Strange Claremont Road deaths (2) - suicides

This is the second of three articles we are publishing on unusual deaths and their inquests of residents of Claremont Road, based on a rigorous interrogation of the British Library Newspaper Library's collection of almost 90 million newspaper pages. 

The first article, on child deaths can be found here, and included details of the death of 16-year-old nanny Constance Susan Hand, of 56 Claremont, who died of arsenic poisoning in 1881, with no apparent cause of the suicide being reported..

1891: William Turner: “Hanged, while in an unsound state of mind”, aged 50

Transcript of the West Ham and South Essex Mail article, below.

 

West Ham and South Essex Mail 18 July 1891

“Sad death of Mr WH Turner – it is with regret that we record the melancholy death of Mr WH Turner of Claremont road, Forest Gate, who hanged himself at his residence on Thursday the 10^th inst … while in an unsound state of mind. The deceased gentleman had been in a depressed condition for some time, and although in good circumstances, having retired from business only 12 months ago, was haunted with an idea that he had not sufficient to keep himself."

"No one, however, had the least suspicion that he contemplated suicide, and when the news of his death became known, it caused a violent shock to those who had known him. He was a gentleman highly respected by a large circle of friends, and as president of the Liberal Association, and in other capacities, he had been of great service to the Liberal party, many of whose officers and members followed his remains to the grave.”

It would appear that Turner was a juryman on a high-profile case for compensation against the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway at the time of his death. This was reported to the court two days later and the case continued in his absence. There is no indication from newspaper coverage that the case was a factor in his suicide.

55 Claremont Road, today

 

William Turner was born in Acton in 1841 and lived at 55 Claremont Road with his wife, Maria, daughter, niece, and a boarder when he died aged 50 in 1891. He was described as “living on means”. At a time when there were no state pensions, fifty seems a very young age to have retired, and it seemed the cause of his depression. He was principally a linen draper throughout his working life.

Turner and his wife were living in Leyton Road, West Ham, by the time of the 1871 census. They had a 15-year-old son, William. A decade later, the family lived at the Claremont Road address and had another son, Harold, born in 1873.

Sources: West Ham and South Essex Mail 18 July, Essex Times 22 July, Find My Past

 1926: Henry Lee Lewis: “Suicide, while of unsound mind”, aged 63

In articles recording his death, Henry Lee Lewis was described as living on Claremont Road, with no house number given. At the time of his death, he was a married and childless 63-year-old schoolmaster who had moved to Hastings in the last few weeks of his life because of his poor health. He taught at Colgrave Road school in Leytonstone and had previously lived in Leyton and on Cann Hall Road.

His body was discovered, slumped on a deckchair on the pier at Hastings on Tuesday 29 March, and taken to the Royal East Sussex Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An almost empty bottle of Lysol, a disinfectant, was found near his deckchair.

Hastings and St Leonards Observer 3 April 1926

 

A note addressed to his wife was found in the hotel where they were staying. Although its full contents were not revealed at the inquest, the coroner read extracts, which said: “I am wearing you out. You have been my angel. Forgive me.”

A witness at the inquest said that: “Mr Lewis’ health had given him much anxiety” over recent weeks, and that he had been complaining about a loss of taste and hearing. He had been suffering from neurasthenia, a form of chronic fatigue caused by stress. He had no financial troubles, but had been talking of suicide in the weeks before his death..

The post-mortem found that he had about 10 ounces of Lysol in his stomach and “the stomach wall was practically gangrenous, due to the effects of the disinfectant. There were smaller marks of burning on his lips.”

The coroner’s verdict was: “Suicide whilst of unsound mind.”

West Ham and Essex Times 2 Apr, Manchester Evening News 30 Mar, Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 3 April

1928: Maria Susan Hibbs: “Suicide while of unsound mind”, aged 64

Miss Maria Sarah Hibbs was a 64 year old costumier, living at 54 Claremont Road, when she committed suicide in August 1928. This was next door to number 56, where Constance Hands (see earlier post) had taken her own life 37 years before and opposite where William Turner had killed himself ten years later. 

Sarah Hibbs' body was discovered in the garden, underneath an open landing window by her housekeeper, Annie Anderson.

54 Claremont Road, today

 The inquest heard:

"On Saturday, the housekeeper went out, and when she returned, she called out