thud of the bodies hitting the floor. Police were called in and he was barely alive, but she was stone cold. He shot her with his Army-issued revolver and some bullet holes were found in the walls. (Is pub still there?)

43/ Southampton/Eastleigh Fatal Collision, July 1890

44/ Portsea Servant’s Suicide, January 1861

A sad tale of domestic servant Honor Whittenham, who worked for Dr Carter of Portsea. Honor had been engaged to a London copper, but he’d been seeing another girl with £600 in her bank account, so it was no contest. Poor Honor bought a couple of packets of “Battles Vermin Killer” (killed more people than vermin, this stuff!), and swallowed them both. A letter was found addressed to her brother, and it read:

“My Dear Friends- I have poisoned myself, and I hope you will not have me pulled about, for I am in great trouble, and have been ever since about seven weeks before I left Mrs Rose; and I was ruined there, and I have not told anyone. I have wished many and many a time that I had never left Mrs Gooch, for I was happy there. Oh, my tender mother, where must I go, and what must I do?Oh, my dear Lord; Oh, what can be done for me, for I am a great sinner?”

45/ Southsea Murder/Suicide, February 1899

46/ Winchester Barracks Suicide, November 1868

A mess servant at Winchester Barracks and a private of the Rifle Brigade, David Tague, shot himself in the head in the mess kitchen. His face was blown away when his body was found at seven a.m. He’d been in the Army for a dozen or more years and he was a borderline alcoholic.

 

47/ Portsmouth Fatal Explosion, December 1904

48/ Aldershot Soldier Killed, December 1904

49/ Hinton Admiral, (Tragic Accident), November 1860

Sixteen-year-old Miss Emily Entwistle died in a dreadful accident. She was riding through Winkton on horseback with the groom behind her, when they rounded a corner and her horse shied and threw her off. She didn’t hit the ground but was suspended from the saddle and the horse flew off at full gallop with Emily tossed around like a rag-doll for about hundred yards. A boy saw the horse and Emily coming towards him and he tried to stop the animal, but it swerved and her head struck the cartwheel which the boy was riding on. The cut to her head had “severed the scalp from the nose to the back of the head”. Her foot was caught in the stirrup and even after this ordeal, the horse carried on, and when she finally became disentangled she was quite dead.

50/ Blacknest, January 1865 (Tree Climbing Accident)

51/ Southampton Fire Fatality, October 1881

52/ Southsea/Gosport Drownings, August 1896

A lad named Archie Curtis was drowned at Southsea on Saturday morning while bathing. A child named Reginald F.Callaway, the son of a professional golf player, has been drowned at Fort Monckton near Gosport, through falling from the sea-wall while playing there. It is stated that the day of the accident was the sixth anniversary of the death of another child of Mr and Mrs Callaway at the same spot.

53/ Southsea Castle Lighthouse Death, September 1908

The lighthouse-keeper at Southsea Castle, William Craven, noticed that the light was not functioning properly, so went to the bottom and unscrewed a plug and the lower part of the gas pipe to let off accumulated water. He had to go into a pit to do this and is believed that a gas leak overpowered him and as he was in his late seventies he couldn’t muster the strength to get out. He was found in the pit with the gas still leaking out.

54/ Aldershot Soldier’s Suicide,  December 1870

55/ Portsmouth Murder (Hereford St, Landport)  January 1866. (Landport was the birthplace of Charles Dickens)

56/  Fatal Railway Accident near Havant,  May 1866

57/ Singular Fatality at Southsea,  May 1866

At Southsea yesterday a little girl named Bowyer, aged nine was running along the pavement with a glass bottle containing stout, when she stumbled and fell. The bottle broke off at the neck, and the edge, which was jagged, was driven with considerable force into her neck and inflicted a frightful wound. The child was taken home, and Dr Yardy, surgeon, was sent for, but life was extinct, the glass having pierced the main artery of the neck and caused almost instantaneous death.

58/ Fatal Fall From Mast, Portsmouth,  May 1866.

59/ Murder and Arson near Hursley,   June 1866  (Bunstead)

60/ Soldier’s Suicide at Portwood, March 1867  (Portwood is a suburb of Southampton. Bridge over Itchen from St Denys)

61/ Buriton Drownings, Manor Farm.  January 1867  (Big pond near the church, called Buriton Pond. Pillmead House and Pillmead Cottage are both on North Lane. Manor House next to the church. WOW!

62/ Scalded to Death in a Brewery,  February 1867 (William Cooper & Co, East Street, Southampton)

63/ Accidental Shooting at Blenheim Barracks, Aldershot.  March 1902  (Two killed)

A yeoman was cleaning his rifle at Blenheim Barracks at Aldershot, on Wednesday, and pulled the trigger, being unaware that the weapon contained a cartridge. The “Dum-Dum” bullet went through a comrade’s head, killing him, and then through the lungs of a second man, who died subsequently.

64/ Body in Chichester Harbour,  October 1903.

65/  Southampton Murder/Suicide,  August 1903

66/ Aldershot Murder (Near Duke of Wellington’s Statue)  October 9th, 1903.

November 25th, 1903 (“Unfortunate” is another term for prostitute)

December 17th, 1903 (Execution of the Murderers)

William Brown, twenty-seven, private, Scots Fusiliers, and Thomas Cowdrey, thirty-six, labourer and ex-soldier, were hanged at Winchester Gaol yesterday morning for the murder of Esther Atkins at Aldershot on October 6th. Billington was the executioner. On the scaffold, Brown said:-“Before I leave this world I wish to say that I helped to do it”. Cowdrey said:- ” Give me five minutes, to tell the truth.” He then paused, and at last continued ” God help my innocence. I’m going to Heaven. Brown did it, he has said so.” Death was certified by the prison surgeon to have been instantaneous in each case.

67/  Suicide of a Lieutenant in Southampton,  November 1904.

68/ Murder in Winchester,  February 1904. (Timothy Lynch murdered Richard Warriner)

69/ Submarine A1 Lost in the Solent,  March 1904. (Sunk on March 18th, 1904, in the Solent. Raised on April 18th, 1904, and re-entered service. Sank again in 1911 while unmanned. Found in 1989 in Bracklesham Bay, West Sussex, five miles from where she sank.)

70/  Four Patients Poisoned in Borough Lunatic Asylum, Portsmouth.   February 9th, 1904

Friday, February 26th, 1904 (Poisoning at Asylum-on Locksway Road, now an NHS Hospital)

71/  Murder of a Sister in Portsmouth,  September 1905.  (Murder of a sister is called sororicide)

72/  Murder of a Soldier at Portsmouth.  May 1907. (Cambridge Barracks)

73/  Body Washed Up on the Solent, near Portsmouth.   October 1880.

74/  Strange Letters Left by a Southsea Suicide.  November 1880.

75/  Child Murder at Alverstoke, Gosport.  N0vember 1880

76/  Fatal Rugby Accident, Southampton.  December 1880 ( Porter’s Meadow was the original name for what is now, Queen’s Park. So-called because of the licensed porter’s of Southampton that used to use that field/park for sports)

Saturday, 11th December 1880 (Mayor bans Rugby in parks)

” The Mayor, in consequence of the many serious accidents, and the recent deplorable death in Southampton, resulting from the dangerous practice of playing football, requests the heads of families, the principals of scholastic establishments in the town, and members of clubs, to take such steps as may be necessary for preventing the game being played in future according to the “Rugby Union”, the “Association”, and other rules of a dangerous character. The Mayor considers it his duty to use every means possible in his power for prohibiting the game as hitherto played being continued either in Porter’s Meadow field or upon any other part of the public lands in Southampton”

1/ Fulham Parish Church Suicide, September 1887

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

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

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

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

3/ Hammersmith Suicides, June 1834

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

4/ South Fulham Police Station, August 1892

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

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

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

7/ Hammersmith Dock, (Attempted Murder) January 1885

8/ Hammersmith Dock, August 1885

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

15/ Hammersmith Infanticide,  December 1870 (Blythe Lane)

16/ Shepherd’s Bush Station Fatality,  October 1902

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

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

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

20/  Strange Prisoner Death at Wormwood Scrubs.   October 1906

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

22/  Child Burned to Death, Hammersmith.   October 1880

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

23/  Death in Wormwood Scrubs Prison.   October 1880

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

24/  Boy Run Over by a Tram, near Uxbridge Road.   December 1880

25/  Drunken Man’s Accidental Death, Shepherd’s Bush.  November 1880

1/ Hackney, August 1903 (Dead Body in the House for Twenty Days)

The body of Martha Crowe aged seventy-seven, a widow, had lain in her home undiscovered for nearly three weeks. Her nephew, Frederick Gardener of 185, Downham Road stated she lived on a pension. The lodger, Isabella Smith had lived there for two and a half years at 41, Downham Road. Martha went to a wedding on the 2nd with Smith,  then afterwards Smith went to a relative’s. When she returned next day nothing was seen of the deceased Smith thought she’d gone away. A friend asked about her and when they realised they had not seen her for nearly three weeks they broke the door down and found her badly-decomposed corpse lying in bed. She was in the act of getting dressed for bed when she keeled over and died of “natural causes”.

2/ Amhurst Road, Hackney, April 1885 (Death in Sewer).

3/ Hackney Asylum Suicide, October 1864

A lunatic inmate from the Asylum at Hackney went on a hunger strike about five weeks ago, and yesterday he finally died. He was force fed time and again but he gradually got weaker and weaker.

4/ Hackney, December 1916 (Dies While Committing Suicide)

Robert Crisp was killed by excitement and of natural causes whilst attempting to commit suicide. He had a heart condition, and it so seriously affected his life that he wrote in his suicide note:- “I am a human wreck. I cannot be a burden to my wife any longer, so I think this is the best way out”. He bent a gas pipe to pump gas into his mouth and was sitting in a chair when he had the heart attack. A verdict of “Natural death”.

5/ Hoxton Asylum Murderer, July 1858

The lunatic Henry Arnold who managed to escape from Hoxton Asylum then beat to death a young lady at Broxbourne in Hertfordshire whom he met on the road, was committed for wilful murder. When the judge asked if he had anything to say, he replied  “I suppose I must say I’m insane mustn’t I?”, and also added  “That asylum is more like a robber’s house than an asylum. They have a man there who has £5-6000 in the bank and they give him the stuff to make him silly so that he doesn’t know he is about”. Not once did he mention murdering the girl and is clearly insane.

6/ Lordship Road Murder, Stoke Newington, March 1885

7/ Hackney Road Fire, London, August 1885

A fire occurred last night at Schreiber’s stick manufacturers, Hackney Road, London.It is feared that some children have perished in the blaze. (How many died?)

8/ Stoke Newington, June 1888

A man named Lake living at Stoke Newington shot his wife on Friday with a revolver and then killed himself.

9/ Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington, October 1884 (Botched Abortion)

The post-mortem on the body of Miss Matilda Wood, of Farleigh Road, Stoke Newington revealed some strange results. She lived with her sister and was due to get married to Mr Creed. Matilda began to get violent pains in her abdomen and despite the attention of the doctor she never pulled through. Death was due to a laceration of the uterus by the use of improper instruments by some person. It sounds like a botched abortion by somebody who didn’t have a clue what they were doing. The verdict returned was “Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown”. (Was it the sister or boyfriend?)

10/ Shoreditch, (Nine-year-old’s Suicide) April 1846

This is one of the youngest suicides I think I’ve come across doing the newspaper clippings. William Thomas Figges, aged nine years who lived with his Mum at 16, Vincent Street, Shoreditch. His father had legged it about four years ago and never got back in contact. He asked his mum for a half-penny to but a rubber ball but she said he couldn’t, so he left the room in a mood. Five minutes later a young lad found him hanging from a bannister by the neck, and they tried to resuscitate him but he was already dead.

11/  Dalston Murder, March 1885 (See also City of London-Newgate Execution of Henry Alt)

12/ Dalston Junction Fatality, September 1896

An appalling accident between Dalston Junction and Haggerston one Saturday night caused the death of a North London Railway guard named Cook. It is believed he was looking out of the window of his van and he suddenly went dizzy and fell onto the tracks, when another train passing in the opposite direction went over him, decapitating the unfortunate chap.

13/ Chatsworth Road, Clapton, March 1895 (Human Remains- 35 Sacks of them)

The new owner of a building in Chatsworth Road, Clapton, decided to take a look in the cellar despite the previous owner telling him to stay out of there because he had stuff down there that he didn’t want disturbing. On checking it out he found thirty-five sacks full of human bones and skulls. The ex-owner was a greengrocer, but now had some serious explaining to do to the local police. That amount of bones and skulls suggests to me that the guy was grave-robbing because if they were bodies and had flesh on them the stench would have been unbearable. (Was he a grave-robber?)

14/ Hackney Road (Arsenic Suicide)June 1863

Eliza Robinson aged eighteen was due to be married to her sweetheart about six weeks ago but he died suddenly. Eliza was very much in love the young man and was inconsolable at his death and has seen her take a steady decline in her health since the death. Eliza spoke of him constantly and never believed that he had passed away. On a Sunday evening, her mother Charlotte, of Westmoreland Street, Hackney Road, noticed her retching, but the daughter never complained of any illness. Early next morning she told her that she had swallowed some arsenic, but she told her she was way too late and she died within the hour.

15/ No.20, Margaret Street, Hackney, September 1863

This is quite a sad tale of the suicide of 42-year-old Edward Goodman. The witness in this instance is George Wiltshire aged thirty-one, of Margaret Street, said that Goodman had bought an old pistol from an antique shop for a few shillings. The same evening Wiltshire noticed a throng of people outside Goodman’s house at No.20, Margaret Street, and when he went upstairs to find him he was laid on the floor with his head to the door of the cupboard in a pool of blood. He obviously overloaded it with gunpowder because the clothes were charred and still on fire when he got there. It recoiled through the cupboard and broke the handle off, which rendered it unfit to re-use. Goodman shot himself in the heart and hadn’t left a note of any description but left some cash in his pockets. The sad part is that he was a bricklayer and had a nasty accident while working in the sewers. This caused his skull to be diseased and decayed and he had to have two plates in his head to protect the brain. He used to suffer fits of delirium and even after one glass of beer, which is what he had on the day of his suicide.

16/ Hackney Heath Deaths, August 1890

17/ Homerton/Duckett’s Canal Suicide, December 1863

Not the first and not the last tale of a domestic servant pinching stuff from their place of employment, then being found out and being afraid to go home, so they commit suicide. Teenager Amelia Walker had got a job with Mr Harling, The Retreat, Homerton and had only been there six weeks or so when the mistress of the house noticed little things disappearing, like candles, paraffin and some tea. The final straw came when she found a couple of pots of jam in her box so she had to fire her. Amelia left the house and Mrs Harling presumed she’d gone home. Amelia didn’t go home as she was that scared of what her Dad would do to her (he usually took off his belt, and thrashed her). Mrs Harling said afterwards that if she had known about the domestic situation at home then she wouldn’t have let her leave her house. Amelia thought that drowning herself in the canal would solve everything. She was fished out of Ducketts Canal with her wages still in her pocket.

18/ Hoxton Lunatic Asylum Suicide, May 1862

64-year-old Richard Bentley was an inmate at Hoxton Asylum and he killed himself by hanging, but here are the circumstances why he did it. He had been suffering from insanity for the last 16 years and was a patient at St Luke’s when they sent him home to Bury St Edmunds and prescribed the all clear. He was soon back to his old ways and tried to commit suicide by hanging himself from a beam but that snapped, and the attempt ended in failure. He was arrested for attempted suicide and sent to Hoxton where he was allowed to wander about unguarded and even leave the Asylum altogether. Bentley never turned up for dinner one day so a search was made around the Asylum grounds and he was discovered hanging from the bars off the ventilator. At the coroners’ inquest, it was mentioned that two years ago three people had hung themselves within a month of each other (Two patients and one servant). It was questioned why he was allowed out on his own, and the reply was that it part of a curative treatment, which was forward thinking for Victorian mental institutions.

19/ Hoxton Asylum, October 1897 ( Who was he?/ Did she die?)

20/ St John’s Church Fatality, Hackney, December 1877

A singular accident occurred at St John’s Church in Hackney which resulted in the death of the sextoness. Elizabeth Goodwin, aged 56, was the sextoness, and also in charge of the keys of the mausoleum. Two gentlemen arrived one day and wished to enter the Marquis of Downshire vault which had not been opened for a century or more. Goodwin took Mr Atkinson and Mr Buck into the mausoleum and while they were casting an eye over it they walked over a stone slab, which promptly collapsed and sent them twelve feet below. A ladder was procured and Mr Buck came straight out with a slight head injury, but Goodwin was jammed between two coffins with the stone slab upon her chest. She was brought out unconscious and died less than 20 minutes later.

21/ Dalston Child Murder, October 1899

A dreadful murder was committed at Dalston Junction on the North London Railway. Two young women asked a porter to open the door of the lavatory in the waiting-room as it appeared to be locked or jammed. When prized open the porter saw the body of a young lad who was completely naked except for a shawl placed over his corpse. The body was still warm and the doctor estimated time of death to be a couple of hours ago. He had been bashed about the face and a serious one on his forehead which looked like they had been made with a brick. Two bricks lay next to the body. It is believed to be a woman that did this heinous crime, as the woollen shawl left behind belonged to a female. The boy is about five or six years old, fair hair, and fair complexion.

November 1899

Louise Masset aged thirty-two and a governess, was charged with murdering her illegitimate child, three and a half-year-old Manfred Louis Masset at Dalston Junction Station.

22/ No.40, Myrtle Street Murder, Hoxton, October 1902

This is a weird case of, possibly suicide, but more likely a murder. The nearly decapitated body of Thomas Lawson was found by a lodger at 40, Myrtle Street in Hoxton.The wife and four kids had gone away to Kent to do some hop-picking about a month ago and Lawson carried on as usual, with nothing strange happening in those few weeks. One night a telegram was received and the lodger took it up to Lawson, who never answered when he called him. He gently pushed open the door and there lay the decaying corpse of Lawson on the floor with his head nearly severed from the trunk. By the side of Lawson was a fish knife. The doctor’s estimate of his time of death was approximately three or four days ago. (What about the smell?) The telegram was from his missus saying she’d be back home that evening. The three wounds to his throat do not indicate suicide as they were deep and ferocious gashes.

23/ No.126, St John’s Road, Shoreditch, August 1885

24/ No8, Grove Villas, South Hackney, (Child’s Skeleton) September 1867

The gruesome find in the cellar of No 8, Grove Villas in South Hackney was the talk of the neighbourhood and had locals gossiping among themselves. A child’s skeleton was discovered by the mother of the charwoman, in a hamper basket tied with string. The little corpse was wrapped in a piece of old flannel, and when she told Mrs Butley she told her to put it back until Mr Butley went out. Mrs Butley inquired as to whether it could be burned but the woman said the smell would be horrendous, and then she said:

“Never mind, I’ll take it to the new house and bury it in the garden where it will never be found”. As it turns out it could well have been her mothers, as she was in a relationship with a contractor and they used to get drunk together, and one thing led to another. They lived together for three years and Mrs Butley got her mother to leave him eventually, and the hamper could well have been part of her mother’s furniture. The post-mortem was awkward due to the age of the skeletal remains of the child, but it had no violent marks or fractures, and the flesh had been pecked clean by a hen that was kept down in the basement.

25/ Metropolitan Baths, Shoreditch, July 1849

Henry Johnson, a surveyor, aged fifty-one, killed himself in a very singular manner at the Metropolitan Baths, Ashley Crescent in Shoreditch. A waiter at the Bath, named Pamplin, said that Johnson was the surveyor there and also had helped draw up the plans to build them. One morning he visited them and went into the private baths, but later on that afternoon, he was found floating on the surface, dead as a dodo. He had tied a measuring tape around his neck and the other end around his foot so that when he moved the foot, the tape would tighten and strangle him. Johnson had been getting violent migraines recently and in the past couple of weeks had not been his usual chirpy self,  but moody and snappy. “Temporary Insanity” was the verdict.

26/ Clapton Suicide, December 1883

John Muirhead shot himself in a Clapton street one evening, in front of the girl he loved. The strapping 22-year-old from Binthall Road in Stoke Newington was seeing a young lady, Miss Louisa Try, from 29, Median Road. The problem was that she had her eye on another young buck by the name of Bedford, who was from Richmond. Rather nicely, and she’d probably text him today, she wrote a letter saying that he was dumped and could they stay friends. Errr No!  There was a ball at the Manor Rooms in Clapton, and Try was going, and Louisa was going with her new boyfriend, Mr Bedford. The carriages were all setting off and Louisa and Bedford were the last into their’s when Muirhead turned up and asked the servant if he could see Louisa. He was told to get lost, and when she came out with Bedford on her arm he ran up and stuck the gun to her head ,when she ducked. He didn’t pull the trigger but turned it on himself, popped it in his mouth then fired the gun.

27/ Hoxton/Kentish Town Abduction, August 1885

28/ Hoxton Suicide, March 1866

Committing suicide when you don’t get invited to tea is a first for me. Mary Ann Hutchens aged 28, worked herself up into a frenzy when her sister, Elizabeth, got invited and she didn’t. So much so, that she did threaten to kill herself and this continued for an hour, and she had in her hands a teacup with boiling water in it. Her sister said “You shall not take that”, when Mary Ann laughed and screamed, “I don’t care for your upsetting it”. She went into the parlour then came back ten minutes later and said: ” I have done it “. Elizabeth immediately assumed that she had swallowed some poison and asked her if she had. The reply was “I have taken enough to settle me”, and she then passed out on her way upstairs. She then went into a coma and died soon afterwards. The surgeon stated she had taken enough to kill five or six people, and the verdict was “Suicide while in a state of temporary insanity from violent and excessive passion”. Never heard that verdict before. Spoiled cow more like!

29/ River Lea, Hackney, October 1892 (Suicide of a Policeman)

A police constable in the J Division, James Merriman, aged 39, drowned himself in the River Lea. Before he did this he wrote to the “Daily Chronicle” stating that he was called to the Queen’s Head pub by a lad. When he got there the publican told him in no uncertain terms that he was not required as he was going out, then met by an Inspector Smith, who reported him for being on licensed premises while on duty. He was fined three days pay and transferred to another division. He tried to appeal the decision but it was refused, and when the case came up in front of the judge, Merriman was let off and exonerated of any blame. The whole shenanigans had preyed upon his mind and he was upset that the false accusation had been made in the first place, so he jumped into the River Lea.

30/ Stoke Newington, July 1863 (Human Remains)

Yet another story of an undertaker not burying corpses but taking the money! This was Henry Chapman, an undertaker from West Hackney, and they found variously sized coffins in a shed, plus five adult coffins and eight children’s coffins. Also in the shed were two adult coffin’s, one with a plaque reading:-“Lucy Walters, June 12th, 1863, aged 67”. A thorough inspection was made and the report said “I have made two inspections of the bodies of three children who have been kept unburied for a considerable length of time. One died on the 7th of June last, and was in a very offensive state; another is stated to have died on the 23rd of March last; the remaining one on the 23rd of May,1862. Lime had been put into two of the coffins, but not the third”. The bodies were hardly recognisable and even the bones were powdery.

31/ Hackney, (Husband Murderer) October 1896

32/ South Hackney Church, April 1868 (Child Murder)

Alfred Searle, hansom cab driver(Cab No 16,090), was hailed by a customer at Gracechurch Street in the City by a man and a woman who climbed into his cab and asked to be taken to South Hackney Church. They arrived at their destination and both got out, but the man told the lady to carry on and he would overtake her. He stopped and paid the two shillings and sixpence fare. Searle then drove to London Bridge Railway Station, when he checked the cab he found a black leather bag where the woman had been sitting. He opened it and saw the body of a boy wrapped in a flannel petticoat. He went to police straight away and told them that he would recognise the man, but not the woman as she was covered up and wore a hat low over her face. The baby boy had lived but was suffocated when only a few hours old, and now it is in the hands of the police and is a murder case.

33/ Dalston Suicide, November 1855

40-year-old Charles Moseley, of 16 Middleton Road, Dalston had been a clerk in the Bank of England for numerous years. One night he had a dream that police were after him, in pursuit of some forgeries upon the Bank. He went to work the next day and although there was no foundation in the fact, it kept playing on his mind, and he was clearly distressed by the dream. His wife told him to forget it and “It’s just a dream” lecture was rattled off to him, but he had the exact same dream again on another night. He woke up in a sweat, went downstairs and got a carving knife from the kitchen and tore open his abdomen. His wife entered shortly after and managed to get the help of a policeman, who prevented him doing any more damage to his innards. A doctor was procured and despite his bowels protruding from the gash he talked calmly and perfectly conscious all the time. About three hours later he began to fade and finally died from the self-inflicted stab wounds.

34/ Hoxton Murder, April 1887

35/ Kingsland Road, February 1899 (I think it’s in Hackney)

36/  Mill Row, Hoxton (Child Starvation)  July 1870  (Mill Row still there- 11 looks like old terrace and 13 is a new build)

37/  Fatal Fire at Shoreditch (Old Castle St)  October 1870

38/ Fatal Fire on Hackney Road,  October 1903.  (Near Mansford St, off Hackney Road. Next to Lion Mills, No’s 396/394)

39/ Murdered Baby in Hackney Churchyard,  October 1904.

40/ Ex-Soldier Murders Girlfriend, Dalston.  July 1904.

41/ Burned to Death in her Nightie,  January 1904.

An inquest was held yesterday, on the body of Elizabeth Molyneux, aged twenty-four, whose home was in Cutler Street, Birmingham, and who had lately been employed as a probationer on the nursing staff of the Hackney Infirmary. On Wednesday morning last Miss Molyneux was preparing to go to bed, after having been on duty throughout the night, when the flannelette nightdress which she had put on came in contact with the fire in her bedroom and she was became enveloped in flames. In her fright she ran through the corridor to another nurse’s bedroom, where the flames were smothered; but Miss Molyneux was very severely burnt, and she died the next day from the effects of the burns and shock. The Coroner commented on the dangers of flannelette, and the jury returned a verdict of ” Accidental Death”.

42/ Fatal Fire in Shoreditch,  January 1904.

A fire broke out soon after 3 o’clock on Saturday morning at 18, Bartholomew Square, Old Street, Shoreditch, in a house rented by a family named Saterly, and sub-let to lodgers. The back room on the first floor was rented by a lodger named Edward Jacobs, who was seventy-six years of age. The first intimation that the other occupants of the house received of the fire was the sudden falling in of the flooring into the ground-floor. Immediately after the floor fell in, the entire house took fire. When the firemen from Shoreditch, Hackney, and other stations had overcome the fire a search was made, and the remains of Jacobs were found in the ruins.

43/ Volunteer’s Shocking Suicide, Stoke Newington   July 1904.

44/ Child Murder in Hoxton Street, Shoreditch.  February 10th, 1904

Thursday, February 11th, 1904.

Lucy Elizabeth Strong, 38, a married woman, who was found guilty yesterday of the manslaughter of her infant child, Sarah Strong, was brought up for judgment. The defendant expressed her willingness to go for a time to a home which had been found for her by the Court missionary, Mr France, and her husband said he was willing to contribute to her support.

45/ Manslaughter of Husband & Wife, Shaftesbury Ave, Hoxton.  November 1906.

46/ Death Caused By Alcoholism, Hoxton.  January 1906

Dr Westcott conducted an inquiry on Tuesday at Shoreditch concerning the death of Alice Maud Sanderson, thirty-eight, of Charlotte Street, Hoxton. The husband said the deceased had of late given way to drinking. He had implored her to refrain from taking spirits, but she he had, he discovered, been drinking gin in large quantities. On Saturday night witness went to bed at 10-30 p.m.  When he awoke next morning his wife was missing, and upon searching the house he was horrified to find her lying dead at the bottom of the stairs. In one hand was a bottle of gin, and in the other, she clutched hold of some money. Medical evidence showed that death was due to suffocation owing to the deceased being unable to help herself whilst in an intoxicated condition. A verdict of “Accidental Death” was recorded.

47/  Young Woman Burned to Death, Clapton Road, Clapton.  June 1907

48/  Death by Alcoholic Poisoning, Homerton.   November 1880 (139 Clifden Road is still there, near Glyn Road end)

49/  Suicide in Union Street, Shoreditch.  October 1880

An inquest was held at the Shoreditch Town Hall on the body of Emma Maria Hill, who committed suicide by hanging herself on Wednesday last. Charles Hill, builder, of 24, Union Crescent, Union Street, Shoreditch, husband of the deceased, said that on Wednesday morning he heard that his wife had committed suicide, and on going to the house he found her hanging from the top of the bedstead. Witness and his wife had quarrelled in consequence of her immoralities, and his discovery of her conduct seemed to have preyed heavily on her mind. Mary Elizabeth Hill, aged nine, daughter of the deceased, found her mother hanging from the top of the bedstead. Jury’s verdict- “Suicide whilst of unsound mind”.

50/  Teenager Shoots Sister Dead, Murray Street, Hoxton.  October 1880

51/  Porter Killed While Loading, Shoreditch.   October 1880

1/ Blundell Park Death? January 1889

William Cropper the Derbyshire professional cricketer, while playing in a game of football at Grimsby on Saturday for Staveley against Grimsby Town, was accidentally kicked in the stomach by a half-back Daniel Doyle and was stretchered off. He died the following day of his injuries. The game was said to have been of a rough nature throughout the entire game.

2/ Freeman Street (Child Fatality) January 1884

On Saturday afternoon a six-year-old boy named William Clark, the son of Mr William Clark of No.33, East Marsh Street was running across Freeman Street near to East Marsh Street when he slipped and fell. One of Mr Hamer’s beer-carts was coming along at the time and before the driver could stop, one of the wheel’s passed over the boys back. He was carried home and a doctor was summoned, but he died within a few minutes, just before the doctor had arrived.

3/ Extension Fish Dock, (Body Discovered) August 1892

4/ Grimsby Docks Station/Town Station Death, August 1905

The body of a Great Central goods guard was discovered in a badly mangled condition, between the Grimsby Town and Grimsby Docks Station. It is believed that he missed his stop and tried to jump off the train while it was in motion, then fell under the train and was crushed to death.

5/ No.21 Nelson Street Suicide, June 1878

John Parker, a fish-packer who lived at 21, Nelson Street, killed himself by slitting his throat with a razor. He had been suffering from rheumatism for a while despite being only thirty-four years of age. His doctor had seen him one morning and he seemed in good spirits. His wife went up to his room when she heard him cry out and saw him standing in front of the mirror, staring at himself, with a razor in his hand and with blood oozing from his neck.

6/ Grimsby Docks Body, May 1884

This is a recurring theme of the Grimsby section of this website and that is bodies being found in the Docks, either accidents or suicides. The number of bodies that must have been fished out of there must be in the hundreds and if you’re a believer that people come back and haunt the scene of a tragic event, then the Docks would be smothered with ghostly activity.

One afternoon, as No 4 Dredger was working on the east side of the Fish Dock, a man saw something rise to the surface and it was dragged out. It was the body of a male around 30-ish, dark hair, but no whiskers. He was dressed in a sea-farers attire and it was thought it was the man who went missing from the Scarborough steam-trawler “Sequel” in February.

7/ Haycroft Drain? Suicide, September 1906

8/ GrimsbyWife Murder, (Starved to Death) October 1884

Charles Frederick Joseph Briggs and Elizabeth Briggs were charged with the wilful murder of Thirza Briggs, the wife of Charles, by starving her death. A relative of the Briggs’s said she visited them on several occasions and Thirza looking emaciated for the majority of those visits, also adding that Elizabeth Briggs acted like a tyrant towards her. She called a doctor to see her, when Charles refused her access to one. When she finally died the post-mortem revealed that died from “sheer starvation” (What happened to them both?/Where in Grimsby was this?)

9/ River Humber, (Four Drowned) February 1899

Four Grimsby men, Freer, Turner, Barr and Ball, went out in a boat on the River Humber to mend the Trinity House light on the sunken sloop,”Elizabeth”, which was proving to be hazardous to shipping in the area. They never returned and the vessel is presumed to have capsized.  All the men drowned, with none of the bodies have yet been recovered.

10/ Grimsby, (Lighthouse Master Hangs Himself) October 1874

William Mudd, the master of the middle lighthouse stationed in the Humber, off Grimsby, killed himself by hanging with a necktie and a piece of cord which he attached to a tree branch near his home in Grimsby.(Where in Grimsby?)

11/ Hainton Avenue, (Youth Shot in Head) January 1916

 

Grimsby Railway Deaths (This section is littered with accidents/suicides/deaths)

12/ January 1863

The death of Sarah Parker which took place at the Cleethorpes Road Crossing. The deceased was warned by the gate-keeper at the crossing and her death was not the fault of him, but entirely her fault.

13/ Fishing Dock Crossing Death, August 1864

A fisherman named Manning was knocked over by a passing train and was killed outright, at the place known as Fishing Dock Crossing. The gateman saw him approaching when a train from Grimsby Dock Station to Cleethorpes. He was clearly drunk and the gateman kept shouting at him that a train was coming, but his view was blocked by a hoarding next to the line. The gates had been thrown across the road to let the engine pass and next to this is a wicket-gate for the use of pedestrians to cross, but as soon as he got through the gate the train smacked into him and he was run over his neck and feet by the wheels.

As you can see from this old postcard of the Dock Office at Grimsby (bottom of the flyover and across the road from the Telegraph Offices) there is only a feeble gate, with nothing else to prevent an accident.

14/ Grimsby? January 1869

John Woodward, who worked for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company, was shunting a goods train from New Holland. He gave the driver the signal to come back, then got under the waggons to uncouple them and on getting out he caught his foot and fell over. The train ran over him mangling him severely. He was rushed to Hospital where amputation of limbs would be the only way to save him, but his condition deteriorated and he died the next day.

15/ Grimsby Dock Station (Mutilated Corpse) July 1870 (This station is down Kent Street, off Freeman Street)

There wasn’t a great deal left of seven-year-old Charles Pepper, the son of a dock labourer, when they found his remains. The young lad was sent on an errand by his parents and crossed the railway line where there was no crossing and there he met his death. He had got tangled in the shunting waggons and was run over, with his mutilated remains being put in a sack and taken to the hospital for identification. He was clearly trespassing on the railway and is a common problem in the area.

16/ Pasture Street Crossing Fatality, December 1870

Frederick Cook, the son of George Cook, a labourer, residing in Queen Street, was trying to creep under some waggons while they were being shunted near Pasture Street crossing when the engine moved and several waggons ran over him.

17/ Grimsby Dock Station Fatality, August 1875

18/ Grimsby Town Station Corpse, November 1976

A post-mortem was carried out by a Home Office pathologist on the body of 68-year-old Hugh Lyons, who was a resident in St John’s Hospital in Lincoln. His body was found about ten yards from the Deansgate bridge near Grimsby Town Station and had been lying for some hours. How he came to be there is a complete mystery to everyone.

19/ Grimsby Town Station Fatality, January 1878

People who live in the Grimsby area will know the pub, the Cross Keys at Fulstow. It was the publican of this, John Hill, who was in Grimsby looking around the market and was due to return on the 4-40 to Louth. He missed his train and tried to get on another one, but this went to Cleethorpes and the porter dragged him away. Still believing it was his train to Louth he ran after it and tried to grab the handrail, but he was dragged along between the platform and train. He let go and the dummy carriage ran over him, causing terrible injuries and a near amputation of a leg. He was whisked off to hospital but died on the way there.

20/ Grimsby Town Station Death, June 1878

Thomas Spence, a guard who worked for the G.N.R. Company arrived at the Town Station at two p.m., when he complained of a pain in his head. He collapsed and was put in a waiting room nearby, then a doctor was sent for. Unfortunately, Spence died just after he was seeing to him. He lived in Boston, and he leaves a widow and children. (Sounds like a blood clot/brain haemorrhage)

21/ Docks Station Fatality, July 1884

A clerk for the M.S and L railway Company, 17-year-old George William Bee, was run down by a goods train at the Dock Station on a Saturday night and later on, died from the injuries he sustained. He jumped on the truck of a goods train and was told not to by a shunter on duty, but he carried on. The train was going at eight mph at the time, when he tried to jump off at the Docks Station but fell between the rails and the platform and his legs and feet were crushed by a train. He was taken to the hospital and amputation was the stark reality for the young man. He gradually grew worse and finally died from loss of blood and shock.

22/ Cleethorpe Road Railway Crossing July 1886

23/ Dock Offices, Grimsby, (Body on the Track) September 1902

Fred Dunn, an accountant residing at Cleethorpes Road in Grimsby, who was also the assistant secretary to the Grimsby and District Hospital, was knocked down by a train and was killed on the spot. He was walking on the tracks at the Dock Offices when he was run over and badly mangled under the wheels.

24/ Grimsby, (Train Suicide) February 1914

A young lass by the name of Frances Baumber who was visiting from Skegness, leapt in front of a train at Grimsby, causing her instant demise. A friend who was with her, Miss Broughton, tried to stop her from getting on the tracks but failed.

25/ No.287 Heneage Road (Flooded Subway Victim) March 1920

26/ Little Field Lane, Grimsby, (Child Remains) July 1859

An inquest was held on the body of an infant found in Little Field Lane, secreted in a drain tile. When discovered, it was so decomposed that it was impossible to determine the sex. The surgeon thought that it had been murdered but there were no clues left behind as to determine the identity of the perpetrator.

27/ Hope Street, Grimsby, (Fatal Stabbing) February 1903

A sentence of death was passed on Samuel Henry Smith, a Grimsby fisherman, for the murder of Lucy Margaret Lingard. The prisoner used to visit Lingard, who was married to another and on the 18th of November, 1902 they were out on a pub crawl. The two argued after consuming whisky and other spirits. He then completely lost the plot and stabbed her in the body, twelve times. She hung onto life for another twelve days, then expired at Grimsby Hospital.

28/ Grimsby Hospital, (Chimney Kills Patient) March 1895

At the childrens ward in Grimsby General Hospital, a chimney fell through the roof. One of the patient’s, a young boy named Revell, was killed on the spot.

29/ Royal Dock, Grimsby, July 1859

The body of a man by the name of Peter Wright Blanchard was found drowned in the Royal Dock. It is believed to have been accidental.

30/ Grimsby Town F.C. v Man City April 1899 (The last time these two clubs met?)

31/ Grimsby, (Destitute Man’s Suicide) July 1884

Samuel Preston, a confectioner at No.246 Victoria Street, was found hanging by the neck in his own house, quite dead. He was separated from his wife who now lived in Nottingham and who allowed him fifteen shillings a week to get by on. (Wife paying the husband?) Police found no food or cash in his house.

32/ Grimsby (Crushed By Gravestone) September 1916

Ten-year-old Hetty Holmes, while playing in the yard of a mason at Grimsby began to swing on a gravestone, weighing three-quarters of a ton, when it gave way and fell on top of the poor child. She was alive when pulled from underneath it, but her injuries both internal and external were so severe that expired within an hour.

33/ North Sea Murder, August 1889

34/ Scartho Road (Infants Body Found) October 1866

The body of a male infant was discovered in the bottom of a hedge on Scartho Road. Mrs Preston found the corpse at eight a.m. when she was picking brambles with her little boy. It was when she was near Nuns Farm when she saw the bundle wrapped up and at the base of the hedge next to the roadside. The surgeon said the child was full grown and had breathed and stated that he couldn’t account for the cause of its death. There were no marks of violence and it was badly decayed.

It was approximately a year ago (1865) since a similar discovery was made at Deans-gate, about half a mile away from the spot where this infant was found and it was also left at the bottom of a hedge.

35/ Lincoln Arms Death, January 1870

This was a pub situated at the top of Freeman Street and Cleethorpe Road, now demolished. James Feeney aged twenty-eight, a trimmer at the coal drop on Grimsby Docks, went into the Lincoln Arms already three sheets to the wind, then popped his head on a table in the taproom and rested. The landlord tried to wake him up but he was fast asleep. He put a pillow under his head and stoked up the fire, then went to bed and left him there. The next morning he found him in the same position. Checking if he was OK, he found no pulse. The verdict was “Apoplexy, brought on by accidental strangulation, produced by excessive drinking.”

36/ West Marsh Creek, August 1879 (Human Remains)

Human remains were found by workmen who were excavating for the new dock works near the old West Marsh Creek near the Smith Bros, shipbuilders yard. About two feet underground they stumbled on some human remains. They were buried in the usual way, face upwards, with the feet towards the water, on the bank of which they made the grisly discovery. As soon as it was exposed to the fresh air, it partially crumbled, but some bones remained firm enough to dig out. The skeleton is thought to be a female, but whether she died naturally or if she was murdered is difficult to ascertain. (Who was she?)

37/ Freeport Wharf, (Two Women Burnt to Death) July 1860

38/ County Court, Grimsby, April 1906 (John Barker’s Attempted Murder)

John Barker, solicitor and clerk of the peace, was shot at by a man against whom he had had occasion to appear. Barker was leaving the county court, when a man pointed a gun at him and screamed “You’ve ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours”, then discharged the gun twice. The first missed completely but the second grazed him and then thinking he had killed Barker, he then put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. He was identified as Isaac Swaby, a tailor. He survived the incident and told police afterwards that he did it while he was drunk.

39/ Old Dock, Grimsby, (Dredger Unearths Body) April 1880

While a dredger was being worked in the Old Dock at Grimsby, it brought to the surface the body of a man which was embedded in the mud. He was identified as Joseph Needham of East Marsh Street, who vanished in December 1879 and had never been seen since.

40/ Corporation Road Bridge Death, March 1880

One Thursday morning in March of 1880, a young lad was standing at the end of the Corporation Road Iron Swing Bridge, while it was open for the passage of ships up the Old Dock. When the bridge closed, the boy tried to cross it to soon and was crushed to death in the bridge. He was transported with all haste to a doctor’s nearby, but he was dead on arrival.

 

41/ The Ship Inn, Flottergate, Grimsby, May 1863

On April the 30th 1863, the Ship Inn at Grimsby on Flottergate was the scene of an inquest into the death of Sophia Ward, who died the previous evening. She was adjudged to have died from heart disease while chatting with a neighbour on her way home. That is not really a story in itself, but the very next day the landlord of the Ship Inn was discovered by his missus dead in bed. Mr George Warburton had been ill for several days, but not exactly racked with pain. Apparently, this was the second landlord to drop dead in his pub in the past few days. The landlord of the Lord Nelson, Mr Henry Hobson also died on his premises. ( I found out it was 208, Victoria Street). Dropping like flies around that time, in that area.

42/ Freeman Street/Berlin (Firing Squad) September 1914

In some ways a rather gruesome story, but on the other hand, it could be perceived as one of stoic stubbornness from a Teutonic immigrant. Albert Kiesel was a jeweller in Freeman Street and was of German origin, so when he retired he went to Berlin to see out his latter years. The Landsturm (German equivalent to military reserves) called him up, but he said that he wouldn’t join as he had friends in Britain, plus he was firmly against any sort of military action against them. He was then taken out and faced the firing squad, while Mrs Kiesel watched on. She also had the indignity of having her property and assets confiscated by the state. Mrs Kiesel made her way to England, to find refuge with former friends. (Did she come back to Grimsby?)

43/ Grimsby (Drunken Suicide) July 1907

Charlotte Howson killed herself in a bizarre fashion whilst she and her husband were getting plastered. She suddenly raised her glass in the air and shouted “This is the last drink I shall ever have!” then gulped it down. She told him that she had laced her beer with laudanum. Then a doctor was quickly fetched, but it was too late for Charlotte, as she died there and then. (Where was it?)

44/ Wood Street August 1877 (Somnambulist/Child Cruelty?)

45/ Garibaldi Street Suicide, August 1877

21-year-old grocer, Henry Joseph Portugal Hazwell living down Garibaldi Street was found dead in his bed. By the side of the bed were two packets of “Battle Vermin Killer”, from Jepson’s chemists down Freeman Street, along with a bottle of gin. A number of letters were found, one addressed to the Coroner.  It read: “Sir- I have committed this rash act myself by taking poison- yours respectfully, H.J.P.Hazwell”. One of the others was addressed to Miss Cooper,No. 3, Garibaldi Street, it read:

“My dear Katie- Through your deceitfulness and non-confidence in me, I am about to commit a very rash act. I forgive you of all the harm you have done to me. I hope the next lover you have will care as much for you as I have. He can’t love you better. I enclose in this letter my two rings, hoping you will forever keep them in remembrance of me. This is wrote before seven in the morning. As you do not love me and you make it appear impossible for us two to be joined together, I commit this rash act on myself, afraid I should take your life. I have often thought of it. But I forgive you everything and hope that the Lord will give you a true heart, which you have not now. So I must conclude. May the Lord have mercy upon my soul. O Lord have mercy upon me. O Christ have mercy upon me. O! Lord receive my spirit into thine everlasting Kingdom for Christ’s sake. Amen. From your loving Harry- H.J.P.Hazwell. And may the Lord guide your footsteps in the right way for Christ’s sake. Amen.

In the others, he tells his sister that she can have his watch and chain and how he hopes to join their mother in heaven. His father is told that he wants to buried near as possible to his mother and that he is better off dead than living with the person he loves not caring for him.His brother’s letter is pretty much the same, saying that Miss Cooper’s parents disliked him and asking him and his friends to come to the funeral.

Miss Cooper, the girlfriend, said that he saw her at the Pier and asked her why she hadn’t been to church. She replied that she had a friend come over, but he said she was seeing another man. After this, she basically dumped him there and then. The verdict was a common one in Victorian times for suicides. That was “Suicide whilst under temporary insanity”.

46/ Grimsby Town Football Club. (Player Assaults Director) April 1914

Not unusual these days to read about a football player assaulting someone, but in the Great War period at Grimsby Town player named William Birch, assaulted a local journalist, Ernest Tunbridge and then took a swipe a director of the club, James Plaston. It was before kick-off against Leeds United and Birch, who had been suspended by the club, dashed into the Press Box and laid into Tunbridge with a number of punches. Plaston tried to separate them and Birch spun around and clocked him one. Police arrived and he was arrested and he was eventually fined three guineas plus costs for assault.

47/ Royal Docks, (Accidental Death) February 1907

 

48/ Grimsby, (Dead Trawlerman’s Sweetheart at Docks) May 1904

This is a heartbreaking little tale of how brutal the fishing trade could be and how it could tear apart a family unit in the blink of an eye. John Lyons went out on his trawler some time ago, to Iceland’s fertile fishing grounds. He was due to return on a certain Friday, then was to have married his sweetheart the very next day. She was waiting on the dockside to give him a big hug and to welcome him home, but as the men disembarked, Lyons was nowhere to be seen. The captain spotted her and calmly explained as he had been swept overboard into the icy North Sea, along with another of the crew. The choppy waters and his heavy attire caused him to sink almost immediately, despite the crew trying several times to rescue the two them. She fainted at the quayside and had to be carried home by some of the crew. (Who was she?)

49/ Grimsby (Suicide on Trawler) January 1885

The skipper of the smack “Friend”, James Gloody, was faced with a hate mob waiting to hang him, after his recent news told of his inhumane treatment of the cook, 19-year-old John Jowitt, who was so frightened of him and fed up of his ill usage, that he decided to jump overboard and drown himself in the North Sea. A rope was attached to a smack by the lynch mob but police managed to hold them off.

In November of 1887, James Gloody was sent to gaol for six weeks plus hard labour, for again ill-treating the cook on board his vessel, James Wood.

50/ Humber Street Fatality, October 1888

A dreadful accident occurred at the corner of Humber Street, when two and a half-year-old Gertrude Page was being taken out in her pram. A horse and waggon, belonging to Marshall and Co, millers, was standing in the road when a gust of wind blew the pram against the horse, which suddenly reared up and galloped off. The infant fell out and was run over by the waggons wheel and was dragged along until it released when it got to the tram line. The little girls head was badly battered and she died at the hospital a few days later.

51/ Red Hill, Grimsby, June 1879 (Where the hell is Red Hill?)

Grimsby Docks

The next three are just some of the dozens, if not hundreds of drownings that have occurred at the Docks at Grimsby. Some were genuine accidents, but quite a few involved drink and falling in and drowning.

52/ September 1888

One Saturday morning, a man named James Shaw saw something floating in the Royal Docks at Grimsby. He informed the dock police and they brought the corpse ashore and had a post-mortem examination performed on it. It was identified as the man who went missing about two weeks ago, James Dutlin, who was in his fifties, married and said to be living in Macaulay Street.

53/ September 1888

This accident happened on the west side of the Royal Dock, to a man named James Nightingale of No.12, Hall’s Yard, Cross Street in Scarborough. He had been out on the town and was heading back to the trawler “Dandy” when he slipped and fell into the Dock. A crew member of the “Knud” threw him a rope, but he didn’t grasp it and he sank to the bottom. His body was recovered the next morning and taken to the mortuary.

54/ August 1884 Alexandra Dock

Alexander Gordon was seen in the Grant’s Arms pub swigging four fourpenny-worths of whisky, but he seemed to be sober. His corpse was fished out of the Alexandra Dock near Corporation Wharf, a couple of days later. It is thought that he took the turning leading to the Wharf instead of the next which leads over the iron bridge, into the West Marsh, therefore he went directly into the dock. He had £6 on him and a gold watch, so he was wasn’t robbed and thrown in by a third party.

55/ Royal Dock September 1884

A young boy named Alfred Dovey was drowned accidentally in the Royal Dock. He was fourteen and lived with his Mum in Wood Street and was a clerk in an office. He was sent on board the “Olea” with some packages for the ship’s captain. He got there by boat, delivered the items, then fell into the Dock. The crew were on deck when they heard a splash, but no cries of help were heard and before any assistance could be rendered, he disappeared under the water. His body was recovered.

56/ Grimsby Hospital/Docks (Died on Operating Table) March 1883

57/ Grimsby Docks (Three Week Old Corpse) May 1880

The lifeless corpse of Henry Wilkinson, apprentice to Henry Greer, smack owner, was fished out of the Docks at Grimsby. He was left in charge of the smack on the 13th of April and hadn’t been seen by anybody since that day, nearly three weeks ago.

58/ North Sea, July 1887 (Death by Brandy)

Another glimpse into life on board a trawler in the North Sea and how drink featured very heavily in their everyday lives. John Lingard had reportedly drunk a pint of brandy while at sea, then tried to jump overboard, but was put to bed by fellow crew members. Lingard, who lived at 38, Duncombe Street, was found dead a few hours later that evening. The Grimsby coroner revealed that he died from alcoholic poisoning.

59/ Grimsby Dock Station, (Railway Fatality) January 1882

Alfred Williams, who lived at 12, Worsley Buildings, was mending the rails when an engine and some large ash vans came up unperceived when he was run over, with the ash vans going directly over his chest. A doctor was close by but before he could administer any assistance, Williams had passed away. The chest cavity was completely caved in and survival of this accident would have been a miracle, to say the least.

60/ Cleethorpes Road Crossing Fatality, August 1866

61/ Wintringham and Sons Saw-Mill, Victoria Street, (Saw-Mill Death) September 1894

Sixteen-year-old Herbert Reginald Coupland who lived at 32, Willingham Street, was fatally injured while at the saw-mill of Wintringham and Sons at Victoria Street. He was using a planing machine when an iron flew out of the machine and struck Coupland in the abdominal area. He was whisked off to the hospital, where they tried to stitch up the huge gash which was in the abdomen and also the bowels that were protruding from the body. The poor lad lingered on for a day or two but finally died of the horrific injuries he sustained. The machine which he was working at the time, made around 3-4000 revolutions per minute, so the velocity with which it hit him must have been intense. It was ruled an accident and “Death by Misadventure”.

62/ Dock Station Accident, November 1879

A dreadful accident occurred near the Dock Station to John Fawcett, No.72, Fotherby Street. He was wheeling a barrow load of ice across the railway at the Dock Station, from the station side to the down platform. Some ice fell on the lines and he stopped to pick it up when an engine came into view. A bystander tried to drag him onto the platform, but Fawcett rushed to remove the barrow. It then struck full on and he was run over. A leg was severed off, the body was smashed to bits and an arm was broken. He was taken to the hospital, but hopes of him pulling through were minimal.

63/ Grimsby (Broken Neck) July 1887 (Another John Lingard/Same Family?)

An inquest was held at the Fireman’s Arms in Thesiger Street, in regard to the death of John Lingard, a 71-year-old shoemaker. He was absolutely plastered on Saturday night and went to bed, then in the middle of the night he went down to get another drink and he fell down the stairs.His wife heard the commotion and tried to bring him around, but he had snapped his neck and was already dead.

64/ Grimsby, (Attempted Wife Murder) December 1885

The Red Lion Hotel (75-77 Freeman Street) along with the old White Bear on Albert Street corner and the Prince of Wales on Church Street corner. All disappeared in the 1960’s.

65/ Grimsby, February 1886 (Another Attempted Murder)

Fred Mellars a twenty-eight-year-old pianist, was charged with firing a loaded gun at Annie Mellars, with intent to murder her on the 12th December at Grimsby. He was found guilty by the jury, but they recommended mercy, due to his wife pleading for him. He was given ten years penal servitude (hard-labour).

66/ No.80, Nelson Street, Grimsby, October 1894 (14-year-old Girl’s Suicide)

Gertrude Wright was only fourteen, and she was the daughter of Henry Wright, a shoemaker, of 80, Nelson Street. (Nelson Street is next to Freeman St Market and has Corporation Arms on the corner of it) The inquest on her suicide was at the Red Lion Hotel. It revealed that she committed the act in the backyard of her father’s house and was probably due to the horrific way in which he treated her. The father said it was down to her putting bits of leather, cut to the shape of a penny and stuck together with wax, into the gas meter. It was taken out and he told her off for her foolish behaviour. Apparently, this had been playing on her mind for weeks. She was found hanging from a nail in the backyard of her father’s house, with a piece of clothesline at about 12-15 in the afternoon. A doctor was summoned said she had been dead for approximately an hour or so. The jury delivered a verdict of “Suicide whilst of unsound mind” and they censured the father for his conduct towards his daughter and also his neglect.

67/ Royal Dock (Drowning) December 1882

14-year-old Alfred Henry Smith, an apprentice on the Trinity House Pilot Cutter No 1 of Hull, was discovered floating in the Royal Dock at Grimsby. He was seen in the boat of the cutter, which is docked there and soon after the boat was seen to be empty, with the lad’s cap floating on the surface. Grappling irons were used to extricate the body and it was found near to the gates at the Graving Dock. This is the second Hull pilot apprentice drowned in the past month. The other was a lad named Collier, who went missing from the cutter “Fox”, and the body washed ashore several weeks later.

68/ “Erimers”- Grimsby Old Dock (Man Suffocated) December 1870

69/ Old Dock (Teenager Found Drowned) August 1878

An eighteen-year-old youth by the name John Grevill, had just had lunch in his dinner-hour, then went bathing in the Old Dock. Although a good swimmer he was seized with cramp and he drowned. The deceased was missed at work, Kitchin’s shipbuilders, and his master went to look for him. He saw his clothes in a boat nearby and Grevill in the creek, floating on top of the water.

70/ Douglas’s Buildings ( Suicide) May 1863

A youngster by the name of Mumby, living at Douglas’s Buildings, who was about twelve years old, went to Sunday school and on the way home, he was met by a mate of his and asked if he wanted to go bird-nesting (collecting birds nests and eggs). When he got back late, his parents sent him up to his room with no tea. Shortly after this, the parents went to the chapel but thought their son was asleep in bed, so they left him alone. When they returned and looked in the pantry, they saw him hanging there with a piece of cord tied tightly around his neck. He had hung from a hook in the ceiling and had used the shelves as a sort of ladder, to climb up. The crockery in the pantry was smashed, with the cord actually cut into his throat, causing his death.

71/ Upper Burgess Street (Attempted Murder/Suicide) October 1871

Samuel Dickens firstly tried to shoot his wife, then took the cowardly way out and blew his brains out. He asked his wife for three shillings that day and told her he was off to Hull, but instead, he bought the revolver. He then went back home and told her he had missed the train, then pulled out the weapon and fired a shot at her. It misfired, but he fired two more in quick succession, and still, it misfired. He then locked himself in a room and reloaded it with gravel stones, then shot himself in the head. His right cheek was torn apart and he was found in a pool of blood. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition. He recovered and then appeared in court on the charge of attempted murder and attempted suicide.

72/ Grimsby, May 1871 (Lynch Mob Riots) (See also Louth No.27)

This was akin to an American style lynching, where they were that desperate to get to him, they smashed windows and threw stones. The poor girl had taken Battles Vermin Killer after going to Louth to see her sweetheart and he told her that he didn’t want to see a convicted criminal. The crowd was numbered in the thousands but seems unlikely. (What happened in the end?)

73/ Grimsby (Woman’s Suicide) September 1892

Alice Brown aged thirty-five was staying at the home of her brother-in-law, the Reverend Lauderdale who was the pastor of the Grimsby Baptist Tabernacle. Alice had recently lost her boyfriend and her father. She had told her sister that she was going mad and this proved correct as she was discovered by her sister, hanging from the bedstead, with a handkerchief used as a temporary noose. (Where in Grimsby?).

74/ Grimsby (Body Washed Ashore) June 1895

The body of an unknown man washed ashore at Grimsby at the weekend. The corpse was in a remarkably good condition and estimated to have been in the water, a matter of hours. He had on a cardigan, black vest and coat, black trousers and boots. There was also a Railway Guide to Bradford in one of his pockets.

75/ Grimsby Docks Murder, November 1877 (Was it true?)

This is a strange tale, that begins at a police station in Hull, and of a young lady giving the name of Mary Cadeller, who confessed to pushing her husband into the Docks at Grimsby. Her husband was of German origin and named John Cadeller and he left her in London on the 29th October and she followed him to Grimsby, where she saw him talking to a woman, who was ex-partner of his, at the train station. Then all Hell let loose. They began to argue and he told her that he had been seeing her for quite a while and would carry on doing so. He had been drinking heavily and when the other woman left, he asked his wife to go for walk with him. This was at the Docks in Grimsby, he had put his hand on her shoulder, which she took to mean that he was going to throttle her or drown her, so she shoved him in before he could do her any harm. Mary Caddeller stood there and watched him drown, then made her way Hull, where she confessed to his murder and to being brought up by the Whitechapel murderer, Henry Wainwright. The woman is thought to be of weak intellect.

76/ Grimsby Suicide, February 1880

77/ Grimsby, (Attempted Murder/Suicide) December 1895

Henry Gaskill, who was divorced from his wife, saw her in the street one Friday night and attacked her with a knife, stabbing her in the head and hands. He then calmly made his way home and slit his own throat. He is still alive but lies in a precarious condition. (Did he survive?).

78/ Victoria Street (Child Cruelty) December 1896

A five-year-old child named Carter was out playing in Victoria Street when a girl named Ruth Harrington, dragged him into her house and then put a pan on the fire, then pushed it against his skin, burning him severely. The youngster isn’t expected to pull through. Ruth Harrington is said to be not all there. (slightly retarded.)

79/ Grimsby, November 1826 (Steamboat Explosion)

The UK Edinburgh steam packet entered Grimsby due to the appalling weather. After a couple of days in port, the “Graham” steam packet was on her way to Hull, went alongside the Edinburgh. The Graham was on her way when the boiler exploded and Mr John Blow, ironically for his name, was blown to bits. Also killed was John Potton, a labourer, who along with two people that are said to have been killed. The rest of the passengers and crew received serious burns.

The dead are- John Blow, John Potton and Richard Genny, a fruiterer, all blown to smithereens, with no hope of any fragment being found of their bodies. John Cundill was found dead in the water and Wiliam Mellins, a sailor also missing, presumed dead. A child who received third-degree burns has died of her injuries. (Did six die altogether?)

80/ Coke Ovens, Grimsby, (Childs Shocking Death) August 1863

81/ Grimsby, October 1895

Frank William Bartlett was a marine engineer, who had contracted typhoid fever since returning from South America, and was complaining of constant headaches and pains. He told his aunt that he was going mad, and decided to end it all by drinking some carbolic acid.

82/ Grimsby, (Dead Prostitute Abused) December 1863

The most shocking and revolting exhibition of corrupted female humanity recently occurred at Grimsby. The death of an old prostitute named Hill, who kept a brothel in Princess Street, Lower Burgess Street, in which lived ten prostitutes. They tied the dead woman to a chair, put a pipe in her mouth and a glass of gin in her stone-cold hand, then kept asking her what was going on in the place she had gone, while they danced around the corpse. The Reverend W.Hulbert very properly refused to read the entire burial service over the deceased. (No rites due to being a prostitute?)

83/ Corporation Park Suicide, June 1899

Two men were sat next to the lake in Corporation Park at West Marsh, when they heard a gunshot, so they ran to see what was happening. They spotted a body of a male floating in the water. The body was taken out by police and taken to the mortuary. The man was identified as Charles Ernest Otto Kind about 40, a seaman from Berlin. The lake was dragged later on, and the suicide weapon, a revolver, was dragged up from the bottom.

84/ Old Dock/Amelia Terrace, Cemetery Road June 1878

85/ Grimsby Dock Gates, (Two Drowned) April 1891

Two men named Ashmull and Diver were in a boat when it capsized and both men drowned. They were seamen on a fishing smack and were trying to get through the dock gates when it tipped over and they were thrown into the water.

86/ Grimsby (Ex-Mayors Suicide Attempt) October 1893

An ex-mayor of Grimsby, Alderman Dobson, lies in a critical condition in hospital after an attempted suicide. He has been unwell for some time and suffering from depression also and he deemed slitting his throat as the only answer. He was vice chairman of the school board and a leader in Nonconformist circles. In the 1891 Kellys Directory, I found a George Shelton Dobson. Is this the guy?

87/ Strand Street, Grimsby, (Murder) July 1882

Alfred Renney, a fisherman, was stabbed in Strand Street by his girlfriend, Annie Joyce Townsend on June 21st. He has succumbed to his injuries by expiring at Grimsby Hospital. They were sat a the dinner table when an argument erupted and Renney struck out at Townsend, she grabbed a bread-knife in retaliation and plunged it into him several times, in the arm and chest. He managed to stagger to the backyard where he collapsed due to loss of blood. She is now on up on a murder charge.

88/ Messrs Sowerby, Son & Coatsworth, (Warehouse Death) December 1866

89/ Grimsby Fish Dock Basin (Lad Drowns) May 1891

Ten-year-old James Lincoln who lived with his parents at No.55, Guildford Street, fell into the Dock Basin and was drowned. A fisherman who was passing, dived in and tried to save the lad, but was unable and then had to be rescued himself.

90/ King Edward Street North, (Opium Users Suicide) September 1870

The body of German national Carl Fisher, a tailor by trade, killed himself at his lodgings at Mrs Appleby’s in King Edward Street North, by taking some poison. He was a user of opium and smoked it regularly and his manner had become excitable as a result. He hardly had two pennies to rub together but burnt some of his shirts and then sold other clothes, with the money gained going on beer and spirits. He had threatened suicide before. He was found unconscious one morning and never recovered.

91/ Grimsby Docks (Two Lads Drowned) June 1891

Two youngsters drowned in the Docks, in a tragic accident. Eleven-year-old Arthur Pearce was playing on a barge moored off the quay, when he fell into the water. His brother, seventeen-year-old William plunged in after him, then they both got into difficulties and before help could be raised, they had both drowned.

92/ Victoria Street Death, October 1867

93/ “Uronia”/North Sea, January 1907 (Suicide/Superstition)

On New Year’s Eve, while in the North Sea on a fishing trip, the second engineer of the trawler”Uronia”, slit his throat on board the boat. He lingered for a number of hours but finally slipped away. The crew, who were deeply superstitious, refused to go below, with their meals being served in the galley. The “Uronia” was brought back to port and they tried to get a new crew but had great difficulty in scraping them together, due to the suicide on board. (Was it believed to be cursed?)

94/ Grimsby Docks, September 1867

A young lad named Henry White whose parents live in York, was an apprentice to a smack owner, Mr Sellers of Scarborough. He was rowing a boat in the Docks, when it tipped up and he dropped into the water. He was only in there around four minutes, when he sank and drowned.

95/ Grimsby, May 1860 (Boy Killed by Lioness)

The Manders menagerie was in Grimsby and a boy named Redman was swinging on a rope in front of the lion’s den. He was told to pack it in, but he got too close, when a lioness grabbed hold of his head and a lion in the same cage intervened. The keeper came to separate them and she eventually let go of unfortunate chap. His injuries, cuts and lacerations, were so awful that he died as a result.

96/ Grimsby Child Murder, March 1866

97/ Grimsby Skating Disaster (Four Dead) January 1905

Four men drowned in a brick pond near Grimsby when the ice gave way and they fell into the icy cold water. Seven men were skating on the brick pond, when five met in the middle and the weight made the ice crack, then totally crumble. Alfred Hurst was thrown a clothes-line and was rescued. Less fortunate were William Hatfield aged nineteen: Luke Hatfield aged seventeen: Samuel Bury aged thirty and James Thompson aged twenty-one,  all from the West Marsh area. The corpses of William Hatfield, Thompson and Bury, were recovered. Luke’s body was found a few hours afterwards. Sadly, Bury was a widower and he leaves a fifteen-month-old child with no father. (What brick pond was this?).

98/ Grimsby Murder/Suicide, February 1913

Fred Wellburn, a twenty-six-year-old wagon repairer was discovered in his father’s house, with severe stab wounds to the throat and chest. His father had attacked him with a butcher’s knife, severing the jugular in the process, then he tried to take his own life by slitting his throat with the same weapon. The father, William Wellburn, is clinging to life and chances are he won’t make it.

99/ Grimsby Manslaughter, October 1888

This clipping shows how useful it was to be a man in Victorian times. Today, hopefully, the sentence this man received would be unthinkable. Thomas Bee, staggered home one night absolutely drunk as a skunk, when an argument erupted between him and his missus. In a moment of madness, he lobbed a paraffin lamp at her, setting her clothes and her alight. Mrs Bee was whisked off to the hospital but died from her burns. 33-year-old Thomas ended up in court at Lincoln on the charge of manslaughter and his sentence was a paltry six months in prison.

100/ Haven Bridge, November 1867 (Caistor Landlord Drowning)

Royal Docks, Grimsby.

101/ January 1866

One Sunday afternoon some lads were messing about in the timber at the Royal Dock playing hide and seek, when they stumbled across a female corpse. She was identified as a woman named Harrington, alias Minnitt and she renowned as a “woman of loose character”. She had been seen down Cleethorpes Road on Saturday night, not unsurprisingly, with some foreign seamen. It is believed that she had been wandering around here, drunk and then fallen fifteen feet onto the timber, shattering her skull and killing her outright. It was a serious fall, because it describes how her brains were protruding from her head.

102/ September 1885

The lifeless body of 15-year-old Edward Rodwell was fished out of the Royal Dock, Grimsby. He was lodging in King Street and worked on the steam-tug “Honour”. It was while he was on his way to the tug early one morning, when it is thought that he slipped and fell in. The rest of the crew got worried when he didn’t make an appearance, so a couple of men named Flintham and Marshall dragged the Royal Dock and soon after, the body of Rodwell was found.

103/ Royal Dock, Grimsby, (Hull Diver Chokes to Death) November 1881

104/ Royal Docks, Grimsby, (Tug Sinks) March 1915

The Great Central Railway Company’s tug No 7, sank in the Royal Dock at Grimsby, and Pat Kinson the engineer and a boy named Hall, who were both in the engine room at the time, went down with the vessel. The captain and another member of the crew were both rescued. The tug was manoeuvring the paddle steamer “Brighton Queen”, with the cause of the vessels sinking a complete mystery.

105/ Grimsby Docks (Swede Drowns) August 1865

A sailor from a Swedish ship docked in Grimsby, by the name of Jens Peter Gudmunsen, was accidentally drowned in the Docks. Three men were delivering planks of wood onto the quay and Gudmunsen being in the boat, made use of as a sort of bridge from boat to quay. He was missed from the boat and a search was instigated. After twenty minutes his body was discovered at the bottom of the Dock.

106/ Palace Theatre of Varieties Death, (Palace Buffet) November 1907

A claim for compensation against the Palace Theatre of Varieties, better known as the Palace Buffet, (as of 2016, is a branch of Carphone Warehouse) was brought by Mrs Rushbrook, who was killed by the collapse of a drop-curtain he was lowering. She was awarded £150 in July 1907 but the defence team tried to wriggle their way out of paying, by suggesting whether or not Rushbrook was a workman. There was some legal loophole that they got past, to do with manual labour of manual work. He was the latter, so the judge annulled the original verdict. (Anybody explain it better?)

107/ Prince of Wales Theatre Fatality, September 1891

This is an old postcard from my private collection and it shows Freeman Street in the early 1900’s. There is a piece missing, so please don’t copy it, like some people who go E-bay and use the stuff as though it was theirs.

The story is about the superbly named “Una-The Human Fly”, or 16-year-old Sidney Bird from Lowestoft, as his family knew him as. He was doing a trapeze act, which ended in his finale of ceiling walking, with a ladder and suspended rings. He missed his footing during the act and fell head first onto the stage. He was taken backstage and a doctor was summoned, but despite all the assistance and medical help, he died within the hour from a fractured skull. The boy’s father explained that he had been performing that same part of the act since he was eight and never had an accident before this. One slip cost the poor lad his life.  “Accidental Death” was the verdict.

108/ Pyewipe Creek (Boy Drowns) June 1859

12-year-old William Dobney had come to stay with relatives in Grimsby, from Hundleby near Spilsby, when they decided to go for a swim at the Pyewipe Creek. Dobney got out of his depth and tried to get to the bank, whereupon his cousin, William, saw him in trouble and tried to grasp hold of him, but they both fell in. The cousin was rescued by a brave chap named Saltfleet and when the body of Dobney was eventually recovered, it was found that life was extinct.

109/ Victoria Street Fatality, (1915) December 1866

An inquest was held the Old King’s Head in Grimsby, touching the death of 32-year-old John Todd, a labourer, also an alcoholic in the pub mentioned. Let me just mention for any Grimbarians reading that the Old King’s Head had the address of 73 Victoria Street and was on the corner of that road and Haven Street. So, John Todd goes into the Old King’s Head and starts downing rum like its going out of fashion, then he had something to eat and then swigged more rum and as result passed out on the floor. A waitress, a Miss Andrews, went to take a look at him to see if he was OK but found no signs of life whatsoever. The verdict was one of “Death from natural causes, accelerated by excessive drinking”, plus they also mentioned that he was supplied with rum, even though he was completely sozzled.

110/ Grimsby (Moisers)Freeman Street December 1915

I saw an advert for Moisers and it’s at 252-256 Freeman Street, the original sewing machine shop. This story is about the son of Walter Moiser, the sewing machine salesman, who was wafting a revolver about when it went off and the bullet entered the boy’s temple. He was taken to Grimsby Hospital but died within a couple of hours of admittance.

111/ Queen Street Suicide, April 1867

Hannah Barker, the wife of William Barker who lived at Queen Street in the town, looks to have been suffering from a severe case of post-natal depression. The two had been taking care of their baby, who was ill with the “frog”? (Anyone know what Frog is?) He left for work at six a.m., then returned at eight a.m., finding the door open. He continued upstairs, where to his horror, he found his wife hanging by a cord, to the bedroom door. She was cut down by neighbours and was found to be dead.

112/ Dock Basin, October 1917 (Boiler Explosion)

Three men were blown to bits in a terrible explosion on board the trawler, King Harald. It was leaving the Docks and had barely got into the Basin, when the boiler suddenly exploded, sending the crew into the water, bar one. There were two engineers below and the steward was in the galley, they were killed on the spot. The “King Harald” sank within a couple of minutes.

113/ River Humber Suicide? July 1876

114/ Grimsby, July 1917 (Baby Show Accident)

At a baby show in Grimsby, an aeroplane had been dropping leaflets from the air and landed in a field nearby. The crowd was anxious to catch a glimpse of the aircraft and hurried to get a look. A second plane was about to land when it swerved to avoid the crowd and it crashed into a hedgerow, knocking down Harriet Simpson, who was taking care of her two-year-old nephew. The child is in a critical condition but Harriet sustained a few cuts and bruises. (Did child make it?/Where was this?)

115/ Old Dock, (Unknown Mans Body) February 1877

Shock Horror! Another body found in Grimsby Docks. This one though was a John Doe. William Johnson said that he arrived in Grimsby five weeks ago, then was employed as a groom at his master’s property. He was known as “George” and he never talked about whether that was his proper name, or where he came from, he was a bit of an enigma. He never turned to feed the horses one day and he was never seen again. When the corpse was discovered, he still had the keys to his master’s stables in his pocket. It was determined that he lived in digs in King Edward Street North, at Charlotte White’s. He gave her the name of Thomas Hudson, or Hutchinson and told her he was from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. Last time she saw him, he was drunk, but after that, he vanished from the radar. (Was he who he said he was?)

116/ Holme Street Suicide, February 1885

Irishman Patrick McGrail, thirty-five years old and a stonemason by trade, who worked for Riggall and Hewins, builders, killed himself in a shocking manner. He had been lodging at No.4, Holme Street with Mrs Devannah and had been drinking very heavily recently but he had calmed down in the past few days. He became crazy one day when the “shakes” or delirium tremens kicked into his system and he leapt through the glass window one Saturday. He was taken inside but continued to behave strangely and violently and was now in the upstairs portion of the house. A man tried to calm him down, but he flew at him with a poker in his hand telling him that if he didn’t back off he’d kill him. The man then went outside and climbed on the wash-house roof, to see into his room, but McGrail spotted him and then repeated his threats. The man saw sense and went back down. More help turned up and they tried to get into his room, but McGrail was wedged behind the door. When they prized their way in, McGrail was found on the floor with blood seeping from his throat from a self-inflicted wound with a pen-knife. He ended up with him dying shortly afterwards.

117/ Rose and Crown Manslaughter (Victoria Street) July 1881

118/ Grimsby (Manslaughter On Board Trawler) August 1914

Able seaman Thomas Henry Hogg aged twenty-three was accidentally shot by Henry George Warren on board a vessel in the North Sea. The crew were all in the mess-room when Warren gave the order for the men to get to work, or “turn to” as it commonly referred to. They all dithered about and didn’t look too keen on starting the day’s work, so he grabbed one of the four revolvers that were kept on board and turned around. The gun went off and the bullet went straight through Hogg’s head, killing him instantly. Warren claimed later that he had no idea that it was loaded. The gun didn’t even belong to anybody in particular. The verdict was one of “Accidental Death”.

119/ Flamborough/Grimsby (Skipper Cruelty) August 1873

The story here gives a detailed account of how brutal some of the skippers were to other crew members and used to beat them on a regular basis. Frederick Donker was an apprentice from London and was the cook on board the “Jubilee”. The skipper, William Brusey struck him with a stick a number of times and this caused the probable suicide of Donker, because he then jumped overboard into the North Sea near the Flamborough coast. Another similar case was that of, Frederick Brewer, who was an apprentice from the Dover Union, on the smack “Wilberforce” and when he was beaten and physically abused, he could take no more and jumped overboard. The skipper Joshua Hudson would thrash him with a rope’s end.

Back to Brusey. He was arrested for manslaughter and the Grand jury ignored this plea but found him guilty of assault. The judge said that he didn’t think the beating of the deceased led him to kill himself and Brusey was discharged.

120/ Grimsby Losses in 1915.

From January 1s,t 1915 to mid-December of 1915, the Grimsby fleet lost a total of fifty=five trawlers, losing a total of 269 lives. The average cost of each trawler is £4000.

121/ Littlefield Lane Suicide, May 1882

122/ West Fitties Drowning, July 1881

Ethelbert Johnson aged twelve, the son of Charles Johnson, a labourer residing in New Dock Street, was tragically drowned while bathing at a brick-pond near the West Fitties. A woman thought he was messing about in the water, not screaming for help and trying to stay afloat. A lad called Webber from 116, Albert Street, dived in to save him and grabbed his hair and started to bring him to the bank. His body was limp and lifeless and mouth to mouth resuscitation was tried on him, but to no avail. The verdict of “Accidental Drowning” was returned.

123/ H.T.Hart and Co, Victoria Street, (Boss’s Suicide) June 1908

Harry Thornton Hart, the boss at the drapery shop, H.T.Hart and Co. in Victoria Street was discovered by an employee, Mr Harling, sat in a chair in his private sitting-room with a bullet wound to the temple. In his hand was the suicide weapon. Results of the post-mortem showed that he had been dead for a number of hours. He also left a couple of letters, one to his sister and the other to the female cashier in the shop. He was only thirty-eight years of age.

124/ Alexandra Dock Suicide, June 1906

Kate Loftus was the wife of a marine engineer who had left her for another woman, with whom he had previously co-habited, after being married for only a few months. After seeing the couple together, Kate deteriorated and she used to regularly go and cry on her sister’s shoulder. She would shake from time to time and had mentioned to her sister that “This will kill me”. She woke her one night and said “He’s coming home, he’ll be in this tide”, which meant he was coming back from a fishing trip. The following morning, she was a bag of nerves and she went out. She simply vanished after that and was found in the Alexandra Dock the next day. Her premonition of her ex-husband coming back was entirely accurate as well.

125/ River Freshney?/Ship Inn (Flottergate) July 1867

126/ Holme Hill Brickyard (Welholme/Convamore/Heneage Road) January 1879

This is partially explained, by the fact that everyone who talked about this woman during the inquiry, said that she was drunk when they saw her. Sarah Ann Lee aged thirty-four, the wife of Henry Lee and residing in Macaulay Street, was found in a couple of feet of water in the Holme Hill brickyard, which is a piece of waste ground nowadays, behind the roads of Welholme, Convamore and Heneage. She had wounds on her shins, suggesting that she stumbled or fell on some bricks or stumps left in the ground. A sexton named William Topliss found the body. A witness said she called at their house that evening and said she appeared to have been drinking.The verdict was “Found Drowned, but there was no evidence to show how she got in the water”.

127/ Clarence Terrace Suicide, (Abbey Road area) February 1880

Auctioneer Mark Dawson was found in the water-closet of his home at Clarence Terrace, around the Abbey Road area nowadays, with his throat slit from ear to ear.  His wife was away from home at the time and the others had gone to a local chapel at George Street. His son found a letter in the house, written by his father and saying that he had deceived his wife, and basically, that he had lost some money on the speculations he had put money on, and that by the time he read the letter he would have killed himself. The son got a friend of his to come over and it was when they searched the place, he was discovered covered in blood in the W.C., with a razor by his side and a knife on the toilet seat. The note he left was read out at the inquiry, it read:

“My brain is racked this morning. I have deceived you all. I cannot bear it any longer; may God have mercy upon me. You will find my body in the water-closet upstairs- M.D”.

128/ Albert Street May 1888

Not unusually, there is drink involved in this awful story of, what can only be described as manslaughter. Charles Darnell of Albert Street, just off Freeman Street, was a 47-year-old labourer, in need of a housekeeper. Along comes 56-year-old Barbara Withers and she gets the job of his general housekeeper. One day, Darnell had some friends of his come to the house and start a drinking binge, which continued on to the Prince of Wales pub (On the corner of Freeman Street and Church Street, I think!). Darnell came in drunk and demanded his supper, which Withers was supposed to have on the table. She too liked a wee dram and with two drunkards arguing with each other, the worst was likely to happen and Darnell kicked her in the stomach. She went down, dreadfully injured and later on died of acute peritonitis. Darnell was mortified but he was found guilty of causing the death of Barbara Withers and got seven years penal servitude (Hard labour).

129/ Grimsby Railway Station, September 1878

 

 

130/ Maude Street/Flottergate Fatality, March 1885

Judith Sergeant aged sixty-three, died from injuries caused by falling from a cart at Maude Street. She and her husband were on their way back to Marshchapel, when deceased said she wanted to get off for something. In doing so, her dress caught on a piece of iron on the step and threw her down. Help was swift and she was taken to a house nearby, where she remained until she died. A witness said that when she fell, he talked to her but got no answer as she was knocked unconscious. “Accidental death” was the verdict, having suffered concussion of the brain.

 

 

 

1/ Charlton Cemetery Death, January 1906

A grave-digger at Charlton Cemetery, went down into a grave to check his work and a pile of earth gave way and he was buried. Eventually, the grave-digger, William Paisley of Eltham Road in Eltham, was dug out of the grave, but he was quite dead.

2/ Greenwich Skeletons, December 1872

I know it’s not the picture that should be there, but it’s the only one I had of Greenwich. This clipping refers to some workmen who were converting Greenwich Hospital into a naval college (could be the one !), they found a couple of skeletons underneath the stone-flagged floor of what was once the Royal Palace of every Englishman’s favourite obese dictator, Henry the Eighth and Queen Elizabeth 1st. They also found an underground passage, approximately half a mile long, as well as the two skulls and various other bones. It was supposed to be a section of another passage that ran from an old house near Eltham Palace to another ancient residence, recently demolished, near the site of the Greenwich Palace. Back in the real world, it was found to be the sewers of a hospital. (Where are the skeletons now?)

3/ No.18, Waterman’s Fields, Woolwich, (Singular Suicide) October 1884

A 55-year-old pensioner, George Thomas, residing at 18, Waterman’s Fields killed himself in a bizarre manner one afternoon. The weird thing about this was that Thomas had just been up in court on a charge of attempting suicide. The judge took a lenient view and let him off as long as he promised not to do it again. Thomas promised and walked out of court a free man. While sat at home he grabbed a bottle, popped it into his mouth and started to chew on it. The shards of glass cut his jugular vein and caused haemorrhaging. He died from these injuries, and due to the odd way in which he killed himself, the jury decided that he must have been insane.   ( N* Sh*t Sherlock.)

4/ Woolwich Arsenal Explosion, June 1899

5/ Royal Arsenal Suicide, Woolwich, April 1872

William Holmes was a pensioner from the Royal Artillery, who worked at the practice range at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He used to fire the rifles at the 500-yard range, at the Government marshes next to the Royal Arsenal, for the purpose of testing the cartridges. One afternoon he sneaked off into one of the sheds and closed the door. A couple of minutes later there was a loud report of a gun, then some workmen scrambled across to the shed to see if Holmes was alright. They opened the door and found him sat down with the top of his head blown off and half his face missing. The Snider rifle he used was lying next to him, and it had a piece of string tied to the trigger.

6/ Plumstead, April 1857 (Acrobatic Death)

In Victorian times it was common to see acrobats, tumblers and balancers in the streets performing some kind of act. It was these gymnasts that cost 6-year-old William James Jewell his life. Two such acrobats, Parish and Evans were rolling and tumbling and were about to climb a pole that they used in their act, when it accidentally slipped from their grasp and smacked Jewell on the head. He was unconscious and never came out of it, dying a few hours later. The jury questioned why such cumbersome objects were used in street performances and gave the following verdict: “Death was caused by the incautiousness of the two men, Parish and Evans”.

7/ Woolwich Arsenal, (Fatal Explosion)   April 1892

8/ Park Place Suicide, Greenwich, May 1843

Mr Smith, who was a county magistrate, killed himself at his home in Park Place, Greenwich. The reason? Corruption? Illness? Being Blackmailed? Love?  No. It was the belief that he had filled out his tax return wrongly. The man was extremely wealthy and he told his doctor of his worry, but the verdict, in the end, was “Temporary Insanity”.

9/ King John’s Palace, Eltham, May 1893 (Body in Moat)

The body of an unknown lady wearing valuable jewellery was fished out of the moat at King John’s Palace in Eltham.

10/ Woolwich, May 1847 (Child Murder/Suicide)

An awful act of child murder and self-destruction occurred on the River Thames. The young woman named Robinson, vaulted overboard from the boat, Salsette, with her 15-month old child clasped tightly in her arms. A brave chap on board the Salsette dived in after her and tried to save her and the baby. Sadly he was too late, and the pair sank to the bottom.

11/ Cottage Place, Maidenstone Hill, Greenwich, January 1859

Ellen Wallis was a widow living at 18, Cottage Place, Maidenstone Hill in Greenwich, committed suicide by drowning herself in a tank of water at the back her house. The previous night she had gone to bed with her 9-year-old son, and when he woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning when he found that Mummy had gone away. He looked in the house, but when she was nowhere to be found, a full-blown search was made. Wallis was finally discovered in the water tank with a flat-iron tied around her neck. She was 50 years old and there is no reason why she would have committed suicide in the middle of the night.

12/ Dandridge’s Wharf Murder, High Street, Woolwich, March 1892

13/ Woolwich Barracks, (Corpse Found) June 1880

Thomas Humphries, a soldier, entered an empty wash-house which lay beneath “C Block” of the officers quarters of the Army Service Corps Barracks in Woolwich. His dog began to scratch at some lime on the floor, then it dragged a girl’s body out which had a bunch of faded flowers on her chest. Who the girl was, is a mystery, but is now being investigated by local police.

14/ Ogleby Street, Woolwich, November 1888

Police forced an entry into a locked room at Ogleby Street and discovered the limbless body of a child. The last person who rented the room, who was twenty-two-year-old Lily Smith, a half-starved single woman, was arrested. She told police that she had burnt the arms and legs and that the father of the child was a soldier with whom she co-habited.

15/ Warspite training ship, Charlton, Greenwich, November 1869

A young boy named George Dodson hung himself while on board the Warspite training ship. Dodson’s father said that his lad liked the training ship a lot and he’d only been home once while he had been on board the Warspite. There was a history of suicide in the family since his grandfather hung himself, his great-grandfather had jumped in front of an engine and his uncle had laid down on the train tracks when an engine was approaching.

16/ High Street, Plumstead, April 5th, 1899 (Mysterious Deaths)

17/ Death on the High Street, Plumstead, April 6th, 1899

18/ Shooters Hill Suicide, November 1889

The body of a young lady named Carter, who lived at Shooter’s Hill, was discovered in a pond at the top of the Hill. Her hat, jacket and gloves were laid neatly on the side of the bank, so she must have drowned herself. Carter’s mind was somewhat disturbed and she had been put on suicide watch in case she did something stupid or rash. She went out one morning, to visit a friend of hers, but she never turned up there. The servants went to look for her and eventually, the gardener saw her floating in a pond, which is in an enclosure belonging to another owner, but close to her father’s property.

19/ Nile Street, Woolwich, October 1885

20/ Selcroft Road Suicide, East Greenwich, July 1896

A shocking discovery was made at Selcroft Road in East Greenwich when the badly decaying body of a young woman was found hanging on the door of a room there. The remains were identified as those of Mrs Waight, wife of a marine engineer, who is currently working somewhere in the Mediterranean. It looks like suicide but although it looks like an open and shut case, the couple were not on good terms as they often physically and verbally abused each other. The corpse had been there for ten days, and it was her mother that found the body in its current state.

21/ Suicide in the Royal Naval & Military Repository, Woolwich Common, September 1875

The cadaver of a young woman was found by a group of soldiers in the Royal Naval & Military Repository at Woolwich Common and was found to be that of 16-year-old Anne Louch, daughter of a gunner in the Royal Artillery, who was himself drowned numerous years ago. Anne had gone missing a few days ago and her mother found her with a married bandsman one day and reprimanded her for her behaviour. The threat was ignored by her and later on that evening she was still in his company. The strange thing about her supposed suicide is that she would have had to scale a high wall to get into the Military Repository grounds, as the entrances are guarded.

22/ Eltham Outrage, September 1885

23/ Woolwich Suicide, July 1886

A garrison policeman named Hardiman killed himself after making an attempt to shoot his sergeant. He had a feeling of revenge for days against Sergeant Coffee, who had reprimanded him for being negligent while on duty. Hardiman bought a revolver then made his way to the sergeant’s quarter’s, and while on his way up, Coffee saw him and quickly bolted the door. He hung about for a while then went back to his residence and shot himself in the head, in front of his wife.

24/ Woolwich Murderess, April 1885

25/ North Woolwich, March 1879 (Romantic Suicide)

Two bodies of a man and a woman were fished out of the River Thames near North Woolwich, with him being identified as Charles Gifford aged 42, residing at 23, Marine Parade, Brighton, and she was Miss Blanche Crossfield from Horsham in Sussex. In a romantic tale that could be straight from a Mills and Boon, it was discovered that the two became acquainted with Miss Crossfield aged 17, and he having rescued her while she was drowning. They kept seeing each other after the event and fell in love and wanted to get married, but Mr Crossfield withdrew his promise of marriage as he found out that Charles Gifford was a Roman Catholic. The couple agreed to not get wed until Mr Crossfield withdrew his objection. Charles went away for numerous years to Greece, Germany and Switzerland, when he received a letter from Mr Crossfield saying that his daughter was dying and that he blamed Gifford as being the cause. He also stated that “If you wed my daughter, my curse shall follow you both, I have already disinherited her”. Gifford went down to her home at Gravesend, with Mr Crossfield being killed in a carriage accident. When found, the couple were tied together with silk cords, and a piece of card bore the words:- “As we may not be wed in this world, may heaven permit us in the next. In loving embrace, we mutually agree to leave this selfish world-Signed Charles Gifford, Blanche Crossfield- February 8th, 1879 ”

26/ Greenwich, (A Sister’s Love) September 1885

27/ Greenwich, June 1830 (Victorian Toy-boy)

Mary Ann Knowles was a 69-year-old widow, whose husband, Major Thoits of the North York Greys, had left her extremely well off after his death. Tongues were wagging in the borough of Greenwich when they read about her and a certain attachment to a 21-year-old toyboy. Just after he died she went on a trip to the continent where she shacked up with this young lad named Knowles. It is safe to say that she fell head over heels for him, but clearly, he was using her to gain access to her large fortune. She asked him to travel around Europe with her under the guise of being her nephew, and to this little arrangement, he agreed. When asked about family background he fobbed them off with a tissue of lies saying that he was the son of a governor of a fort at Guernsey and had been left some property by his uncle. As time went on she became more and more infatuated with the lad, so much so, that she proposed marriage to him. This would be great news for him; a nearly seventy-year-old missus, not long to live, who owned a fortune he could only dream of. He agreed to this and in December 1829 they were married at Milton church near Gravesend. After the marriage, he became violent towards her. Well, he’d got her where he wanted her, and she was frequently seen with bruises and a black eye once in a while. He would parade around with a young woman of his age and much more gorgeous than she was. One day Knowles went too far when he beat so savagely, that she applied to a magistrate and took an old-fashioned restraining order against him, and this threat of the law coming down on him seemed to calm him down. Mary Ann, on the other hand, was distraught. One morning her servant walked in to find her sitting on the ground at the foot of the bed with her head tilted forward. On lifting her up she found some green cord tied around her neck, and she was quite dead. It appeared that a carpet bag (the mouth of which was drawn together with the cord) was hanging to a brass knob on the closet door, about four feet from the floor. She is thought to have put her head through the loop then twisted it around her neck then put herself in a sitting posture till she strangled herself.

28/ Plumstead Marshes, Woolwich Arsenal, September 12th, 1885

 

 

29/ Plumstead Marshes, Woolwich Arsenal, September 14th, 1885

30/ Charlton Murders,  May 1901 (Father Kills Five Children)

An awful domestic tragedy occurred in Charlton when it was discovered that a father had murdered five of his children. The man in question is Thomas Butler Cole Butter, who is a quartermaster-sergeant in the Army Service Corps and had been stationed at Dover, had just arrived at Woolwich to prepare for the front. Neighbours heard screaming one evening, then repeated gunshots at various intervals, so they called the police. When they arrived at the multiple murder scene they found all six children had been shot. Five were dead and one girl clung to life. Police grabbed him but he offered no resistance whatsoever, and he was taken to Woolwich Police Station and said nothing while in the cell. The wife had been out of the house at the time, her deceased children are Gladys,12; Hilda,10; Grace,8; Edric,4; and little Vera aged 2. The seriously wounded one, 13-year-old Lily, lies in a precarious condition.

31/ Woolwich Soldier Murder, February 9th, 1885

 

32/ Woolwich Soldier Murder, February 11th, 1885

33/ Woolwich Suicide, December 1878

The day after Boxing Day, the body of Mr Eastlake from Ladbrook Grove Road, Notting Hill, was discovered in the Thames near Woolwich, and the story of how he came to be there and of his life, is an amazing one and will pan out later in the story. The bargeman on the “Lucy Darling”, saw an overturned boat a couple of miles from Woolwich. He went to see if anyone was clinging to it but it took him, and his wife and cabin boy, to turn it right side up. It was found that a rope was tied to the seat and a heavy weight was thrown into the water, which explains why they struggled to turn it over. The weight was pulled up and Mr Eastlake was attached to it. He left a few letters, one of which was addressed to Mr C. Wyatt-it read as follows:-

“November 18th, 1878, London-My Dear Charley, you know my old fad, and you may think as you please, but I know it is to be discovered; however, although it is so, I will carry the search no further, but keep the promise to take the alternative step-suicide, and you need none of you grieve, you will be fool’s if you do, as I die with the greatest glee, knowing I shall be tormented no longer by the riddle. Wishing you all joy at Christmas, your affectionate cousin, Alfred”.  The word “Deceased ” was written all over the letter, proving it had been through the Dead Letter Office. Another went to a brother at Surbiton who came and identified the body at Woolwich and told police that he tried to kill himself in the exact same way last Christmas, but failed. He also told them that he inherited a large fortune aged twenty-one, and now forty-five, he had a country lodge in Sussex. He collected curiosities and antiquities and told his brother that when he found out the things he wanted to and seen the places he wanted to visit, he “would part with life”. In another letter, he tells the reader that he was determined to commit suicide this time by filling his coat pockets with stones and several granites. Brother also said that he was somewhat of a hermit in his living arrangements.

34/ Woolwich, (Laura Wilson Murder) January 9th, 1885

 

35/ Woolwich, (Laura Wilson Murder) February 2nd, 1885

36/ Woolwich, (Laura Wilson Murder) February 5th, 1885

37/ Shrapnel Barracks, Woolwich Common, August 1904 (Murder/Suicide)

An artilleryman was found dead at Shrapnel Barracks, and a young lady who was thought to be his girlfriend was found with terrible gunshot wounds. She is in Plumstead Infirmary in a precarious condition and is not expected to pull through. He is a corporal named Bugden of the Royal Field Artillery and was found with part of his face blown away by the rifle that lay by his side. The couple were engaged, and were due to get married in a couple of months time, and were both in their mid-twenties. Bugden shot his good-looking fiancee in the face, hitting her in the eye. (What was it about?)

38/ Royal Albert Docks Fatality, Woolwich, September 1885.

39/ Woolwich Arsenal/River Thames, September 1886 (Drownings)

A group of boys were bathing in the River Thames off Woolwich Arsenal when two of them got into difficulties. James Bayne aged twelve and Daniel Selves also aged twelve were flapping their arms in the water as Thames River police rushed to help them, but they both disappeared under the water just as they got there.

40/ Greenwich Baby Farming,  July 1870

41/ Plumstead (Death in “The Peculiar People”)  July 1870

42/ Royal Arsenal, Woolwich (Fatal Accident)   September 1870.

Yesterday afternoon, a fatal accident occurred in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. A man named William Walsh was engaged, with a number of others, taking coals from the wharf to the Royal Carriage Dept; on the coals being landed they are drawn into trucks along a tramway to their destination, where they are raised by hydraulic lifts and emptied into the coal hoppers. Walsh was assisting to unload the trucks and by some means got jammed between two trucks. He was at once conveyed to the infirmary, where everything possible was done to alleviate his sufferings, but at half past five he died from the injuries received. The deceased, who was employed in the Storekeeper’s Department, was thirty-five years of age and has left a wife and four children.

43/ Fatal Boat Collision, Woolwich  September 1870. (Six Killed)

44/ Fatal Shooting, Blackheath.  August 1870. (Was this at The Paragon? Nice houses there!)

45/  Greenwich Murder,  September 1870.  (John Tantenny of 2, Munyards Row, Roan St, Greenwich. Roan St is off Greenwich High Street)

46/ Factory Fatality, North Woolwich,  October 1870

47/ Greenwich Manslaughter,  October 1870

48/ Secret Revealed by Death, Greenwich.  December 1903.

A strange story was unfolded at Greenwich on Monday. An inquiry was held into the death of a person known for a long time as Elizabeth Barry, who was found in a roadway seriously ill and was sent to the infirmary, where an examination revealed that “she” was a “he”, and not a woman but a man. A verdict that death was due to bronchitis and alcoholism was returned.

49/   Woolwich Explosion Inquest,  June 1903.

50/ Infanticide at Lea, Greenwich.  November 1903.  (Accused Himself of Crime)

51/ Housekeeper Murders Her Mistress, Plumstead.  November 1904

52/ Fatal Cab Accident, Greenwich.   March 1904.

About 5 o’clock last night a horse attached to a cab which was being driven through Greenwich Park took fright and dashed down King William St. towards Greenwich Pier. When the vehicle was nearly opposite the Seaman’s Hospital it came into collision with a lamp-post and was smashed. Its occupants were thrown violently out into the road. Willie Davis, aged six, of West Ferry Road, Millwall,  was killed, his skull being fractured, and Mrs Ruggles, of Bradshaw Cottages, West Ferry Road, was so badly injured that she died shortly after admission into the hospital. The boy’s mother and other occupants were not seriously hurt. The driver jumped off the cab before the collision.

53/ Railway Decapitation at Blackheath,  January 1904. (Suicide or Accident?)

54/  Explosion Kills Two, East Greenwich.   December 1906  (Boiler explosion at generating station)

55/  Lady Scalded to Death, Blackheath.   November 1880

56/  Woman Burnt to Death in Plumstead.  December 1880

 

1/ Cheltenham Suicide, September 1851

A lady killed herself in a fit of insanity and had been recovering from bronchitis. Despite a close eye being kept on her she went upstairs and threw herself from a window (about fifty feet). The head was nearly severed from the body. The lady had a premonition that she’d die on the 27th August, because her husband Colonel Crowder had died after an illness on this date.

(Holy Trinity Church Monumental Inscriptions-Portland St, Cheltenham)

Eliza Pulleyn Crowder August 27th, 1851     Colonel John Crowder K.H. August 27th, 1838

2/ Gloucester (Dead Children in Garden) June 1883 (See No.27)

 

3/ Pittville Gardens, Cheltenham, (Lake Suicide) June 1877

The 17-year-old servant girl, Emma Potter’s body was found in the lake at Pittville Gardens by a couple of young lads. Emma was a servant to Mr Burns, a music master, from Regent Street, Cheltenham. She got the job by a forged character reference and her employer found out and told her to leave immediately. That was the last anyone saw of her, next time they were fishing her out the lake. It was thought to be suicide but how she got there is anyone’s guess.

4/ Thornbury Murder, May 1891

5/ Churchdown Station Death, March 1892

6/ Swineford Mill Death, March 1857

The copper-mill at Swineford saw a hideous accident take place one morning when a worker was stood next to the rollers when his smock-frock got entangled in the works. He was pulled twice round the roller, squashing and flattening his head, and the body also mangled up. When they managed to extricate him from the machinery, he was totally lifeless. (Name?)

7/ Gloucester Asylum, December 1864 (Lunatic Suicide on Railway)

Joseph Davies was an inmate of the County Asylum, and he managed to both attack and then escape from the staff nurses at the Asylum. After running off he placed his head on the tracks and let the railway run over him. Davies had been here for ten months or so and he was in the airing ground with a few others, when under the watchful eyes of the keepers named Wilks and Constable. He suddenly went into a frantic mania then started to attack other patients and staff. Davies kicked Wilks in the groin and then ran off like Usain Bolt across the fields where he reached the railway line and then lay his head down and allowed the train to sever it from his body.

8/ Stroud, Gloucestershire, December 1904

About a mile out of town lay Wickeridge Farm, run by Robert Lamb. The 30-year-old had been there for about three years having got injured in the South African conflict where he was with the Imperial Yeomanry. He got injured in the leg which made him limp slightly. One day he went out with his gun and told his wife he’d be back later. He didn’t come back, so his wife and others went looking for him. Lamb was discovered with his gun by his side in some bushes laid on his back with the muzzle pushed into his body. It is thought it is an accident rather than suicide, as next to where he was found is a stile and the gun could have accidentally fired while he was climbing over it.

9/ Cheltenham Suicide, February 1895

10/ Gloucester Lunatic Asylum Suicides, October 1846

Two inmates, Elizabeth Gwythers, aged forty-five and William Drew aged seventy, both committed suicide at Gloucester Lunatic Asylum, by hanging themselves.

11/ Newland Murder/Suicide, October 1840

Philip Willis attacked his wife and daughter in a bid to kill them, then he cut his throat. They were all together having tea when the daughter went out to get kindling for the fire. While doing this her father crept up behind and smacked her on the head with a hatchet. She began to scream for help so the mother came out and he then struck her three times. She managed to fend him off but sustained a black eye, bruises and a cut on her shoulder. Nearby some men from the coal pits came to her aid and Willis ran off to the orchard and slit his own throat. The daughter told the mother that she was all right and they went to a neighbours house. The daughter was put in bed and she kept asking why her father didn’t want to see her, obviously still not knowing it was him that committed the heinous crime and within the hour she slipped out of consciousness and died. Willis had previously been to Whitchurch Asylum for two months to try and cure him, but he was clearly insane.

12/ Cheltenham Station Death, April 1899

13/ Minsterworth near Gloucester, August 1875

Four men were fishing on the Severn near Minsterworth, about four miles from Gloucester when one of them spotted a man’s hand in the sand. They tied a rope around the wrist so that the body wouldn’t be washed away again, and then at low tide, it was dug up. It is supposed to be the body of a man recently swept away by the floods. (Who was he?)

14/ Clearwell Court Suicide, May 1866

28-year-old Ann Williams, a nursemaid, cut her throat with a razor between nine and ten o’clock. Williams had worked for the Countess of Dunraven for eight years. The doctor had visited her recently and treated her for influenza, but he’d also heard some rumours being spread about her which were entirely unfounded. This is the jury’s verdict:- “The jury find that deceased, Ann Williams, destroyed herself, but we have no direct evidence as to her state of mind at the time, but the fact of insanity having shown itself in her family, and her being in a low and weak state of health, lead them to believe that she was of unsound mind when she committed the deed”.   The Countess of Dunraven left Clearwell Court after the incident. (Is Clearwell Court still there?)

15/  Sharpness Murder, February 1885

16/ Hand in Heart, Cheltenham, May 1845

Edward Bull, aged twelve years, the son of the landlord of the Hand in Heart beer-house, Mount Pleasant, Cheltenham, asked his Mum if he could go and see the famous magician, Bernardo Eagle. She told him he couldn’t and sent him up to bed. Later on, she went to check on him and found the youngster hanging to his bedpost with his handkerchief tied around his neck.

17/ Tidenham (Teenage Suicide) October 1835

The 15-year-old daughter of Abraham Miller, landlord of the Traveller’s Inn at Tidenham, hanged herself in the stable. She was cut down straight away and the surgeon was sent for, and with great care and treatment, she recovered. The only reason she tried to commit suicide was that her Mum told her off.

18/ Star Inn Suicide, Gloucester, June 1846

George Beard, the landlord of the Star Inn, Gloucester, took his own life under the following circumstances. On Friday night he went to a Druid’s dinner and got home a little worse for wear. His wife had strong words with him so he walked out, and went back to the Inn where they had the dinner. They put him up for the night so he could sleep it off but when they entered his room the next morning he’d hung himself with his handkerchief (How big were Victorian handkerchiefs?) He left a wife and six children and the verdict was down to “Temporary Insanity”.

19/ Hatherley Wood Suicide, June 1869

A young lad was in Hatherley Wood when he saw a bloke sitting on a tree stump, or so he thought. When he got closer the man was actually hanging from a tree branch, so he went to get help and he was cut down. The deceased man George Yettle aged65, a labourer, who worked for Mr Arkell, of Baddington House near Cheltenham. He was from Marlborough and had been in this area for five years or so. One thing you could say about Yettle, was that he liked a drink, and had been on a two-week pub crawl and then got a bit morose and gone to the woods and hung himself.

20/ Whitminster Burglary, February 1885

21/ Hempstead near Gloucester, August 1857

William Jones aged seventeen was an apprentice to Edwin Jeffs, a hairdresser of Eastgate Street for a couple of years, and lived with his boss too. He told him one day that he was seeing a young girl named Dean, so Jeffs was pleased for him and wished him well. One Sunday he was off to chapel when he saw Mrs Dean, the mother of his supposed girlfriend and gave her a letter. She took it and went inside the chapel then when service was finished she took out the letter and read it. It said:

“Annie, thou who I once could love without being rebuked. My heart is so full I can say no more; only do raise an alarm as soon as you have read this letter. May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost have mercy on my soul, from your unfortunate, wicked yet dear and ever fond and affectionate lover, Willie”. Mrs Dean had read the letter meant for her daughter, but just as well she did. Mrs Dean got in contact with Edwin Jeffs but nothing more was heard of him until they fished his body out of the Severn at Hempstead. The body was decomposed and the jury’s verdict was the usual one. “Drowned himself while temporarily insane”.

22/ Bishop’s Cleeve near Cheltenham June 1830

A lady named Da Costa, who has lived in the village for many years, calmly crossed the road with a gun in her hands then placed it to her chest and fired. She had been subject to fits of depression and always had the belief that something bad was going to happen to her. She thought she saw men hiding in bushes ready to shoot her. Death was instantaneous and her family in Spain will be notified. (Sounds like schizophrenia, where you think people are after you.)

23/ Lasborough Park Death, November 1833

Mrs Caroline Walrond, the widow of the late Joseph Lyons Walrond, was sat in the library at Lasborough Park after a sumptuous dinner when her cap set fire from the candle. Then trying to put the flame out she fanned them and then her dress was a ball of flames. When the fire was put out her body was a charred mess and consequently, she died the next day.

24/ Dursley, July 1895

25/ Wood Stanway Child Murder, October 1894

The dead body of a child was found in a garden at Wood Stanway on the estate of Lord Sudeley. It was a foot below the surface and now the niece of the lady who rent’s the property has been arrested by police for concealment of birth. The cadaver is that of a fully developed child whose head was discoloured, which suggests foul play.

26/ Cheltenham Suicide, December 1854

An elderly gentleman killed himself at Cheltenham so that his remains could be placed in the same churchyard as his dead wife’s. It is due to be closed later this month so he presumed time was of the essence. (Name?)

27/ Gloucester, June 1883 (Buried Children. See No.2)

The story sounds familiar! Dead bodies in a garden at a house in Gloucester (Fred and Rose West). This one was in 1883, and the corpses of several babies were discovered. The person who lived at the property was a man named Rees, who along with his wife were charged with disposing of the youngsters. When police went to the house, for further searches to be made, she had disappeared then she was captured. They were charged with unlawfully disposing of a child; she took them to the garden and there they found a new-born baby boy covered in quicklime. Police broadened the search and dug up five other bodies. The other bodies were unknown to the husband but they were both remanded on the charge of “Wilful Murder” of a child. As soon as the handcuffs went on Mrs Rees she said “Oh dear, what shall I do?; what will be the end of it? what will become of me?”.

What had happened was that she’d been to various pregnancies as a midwife, and when the children were stillborn or premature when they told the mother the child was dead, Mrs Rees said she would have it buried and was given money to pay for its burial. She kept the money and just dumped them in her back garden. They were charged with “Wilful Murder” of the one child, and an open verdict for the other dead children.

28/ Kemerton near Tewkesbury, December 1886  (Suicide)

The death of Samuel Adams, the head gardener at Kemerton Court. Firstly, he dug a grave in an outhouse and piled a load of wood in it, poured petrol over it, then climbed in and lay down and torched it all. It was a sort of DIY funeral pyre, but when they found it there was nothing left of him except a few bones and teeth. Apparently, he thought that God had ordered him to destroy himself, as he’d been suffering from a religious mania.

29/ Prestbury Suicide, March 1899

30/ Gloucester Cathedral Death, May 1859

Several workmen have been employed at Gloucester Cathedral repairing the great window and preparing it for some stained glass to be fitted for the Bishop Monk memorial. One of these workmen, Samuel Matthews, was on the scaffolding when it collapsed and he fell and was dead on the spot where he landed.

31/ Slimbridge near Dursley, January 1841

Elizabeth Burley was a 20-year-old daughter of a blacksmith, from Slimbridge. One morning she got up and made breakfast, then left them to eat it. Moments later the two brothers thought they heard a door slam shut and since their sister was not there they went up to her room. Inside was the girl slouched on the floor with her face blown away. She had sat on a chest, put the gun against the wall, and fired by placing a red-hot ramrod to the touch-hole. Brains and blood everywhere but it seems this wasn’t her first go at suicide, as two weeks ago she tried to cut her throat. The verdict was”Derangement of Mind”.

32/ Mitcheldean, October 1839

Aaron Nicholls, a 29-year-old miner, had been seeing the servant of Rev.Henry Birkin of Forest Parsonage House, and her name was Adeline Jenkins. He had a penchant for a drink so she dumped him, but he turned up at the parsonage wanting to see her. He threatened to kill her if she went out with another man and then he’d kill himself. The Reverend escorted him out and went to do a lecture. Next morning the Reverend opened the curtains and there meeting his gaze was Nicholls swinging from a tree in the parsonage garden. He’d hung himself several hours ago. The verdict was one of temporary derangement.

33/ Gloucester, August 1869 (Suicide)

Lucy Smart was the girlfriend of James Davis, a local farmer, and a couple of months ago an effigy of one of them was burned in the village. Lucy left the area but Davis continued to see her and sent her cash to get by. A week or so since she came back to the village, so Davis went to see her, but she told him she’d either drown herself or go away for good. At 10 a.m. one day she gulped a load of blue vitriol down then rushed over to Davis’s house, while foaming at the mouth. Smart died in great agony that same evening and the verdict was “Felo de Se” from the inquest.

34/ Chipping Campden, May 1849

Mr Potter of Charringworth employed 55-year-old John Brown as a carter. One evening he was asked by Potter if he would stay up and watch a mare give birth to a foal, but he didn’t do as told and the two horses died. The mare was the favourite horse of his master, so when he saw him he gave him a proper mouthful. Brown was upset by his master’s outburst and when he was told that he couldn’t stay and watch the second mare who was also due to give birth he really went downhill. When they entered the stable they found Brown suspended to a beam in the cart shed, dead as a dodo.

35/ Gloucester Train Murder, May 1899

36/ Bullo Pill Drownings, October 1898

It says in the original paper, Bone Pill, but can’t find that, so presume it’s Bullo Pill. Anyway, two teenage boys named Clutterbuck and Jones drowned at Bullo Pill in the River Severn. They were in a group of eight lads when the water bailiff warned them that there was deep water nearby, and so they all took the advice and left the river and got dressed. Later on, their mates, who thought they’d got out as well went back to check on them, along with a search party. Unfortunately, they were spotted face down in the water and were stuck in the mud.

37/ Gloucester, November 1852 (Tragic Saw-Mill Accident)

Francis Ayres was a sawyer, who worked for Mr Essie at his saw-mill, on the banks of the Gloucester and Berkeley Ship Canal. Massive saws cut through Baltic timber, to be used as railway sleepers and it was all steam powered. There are numerous saws that do the work here and they cut through the wood at twelve feet per minute. Ayres used to feed the timber into the machinery but he was doing his usual job when he tripped over and fell under one of the saws while it was in motion. It virtually sliced him in two tearing through his rib-cage like a hot knife through butter. His internal organs were damaged and it cut him up to his spinal column. It is believed an accumulation of wood was in the mill so it was it was quite cluttered in there and this is why he tripped up. It was ruled “Accidental Death” and the owners were told to tidy up the mill. No heavy fines, no manslaughter charges, nothing at all, they got away scot free.

38/ Cirencester, April 1884 (Suicide at Solicitors)

Dr William Wells of Ravenhurst Lodge, near Cricklade, committed suicide during an interview with his solicitors, Messrs Mullings, Ellett and Co.of Cirencester. He went to Cirencester to get some business sorted out at the solicitors and at around 1 o’clock, at the offices, he had a private meeting with Mr Ellett, one of the firms’ partners. When a solicitor takes you into another room for a private chat this means bad news, and it must have been because after he’d finished the talk he took out a bottle of poison and gulped it down. They tried to resuscitate him but all too late. The bottle contained cyanide of potassium and Wells was in his seventies, so he stood little chance of survival and indeed it was down to his financial situation that he did it.

39/ Oakle Street Station Suicide, February 1880

This is a sad tale of how Frederick Sherwood, a young lad, was accused by his mother of nicking five shillings out of her purse and now she had nothing for the food shopping. The older brother asked him to give the money back and he’d make up the difference if he’d taken any. Sherwood denied any knowledge of the money vanishing and in a temper, he went to the pub to drown his sorrows. While in there he mentioned his predicament to a few bar-flies and told them that he would go to Oakle Street Station and lay on the rails and wait for a train to run over him. This was taken with a pinch of salt but the next day his body was found on the railway tracks. “Felo De Se” was the verdict.

40/ Sandywell Lunatic Asylum/Cheltenham, April 1850

Dr Bell, who was a physician, and who had a long stay at Sandywell Lunatic Asylum, was well enough to go home to visit his wife in Cheltenham. While Mr and Mrs Bell were at home, when for one moment while she was upstairs, he grabbed hold of a carving knife and slit his throat from ear to ear.

41/ Swindon Near Cheltenham, (Bodies in Rubble) June 1846

The bodies of several little children were discovered amongst the rubble of an old house which was due for demolition. The theory is that the children got on the old flooring of the cellar, the rotten floorboards gave way and they ended up buried in the ruins. This happened when there were no workmen on site but were found when they returned later on. The alarm was quickly spread throughout the town that a number were buried at the house, and in due course, the dead bodies were brought out, one by one. A verdict of “Accidental Death”. (How many died?/What house was it?)

42/ The Scarr, Newent- Gun Fatality,   November 1870

43/ Birds Nest in Dead Body, Northwick Park.  April 1866 (Still there Northwick Park. Huge, long lake. Could this be the one?)

44/ Upleadon Wife Murder,  April 1866 (Approbation- approval or praise)

45/  Stonehouse Child Murder, March 1866

46/  Mysterious Death at Mitcheldean, July 1903.

47/ Murder of a Boy, Gloucester.  December 1903.  (Duke of Wellington Inn, Tredworth, Gloucester. Agnes Mould was the wife of the innkeeper, William Mould. Hubert Thomas Boulter, aged six, was shoved in the Gloucester Canal on Christmas Eve. Agnes was discharged from the County Lunatic Asylum as cured and was walking with her son and she somehow parted from him.

48/ Collapse of Stanway Viaduct, November 16th, 1903 (Four Men Killed)

Wednesday, November 16th, 1903 (The Inquest)

Saturday, November 21st, 1903. (Two More Deaths)

The work of removing the debris of the collapsed railway arches on the Cheltenham-Honeybourne line was continued throughout the night and was completed on Saturday. No more bodies were recovered, but two of the injured men who were removed to Winchcombe Hospital died during the night, making four deaths in all. The two latest victims were James Edwards, of Tewkesbury, and John Smith, the last of whom was driving a steam crane when the collapse occurred. A fourth arch of the railway viaduct in course of erection at Stanway, near Cheltenham, collapsed on Saturday, but fortunately, a crowd of sightseers and the employees were at a safe distance.

49/ Female Suicide in Police Cell, Cheltenham.   February 1904.

An inquest was held at Cheltenham yesterday, on the body of Alice Holland, the wife of Mr M.Holland, for some years colonel of the 2nd Gloucestershire Rifle Volunteers. She was arrested at Cheltenham on a charge of larceny, and while in the cell at the police-station took oxalic acid which she had secreted. It was stated that she had frequently given way to drink and threatened to commit suicide. A verdict of “Suicide during temporary insanity” was returned.

50/ Execution at Gloucester, March 1904.

Smith cut twenty-one-year-old Alice’s throat at No.1, Bubb’s Cottages, York Street, Cheltenham on the 14th of December, 1903.

51/ Woman Killed at Bowbridge Post Office, near Stroud.  January 1906

52/  Lion-tamer’s Assistant Mauled to Death, Palace Theatre, Gloucester.   August 1907

53/  Death on the Railway at New Passage.   December 1880.

 

1/ Column of July Suicide, Paris, August 1858

A young chap of about twenty years of age was at the Column of July asking the fella in charge if he could go to the top. The attendant said that no-one could go up alone. Later on, three others were let in and they all went up together. This was the chance the man had been waiting for, so he dashed up the stairs to the platform on top, then leapt over the balustrade. The column is 150 feet high, so when he landed he was immediately killed. The other unnerving thing that occurred, was that his head smacked into the railings at the bottom. (As you can see).

In his pocket was a short suicide note saying:  “My name is Phillippe Elles. I was born at Mulhausen on the 13th of August,1838. No-one will ever know the cause of my death. Farewell to all. Farewell Marie!”

2/ Arc de Triomphe Suicide, Paris, May 1878

An unknown man who was about thirty odd, climbed up the Arc de Triomphe throwing items of clothing off as he ascended. He finally appeared at the summit, stark naked. The people down below looked on in horror as he jumped over the parapet and landed on the ground. He died instantly.

3/ Notre Dame, Paris, October 1882

Throngs of people were milling about, the day after a young lady had thrown herself from the tower of Notre Dame. She was about twenty-something, dark hair, which had two plaits. The Jane Doe was smartly dressed, suggesting that she belonged to a respectable family, with her linen had the initials “M.F.” and she had fifty francs on her. (Was she ever identified?)

4/ Notre Dame Suicides, July 1857

Baron de B___ had lost all his money on the French Stock Exchange, the Bourse, so he thought that he’d commit suicide, by jumping off one of the towers of Notre Dame. Grasped in his hand was a summons from the Procureur Imperial, to answer a charge of forgery, when he hit the pavement.

5/ Notre Dame, Paris, September 1845

Another Baron commits suicide from the top of Notre Dame towers. This time it’s a Baron Achille de Maynard who was only twenty-five years old, incredibly wealthy and who was married to the gorgeous daughter of the Count d’Espagnac a fortnight ago. There is no conceivable reason why he should kill himself.

 

Eiffel Tower Suicides -Paris, France.

6/ Eiffel Tower Suicide, August 1891

The body of a young man was found hanging one Sunday morning, to a girder on the Eiffel Tower. He must have climbed up manually with his hands and feet, up to the stonework at the base of the giant structure. The post-mortem examination revealed he had been dead a couple of hours or so. In his pocket was a slip of paper stating that his head should be delivered to the major of his former regiment and that the rest of his effects should go to the tower’s builder, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. He is thought to be an Englishman as he had British stamps and coins on him along with a handkerchief with the initials “C.F.B.”, on it.

7/ Eiffel Tower, (English Lady Suicide) March 1913

A young lady, thought to be English, committed suicide by plunging from the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. She was killed on the spot and there is no clue to her identity, except that her linen was initialled “M.T”.

8/ Eiffel Tower, (Young Lady Kills Herself) August 1908

Whilst a number of sightseers were admiring the view from the third platform of the Tower, a young woman by the name of Mantion from the Paris suburb of Billancourt, climbed over the parapet and plummeted over the edge. She fell onto the second platform, as the postcard shows still a hell of a height and was instantly killed.

9/ Eiffel Tower Decapitation, July 1889 (Only been open three months!)

10/ Eiffel Tower, April 1893 (Two Suicides in One Day)

Two men decided to kill themselves on the Eiffel Tower, on the same day. The first was a Russian named Kviakorski, who shot himself in the temple after dining at the first-floor restaurant. Just over an hour later, a clerk named Pierre Delarue, jumped off the third platform. On his speedy descent down to the bottom, he struck the second platform and his arms and legs were torn off.

11/ Eiffel Tower, May 1906

August Braun, a German on holiday in Paris, went up to the second platform of the Tower with a group of friends, then he suddenly leapt over the edge with his body striking the first platform, a height of over 250 feet. He was living at 113, Elder Street in Cincinnati and was a naturalised American, but friends said he behaviour in the past few days had been most strange.

12/ Eiffel Tower, March 1902

The favoured suicide hot-spot in Paris was the Vendome Column or Arc de Triomphe, but since the building of the Eiffel Tower it has taken over the mantle. A young chap went up the first platform, then threw himself over. Amazingly, a crowd gathered around him shortly after hitting the pavement. He was found to be still breathing, but this only lasted a few minutes.

13/ Thiers, Puy-de-Dome, (Twenty-Four Killed in Court) June 1885

14/ Roux Lighthouse Self-Immolation, Concarneau, December 1906 (Sad tale! )

This is probably one of the saddest stories of suicide in the French section. It was at the lighthouse of Roux near to Concarneau in Brittany. Monsieur and Madame Le Bris were in charge of the lighthouse. The loss of their 19-year-old son last year had put Madame Le Bris in a state of depression. While her husband lay sleeping, she walked out of the lighthouse, then doused herself in petrol and then torched herself. Her husband tried to save her but she died shortly afterwards.

15/ Paris, (Double Suicide) February 1873

Celestine and Julie Retel, both sisters who were unmarried and hadn’t had a man’s company in quite a while, decided to end their miserable existence by taking a large dose of laudanum before going to a bathing establishment. An attendant came in to tell them their time was up, both at the pool and in life,  as both had sunk to the bottom of the pool.

16/ Montpelier Murder, August 1893

During a mass at St Anne’s, a 60-year-old woman fired four shots at Jean Jouissant, killing him. The reason for the man’s murder is unclear but thought to be revenge for Jouissant keeping some money which was supposedly hers.

17/ Vannes Yacht Deaths, Brittany, March 1899

18/ Chappelle-Moche, Orne, ((Ice Disaster) December 1878

A terrible accident has just occurred in the Commune of Chappelle-Moche, in the Orne. A crowd of children, numbering fifty-two, were sliding on a deep pond near the village when suddenly the ice gave way and forty-eight of them were precipitated to the bottom of the pond, from which their bodies were taken out lifeless. The catastrophe has cast a deep gloom over the district.

19/ Monaco Suicide, March 1885

A telegram from Monaco reports the suicide of a young Englishman, recently married, but whose name is concealed. He is said to have lost £50,000, then blown his brains out.

20/ No.26, Rue Fontaine Murder, Paris, March 1879

The other night a widow named Jaubert who was a vendor of books and newspapers at 26, Rue Fontaine, was found dead by a customer in her back room, her skull fractured by a hatchet. She had apparently been taken by surprise while dining, with her back to the door and with the first blow being fatal. She was reputed to have some savings and the cupboard was found open. What is accountable is that the murderer, whose clothes must have been drenched in blood, left the premises without being observed by the neighbours. The deceased lived quite alone.

21/ Roubaix (near Belgium border) April 1885 (Ate the lions! Mind you, they eat snails and horses)

22/ Muy Vampire, near Toulon, October 1901

A human vampire lives in the town of Muy near Toulon. The story describes an old man of sixty years, wrinkled skin etc. When I looked into the “Vampire of Muy” it ended up being the son, Victor Ardisson, not the Honore Ardisson described in the paper. It said that they couldn’t describe the acts committed by this monster, as they were too graphic for a British newspaper. They just stated that he would go in an out of the Cemetery, digging up a newly-buried corpse often young girls, then took them home. Apparently, police found the house filled with human bones. He was now awaiting trial. What the French press wrote was a different kettle of fish. One of his victims (He was a necrophiliac) was a 13-year-old girl who he dug up, then had sex with her and tried to carry her home, but she was too heavy. To lighten the load he cut her head off and took that home instead. It reminds me of the Ed Gein case in his horrific methods of how he used to get naked with corpses and other weird sh*t. (What happened to this freak in the end?)

23/ Turcoing Boiler Explosion, June 1885

A steam boiler exploded in the wool cleansing establishment of M.Honore Prosper. Seventeen persons were killed and forty injured.

24/ Paris Murder, April 1885

Another terrible murder has just been committed in Paris. A chef, living in the neighbourhood of the Ecole Militaire, attacked his wife with a meat cleaver and literally hacked her to pieces.The murderer, who had lived unhappily with his wife for a considerable period of time, has succeeded in escaping.

25/ Rue Cambronne Murder, Paris, May 1885

26/ Valenciennes Double Suicide, August 1885

A double suicide occurred at Valenciennes near the Belgian border. A.M. Kuhn, living in that town, having missed his son, went in search of him and found a corpse lying in a room along with that of a young woman who was living in the same house. In the hand of each was a revolver, with which they had blown out their own brains. Young Kuhn was only seventeen years old.

27/ Marre, in the Mayenne, May 1836 (Man Bakes Himself to Death)

Usually, a suicide involving an oven would be putting their head in and turning on the gas. A bloke living at Marre had just been dumped by his girlfriend, who had promised to be his wife. In a rash act, he crawled into the oven after heating it up, then shut the door behind him, sort of “baking himself to death”. He died after several minutes but he looks to have had second thoughts as his head was turned towards the door.

28/ Royan (Gironde) (Eight Drown) August 1885

A party of excursionists had visited the Cordouan lighthouse and were returning in their boats to their ship, when one of the boats, manned by two sailors containing eight passengers capsized. The sailors managed to save themselves, one by swimming, the other by holding onto the boat, but all the passengers were drowned.

29/ Bal Mobille, Paris, October 1862 (Ball-room Suicide)

While the dancing was in full flow at the Bal Mobille in Paris, a young fella killed himself by blowing his brains out with a pistol. He did it in full view of the crowd and two local doctors who were there, put the body on a stretcher and took him away.

30/ Nancy February 1899 (Pay up or I shoot a stranger- Then did it)

31/ Christian Brothers School, Lille, February 1899

Arising out of the murder of a little boy in the Christian Brothers School at Lille, anti-clerical disturbances occurred on Saturday both there and in Paris. Those at Lille were more serious, the streets having to be cleared by the repeated charges of mounted gendarmes. In Paris revolvers were used and a gendarme was wounded. The Clerical and Nationalist papers are said to be alarmed and apprehensive of a general agitation. (What boys murder caused the rioting?)

32/ Lille Murder/Suicide, August 1885

Today’s sensation in France, which brings a new one daily, is the report of a dreadful occurrence at Lille. M.Gautois was a sixty-year-old financial agent, shot a woman named Linart, the keeper of a wine shop in that town, then he lay down on a bed beside the body of his victim and blew his brains out. Jealousy is supposed to have been the motive of the crime.

33/ Paris, August 1858 (Gambler’s Suicide)

A wealthy and well-known young man had just eaten at a fine restaurant in the Boulevard de la Madelaine when he was coaxed into gambling. He then lost 600,000 Francs, he went home, signed over the whole of his fortune and his Chateau at Villebon, then went away and shot himself in the temple. When they heard of the tragedy the uncle and mother of the deceased were going to start legal action against the winner. The same man was thought to have acquired land at the Barriere de l’Etoile, where he built several villa’s, by the same method as he got this chap’s.

34/ Blois, February 1885 (Blois Witch Project? Well I thought it was funny!)

35/ Paris Suicide, July 1889

A Leeds gentleman has just committed suicide in Paris in a most determined manner. He was preparing to return home after having visited the Exhibition, then while waiting for the bill for which he had asked, he stood before a mirror and cut his throat with a razor from ear to ear. The deceased was a young man and had in his possession at the time of his death, a considerable amount of money.

36/ The River Seine, September 1885 (Englishman Murdered)

The body of a Lewes man named Frederick Smith, employed in France as a jockey, has been found in the Seine. He had evidently been murdered and a man has been arrested who was wearing the deceased’s clothes. The French police have communicated with Smith’s relatives in Lewes and at their request, a brother of the deceased left for Paris yesterday.

37/ Montmartre June 1867 (Prisoner’s Suicide in Court)

A local tradesman in Montmartre was up in court, in front of the Comissary of Police on a charge of immorality. While the magistrate was reading the first words of the deposition to him, he fixed the handle of an awl against the desk in front of him, then threw himself on the blade driving it into his chest. He died instantly.

38/ Marseilles March 1885 (English Couples Attempted Suicide)

39/ Brest Quadruple Murder, October 1885

An awful tragedy is reported from Brest. A tradesman in that town drowned his wife and three children in a pond, then gave himself up to the police. There is no doubt that he was insane. (What was his name?)

40/ ????? France, August 1885

A girl only seventeen years of age has just been condemned to twenty years penal servitude in La Vendee for having murdered her father in a most brutal manner. She beat his brains out with a wooden beam used for carrying buckets. She had had frequent quarrels with the deceased, who was averse to her going out to service and to her keeping company with a young man whom she wanted to marry.

41/ Passy (16th Arondissement) June 1894 (Body Found at Auction)

During an auction sale at a boarding school in Passy, one of the rooms was found to be locked. It was prized open for the benefit of potential customers at the auction and to everyone’s horror, there lay the body of an elderly man. He used to be a servant at the establishment but was fired a week ago, due to the place being sold. He must have got back inside without anyone knowing. The cause of his demise is currently unknown and the auction was stopped when he was discovered.

42/ Grenoble Murder, July 1890

43/ Monaco, (Fiftieth Suicide) May 1885

There has just been chronicled, the 50th suicide at the exclusive resort of Monte Carlo since December of 1884. The victim in this instance was an unknown traveller who arrived with £12,000 and in a matter of a few hours ended up penniless. This is the normal cause of suicides in Monaco, most are visitors that gamble away what they can’t afford and lose everything, including their lives.

44/ Ventimiglia, Italy/Monaco, September 1892 (U.S Heiress Suicide)

Twenty-six-year-old Miss Jane Armstrong, was an American heiress who committed suicide after losing her $250,000 fortune at the Monaco casino’s. She arrived about a month ago and rented a villa in Ventimiglia in Italy, just across the border from France and about 20 km from Monaco. A visit to a casino got her hooked immediately and on her first serious gamble, she came out with 100,000 Francs in her handbag, with 24 coming up six times in succession during one period of play. What are the odds of that? Miss Armstrong, thinking she was on a hot streak went back the next night, but this time lost heavily. The next three days saw her lose $200,000 but in an amazing comeback, she won most of her money back again, promising to the on-lookers and staff that she’d never go back. Come Monday morning and she returned, putting huge sums on her lucky number 24 with the end result being that she had lost her $250,000 inheritance by the evening. Miss Armstrong returned to her residence, pulled out a revolver and shot herself in the chest. (Was her suicide in Ventimiglia?)

45/ Monte Carlo/Monaco, (Gambling and Suicide) March 1885

46/ Monaco Suicides, February 1881

Here is a short list of some of the suicides in Monaco,in the last four months:-

An Englishman threw himself under a train at Nice.

A Russian blew out his brains.

Five or six corpses were taken out of the water under the celebrated rock of Monte Carlo.

A Bavarian gentleman shot himself in the heart.

At the Hotel de la Jure in Cannes, a merchant poisoned himself.

A member of one of the first Austrian families committed suicide at Nice, in the Rue Segurene.

A gentleman from Nice precipitated himself into the sea from the rock called Rauba-Capeu.

A German officer suffocated himself.

A Dutchman poisoned himself with laudanum.

Another Dutchman, who had been a millionaire the previous month, killed himself with a gun he used for pigeon-shooting.

At the Hotel des Deux Mondes, a French widow poisoned herself with laudanum, having sold all her jewellery to try and regain what she had lost.

47/ Dreux (Eure et Loire) July 1919 (Body Found After Thirty-Two Years)

A man disappeared on September 18th,1887 and had never been seen since, until his mummified cadaver was discovered in the inside of a gas reservoir at Dreux. The gas reservoir hadn’t been cleaned for thirty-two years, so it was given a tidy up. It was while workmen were inside they came across the corpse of the bloke who vanished more than three decades earlier. It was a case of suicide, as in his pocket was a note stating that he intended to kill himself. (What was his name?)

48/ Versailles (Mysterious Suicide) August 1892

49/ Angers Murder, June 1885

The son of an eighty-year-old retired judge, has been tried at Angers for murdering his father after a quarrel about the succession of his mother. The prisoner’s counsel pleaded that his mind was affected by habitual drunkenness. Extenuating circumstances being found by the jury, a sentence of twenty years penal servitude was passed.

50/ Dinan Suicide, (Misread the Bill)  October 1845

This suicide was down to the perpetrator not reading the figures properly on an outstanding bill. Two peasants had brought an action against a young lass to whom their father had left his property. They failed and had to pay the costs. When it arrived, one of them thought it read 1284 Francs and not having anywhere near that sum, he went and hung himself. The actual bill was for twelve Francs and eighty-four centimes.

51/ No.76, Boulevard Mazas, Paris, July 1878

A humble engine-driver returned home to 76, Boulevard Mazas in Paris and found his 32-year-old wife stretched out on a couple of chairs, with her head next to an extinct brazier (Metal receptacle for heating coals). She had probably asphyxiated herself with charcoal. The poor woman was clutching two dolls to her chest. These were her three-year-old daughter’s favourite toys before she died in May.

52/ Carcassonne Murder, (Aude) September 1885

53/ Boulogne-Billancourt (Church Corpse) October 1860

A horrendous discovery was made at a church of Boulogne, between Paris and St Cloud, which was being repaired at the time. Beneath the altar of the Virgin, there was a 14-year-old girl’s dead body. She vanished about three years ago and her parents had never seen or heard from her since. Apparently, she was a good-looking lass and had just been to confession before she disappeared. (What happened to her?)

54/ Privas (Ardeche) June 1901 (Dug Own Grave, Then Killed Himself)

A scrooge by the name of Charron from Privas, buried his hoard in his back garden. It kept preying on his mind that somebody would rob him of his stash until his brain couldn’t remember where he had hidden the stuff. Alzheimer’s?. He tried digging all over but never found anything. In the end he dug his own grave, stood next to it and then shot himself in the forehead and his body plunged into the empty hole.

55/ Caen/Courseulles, August 1861 (Human Pin-Cushion)

Mademoiselle Leprovost died in Caen, the day before she was due to be up in court on a charge of embezzlement when she was Courseulles post-mistress. She killed herself by thrusting pins and needles into her chest. This punctured the heart, with another two needles crossing each other in her throat and then she had bashed the pins in with a prayer book. Weird!

56/ Caen, March 1885 (Demonstration Against Actress for Lover’s Suicide)

57/ No.197, Faubourg St Antoine, Paris, January 1893 (Suicide by Cannon)

A locksmith named Ritskisko took the act of suicide to a new level at Paris. He purchased a small cannon, filled it with a cannon-ball. Then with plenty of gunpowder, he popped it on the table, then made a device that would enable him to set it off by tugging on a piece of string. He sat in his favourite chair, pointed the cannon at himself and pulled the string. Neighbours ran to the spot when they heard the cannon go off and discovered the remains of Ritskisko stuck to his ceiling and a massive hole in one of his walls.

58/ Luneville, December 1876 (Suicide in a Vegetable Stew!)

A smartly dressed chap went into an establishment in Luneville and requested a hot bath. He then asked the waiter to pop to the shops and get him the following items: -a bottle of white wine, whisky, red peppers, carrots, tomatoes, turnips and some onions. These things were bought for him, then he was left alone in his bath. He then poured some boiling water in, chopped up the veg and put it all in the bath, then climbed in. When discovered, the man was boiled to death.

59/ Perigueux, (Landslide Deaths) October 1885

60/ Montpelier Cemetery Suicide, November 1893 (Kills Himself on Mistress’s Coffin)

I’ll always remember that line in the Blackadder series that went:-“We’re about as likely to move as a Frenchman living next door to a brothel”. The next clipping sums it up nicely. A gravedigger in Montpelier Cemetery noticed that one of the tombs had been broken into and on checking the inside, he found the lifeless corpse of an old man clutching a pistol, with three bullet wounds in his chest. The suicide victim was a tradesman from Montpelier who had crept into the tomb of his mistress, who had died five years ago and wanted to join her in the after-life.

61/ Meuse Quadruple Murder/Suicide, December 1885

A terrible tragedy has come to light in the Department of Meuse. The bodies of a woman and her daughter and her three grandchildren were found in a pond near their dwelling. It is supposed that the woman first drowned the children and then killed her herself.

62/ Paris (English Soldier Suicide) November 1833

An English soldier named Hodgson, formerly from the 14th Dragoons, had just lost a small fortune on the gaming tables in Paris, so ended it all by shooting himself in the porchway, while on his way out. The hotel where he was staying at had a very generous landlady, who had given Hodgson 500 Francs to get back to England, but he lost that too. Even more generous was the fact that she paid for his funeral, on top of everything else.

63/ St Brevin, September 1885 (Lion Shot Dead on Beach)

64/ Romainville, November 1885 (Another Dead Lion Story)

65/ Faubourg Montmartre, February 1846 (Death by Brandy)

A young milliner from the Faubourg Montmartre district, killed herself by guzzling down two pints of brandy in one go, due to her boyfriend seeing another woman behind her back.

66/ Rheims, (Dinner-table Suicide) May 1894

A man named Hubert was sat down at the dinner table with his wife and child. When the meal was finished, he pulled out a revolver, then mumbled “Au Revoir” and shot himself in front of the two of them.

67/ Cambrai Murders, (Near Belgian border) January 1896

The bodies of a woman and three young children were discovered in a woods just outside Cambrai, near the border with Belgium. They were all nude and horribly mutilated, but the police have already arrested a man, thought to be one of the murderers.

68/ Choisy le Roi, Paris, (Family Suicide) October 1897

69/ Rue Robert Fleury, Paris, (Double Murder/Suicide) January 1900

A married woman by the name of Boillot killed both of her children by throwing them out of a third storey window of the apartment in Rue Robert Fleury. She then jumped out herself, with all three laid dead on the pavement below.

70/ Paris (Near National Library) December 1906 (More than a Hundred Cremated Babies)

A maternity home near the National Library in Paris held a dark secret for quite a while. The police commissioner of the Vivienne quarter discovered a stove built into a wall of the place, where new-born babies were cremated. Well over a hundred have been killed in this way and the total could be nearer two hundred. Several people and a doctor, are said to be involved in the matter.

71/ Place de Lenche, Marseilles, July 1858 (Suicide)

A stark raving bonkers old lady aged sixty-three clambered up to the top of her house on the Place de Lenche in Marseilles, then calmly sat on the edge of the fourth storey roof, shouted to the folks down below to “Get out of the way!”, then rolled off the roof-top. The passers-by went to help her but she died within half an hour.

72/ Nice, (Suicide on British Yacht) February 1895

73/ Clermont Murder, July 1896

An awful murder has taken place at Clermont, where a thirteen-year-old girl was found naked, hanging from a tree, also having been savagely raped. She had apparently been given a message to go somewhere just outside Clermont. Already several arrests have been made.

74/ Paris, (Suicide Rather Than Move) April 1854

A carpenter in Paris was so scared of moving to another place, while his home was demolished to make way for a new street, that he committed suicide. When told of the plans for the new street, he refused to believe it, but when the placards went up stating when and where it was going ahead he became very melancholic. A notice was given to him and he told neighbours: “I cannot bear the idea of living! All my affections cling about the place and if I am forced to go, it shall be for good!”.  He then went up to his bedroom and hanged himself.

75/ Monaco Suicide, December 1876

A servant of an English gentleman killed himself by jumping out of one the windows of one of the best hotels in Monaco. He had been down in the dumps for several days previous, all caused by a disappointment in love, which he had experienced. He left in his pocket, a small packet containing some cash, which was meant to pay an overdue account of his.

76/ Nogent-Sur-Marne, August 1905 (Quadruple Murder/Suicide)

77/ Boyelles, June 1843 (Determined Suicide of Servant)

A servant from Boyelles wanted to commit suicide, so he went into the woods and slit his throat with a razor and stabbed himself in the abdomen. He was still alive after an hour or two, so he dressed his wounds with his handkerchief and went back to Boyelles. There he attempted suicide for a third and final time as he dived into a well and drowned himself. His corpse was found after a few days.

78/ Mulhouse, Alsace, (Million to One Fatality) March 1895

A tragic accident, possibly one in a million, occurred at Mulhouse in Alsace. A chemical operator was blown by an explosion of nitro-benzol into a trough of sulphuric acid. He would never have been found if it wasn’t for the accidental discovery of a rubber mouthpiece and a couple of porcelain buttons from his uniform. Everything else was dissolved: bones, flesh, hair etc.

79/ Quai de Tuileries, Paris, (Cigar, Juggling and Suicide) March 1870

A stunning suicide was committed by a stranger at the Quai de Tuileries on the banks of the Seine. A gentleman went and sat down next to a man who was fishing, then lit a cigar. He then offered one to the fisherman and then struck up a conversation. After a few minutes, he got up and plunged into the Seine, with no warning at all. The fisherman jumped in to try and save him but the oaf just punched him and swam away, while the would-be hero dragged himself ashore. Amazingly, the chap came back and while staying afloat in the Seine took out three coins and began a bizarre juggling act, he then swallowed the coins and dived underwater. The dead body of the man was discovered late that evening but he had nothing on his person to help identify him.

80/ Brest/Treboul, (Twenty-One Dead) April 1899

81/ Rue de la Folie Mericourt, Paris, (Murder) September 1906

A dreadful murder in broad daylight has again happened in Paris. The victim was fifty-seven-year-old Madame Lucas, wife of a business employee, in the Rue de la Folie Mericourt. She employed a lad of thirteen to do odd jobs for her, but it was the boy’s elder brother aged seventeen, who was let in her flat, where he then grabbed her and stabbed her in the throat with a screwdriver. The lad then went through the drawers and took cash and jewellery worth 1500 Francs. He was arrested a few hours later and calmly admitted to killing her.

82/ Rue du Faubourg St Honore, Paris, September 1866 (Infatuation Goes Too Far)

A Liverpool lass was working as a governess for the two young daughters of a wealthy couple, who lived on the Rue du Faubourg St Honore. She was nearly fluent in French, spoke good English, was good at art and music. All in all,  she was a pleasant young lady with an excellent demeanour. When the parents of the two girls went to their country seat, the governess accompanied them. During this period she became depressed and sullen and tried to asphyxiate herself with the fumes from charcoal, but she was discovered just in time. The doctor told the couple to keep an eye on her and they did as were instructed, but she vanished one day and nobody knew where she had got to. After being missing for a fortnight and still no sign, a foul odour became noticeable in the house and it was traced to a little-used room, now used for the storage of lumber. A huge chest was in the room and when opened, there lay the decaying corpse of the governess. Rather intriguingly, she held a photo of the father of the two girls and her master. On the back of it was written: “Mr–, I ask your pardon for my death. I loved you. Not daring to tell you, and too weak to leave you, I thought that I must die. I also the pardon of Mrs–, who was so good to me.”

The post-mortem examination revealed a number of pins, nails and poison in her stomach, so she had kept on trying to kill herself several times before this final effort.

83/ Brest coastline, March 1905 (Decomposed Bodies Wash Up)

84/ Cognieres, September 1841 (Human Bonfire)

Cognieres in the Seine-et-Oise, was the scene of an unusual suicide. A peasant had been unjustly accused of poaching and he was so depressed that he could be thought of as a common poacher, that he entered the woods, climbed on a pile of faggots and torched himself, a sort of “human bonfire”. The local population flocked to see what was alight in the woods and there they found the peasant totally ablaze. They found a letter from him stating that he was no poacher, instead preferring death. The mayor wrote a certificate that he was mad when he did this and on giving this to the local priest, he was given a Christian burial.

85/ The Hippodrome, Paris, (Dreadful Accident) October 1860

The Hippodrome was the scene of a terrible accident which caused the deaths of three performers when a human pyramid collapsed and landed heavily on the floor. The trio, consisting of Miss Louise and Mr Hippolyte and Mr Francais, would form the pyramid at a height of a hundred feet above the ground. All was going well with the two men had ascended on two parallel tight-ropes, with Miss Louise standing partly on the shoulder of one of them and her other foot on a balancing pole held by them in front. When they reached the highest point of the ascent, a rope snapped and all three fell to the floor. The audience members began to scream and several ladies passed out. The director got up on stage and explained that the rest of the performance was cancelled and “could they make their way out of the theatre”. All three lie in a precarious condition. (Did any survive?)

86/ Ramatuelle (Var) (Step-Mother Shot Child) November 1885

87/ Evrand? August 1905 (Asylum Patient Eats Arm)

I can’t seem to find the place where this is supposed to have happened. Anybody, any ideas? It says that there was a sensation in Paris, by the report of an awful tragedy at Evrand Lunatic Asylum. A female inmate named Gaucher was on suicide watch, but she managed to flee the area and get into the cellars. While down there she heard a noise and scared stupid, she hid inside the hot air apparatus and closed the door. As staff looked for Gaucher, the time kept ticking on. Hours turned into days, and still, there was no sign of her. When the body was discovered it appeared that half the flesh on her arm was missing, as the unfortunate lass had tried to stop herself from starving to death in the eight days she had vanished.

88/ Champs Elysees, Paris, September 1871 (Account of Suicide)

The only word I can think of to describe this tale is “Creepy”. It is a minute by minute account of his impending suicide from taking some poison. It begins at ten o’clock at night and continues till he dies. Fascinating but weird, it reads:

“Ten o’clock at night. I must finish. I will get into a garden and end it all in an unknown corner. Five past ten- Here I am in the corner, covered up by my cloak. The air is cold and damp. But what have I to fear from the cold? The gaslight just reaches me. Quarter past ten- Everything is ready. I take my bottle of poison. How strange! To think that those few drops will separate my soul from my body. Twenty past ten- Tis done! I have swallowed the liquid! What is going on within me? I feel nothing but curiosity. The cafes’ below are gay. I hear them all. Ah! Half past ten- Fearful pains in my legs and back. My ideas are confused. The world is disappearing from me. My childhood appears before me, mother, father, all! Quarter to eleven- Sleep is overcoming me. The beginning of the end is at hand. My legs are dead. Where is my soul? Will it wander from globe to globe, through the sands of centuries? What matters? I came into the world without thinking; I must leave it the same. Eleven o’clock- What do they say? The cold has reached my stomach. My head is heavy. I cannot see. Oh!I should know…..

The last part is when he finally died. Told you it was weird!

89/ Paris Triple Murder, April 1887

Henri Pranzini murdered three females in cold blood. 40-year-old Marie Regnault, her 38-year-old maid Annette Gremeret and her 12-year-old daughter, also called Annette. He was guillotined on August 31st, 1887.

90/ Paris (A Day of Suicides) October 1857

A soldier on a visit to his brother at Vaugirard, after having been rejected by a woman he had fancied, locked himself in his room with several pans of charcoal, but this failed as he left a gap under the door. The breeze fanned the charcoal, causing a spark to catch light of his bed curtains and the sight of the flames suddenly dissipated his thought of suicide and he madly looked for the key. He shouted for help and the door was smashed down and he was rescued.

A water-carrier from Faubourg Montmartre having learned that the man with whom he invested all his money had gone bankrupt, went to the fortifications at La Chappelle and threw himself off.

A German workman hanged himself in his lodgings at Rue de Temple.

A writer living at the Rue d’Enfer, slit his throat in a delirium caused by a nervous disorder.

91/ French Methods of Suicide, April 1882

A country chemist took his wife and two children to a Paris restaurant, then after eating a hearty meal in a private room, the parents sent the kids away. Then they swallowed some laudanum. The waiters heard the groans and summoned a doctor to assist them and they were taken to the hospital. It appeared they had lost a large sum of money.

A sculptor from Paris named Delhomme had gone to his nephew’s funeral at Chaource and while chatting with relations at the wake, he grabbed a knife and thrust it into his stomach, causing his instant death.

92/ Toulon Disaster, March 1899

93/ Limoges Court House Murder, November 1900

A murder was committed outside Limoges Court House by two brothers named Bayne, who were proceeding against a farmer named Lacroix, for recovery of some land. They lost the case and decided to confront him outside. Their own form of justice was used, with one of them clattering him over the head with a hatchet, while the other stabbed him with a sword-stick. The gendarmes were close by but it was all done in a flash. They were handcuffed and taken to gaol. When asked why they did it they seemed to be genuinely pleased that they’d murdered him, saying that they had done a good job.

94/ Paris, July 1831 (Teenage Murder/Suicide)

This murder happened at a small theatre in Paris, where the actors and performers are all kids under the age of seventeen. A 14-year-old actress named Bruce, had been seeing a seventeen-year-old lad named Louis Cretz, who was coming into some property. Neither set of parents seemed too keen on the idea of them forming a permanent relationship and had been told as such. The teenage couple went down to the Bois de Boulogne, with the girl carrying a basket with two pistols in it, where they sat down together. Bruce had asked Cretz to shoot her, which he kindly obliged and then he put the other pistol to his head and fired.

95/ Place de la Roquette, Paris, (Double Execution) March 1890

96/ Solre le Chateau, (Suicide Re-enactment) January 1850

At the sugar factory of Monsieur Sohier, a lad of twelve years of age was working away, when he got too close to the machinery and was pulled into the workings and cogs and had his head squashed, with his limbs badly broken. Amazingly, the lad was pulled out alive and he may still make it. When the boy’s father Philippe Fonteville, was told about his son’s tragic accident, he went down to the factory a few days later and he stood in the same place as his son was crushed to atoms, then did the same thing his son did and popped his head in the metal cogs that were whirring around. It was some kind of suicide by re-enactment. The father was, unlike his son, crushed to a pulp.

97/ Verberie (Oise) January 1865 (Postmans Premature Suicide)

Here’s a sorry tale of why you should just stay calm and think things through before you do anything hasty, like this chap in Verberie. He was a postman in the district, named Vignon and getting on a bit, as he was fifty-two years old. He was well-liked by customers and staff alike, so he was the main candidate to be trusted with 2000 Francs in bank notes, which was to be exchanged for gold and silver. When he got to Verberie he was about to pull the money from his pocket, when he realized he had lost it. Filled with remorse and a fear that he would be suspected of pocketing the cash, he went and hanged himself. About an hour after the body was discovered, it turned out that the money had been handed into the address on the package, in which the notes were wrapped.

98/ River Seine, Paris, (Atrocious Murder) March 1885

99/ Paris Suicide Figures, April 1893

In 1881 there were 767 suicides in Paris, rising in 1890, to 896, with a third of those, women. The females preferred poisoning or suffocation by charcoal, whereas the men much preferred a pistol or by drowning in the Seine. The main causes of the suicides were love and misery. The greatest number of suicides was men aged between 40-50, and for women, it was those aged between 20-40. Apparently, people are less likely to kill themselves if there is a child involved.

100/ Paris, April 1863 (Property Refused By Actress in Admirer’s Will)

An Englishman by the name of Longford Brooke who resided at 69, Rue St Anne, left a will (not attested), leaving all his property to an actress in the Theatre Francais, Madame Madelaine Brohan. There was a clause that if she refused it, then it would all go an orphan’s charity. He then committed suicide after writing the will. He was supposed to a baronet, but this seemed very unlikely. When asked if she wanted the man’s “fortune”, Madame Brohan refused it. The author of the editorial seemed to disbelieve the whole thing as well, but pointed out that if he lived in a flat in Rue St Anne he can’t have been in the English nobility and if it was that much, would an actress refuse such a gift from an infatuated admirer. (Was it true?)

101/ St Ouen Murder, (Not St Oden) August 1890

102/ Ruelle Pelie, Paris, (Father’s Drastic Suicide) August 1893

As was mentioned in the Paris Suicide Figures, the person with a child is less likely to kill themselves as they don’t want the little ones to suffer. Victor Toulot, an engraver by trade, lived in a poky flat in Ruelle Pelie in Paris. The man had been suffering from internal pain so badly that he kept saying he was going to do himself in, the pain was that bad. Time after time he said this but then looked at his five-year-old daughter who depended on him for everything and he backed down. One night though, Toulot was really in pain, so he went and kissed his daughter on the head while she was asleep, then he lay down on the bed and slit his throat with a razor. He was still alive after a few minutes, so he thought he would cut the artery of his arm, then to make doubly sure he hammered a third razor into his stomach. If he wasn’t in pain before he certainly was now! The nauseating part of this tale is that his little girl heard him and on seeing “Papa” drenched in blood, with razors in him, she screamed out with fright. He was rushed to the hospital and was clinging to life. (Did Toulot live?)

103/ Lavaur Murder, (Tarn) September 1885

104/ Paris, June 1902 (Lynch Mob Attack Wife Murderer)

A man came back home one afternoon and saw his wife innocently chatting to a male neighbour in the courtyard. The wife was held in high esteem by her neighbours and had given the husband no grounds for jealousy. He was infuriated and he grabbed hold her, shoved her on the floor and proceeded to beat the hell out of her. So severe were her injuries, that she died on the way to the hospital and this meant that the husband had suddenly become a wife-murderer, instead of a wife-beater. Friends and neighbours armed themselves with shovels, brooms, fire pokers and then went round to deal a bit of neighbourhood justice themselves. They inflicted the same injuries on him as he did to his poor missus, times ten! A policeman intervened and he too was roughed up for trying to help the murdering son-of-a bi**h and he lies in the hospital in a hopeless condition. Unfortunately, the policeman might not make it either. (What was the end result here?/Any names?)

105/ Frenes Murder, (Orne) February 1892

106/ St Mesmin Murder, (Aube) January 1890

107/ Ardennes Murder/Chartres Murder, July 1885

108/ Boulevard de Grenelle, Paris, (Gang of Murderers) March 1885

109/ Saint Denis, Paris, March 1892 (Set Husband on Fire)

110/ Auteuil, Paris, (Diabolical Murder) July 1889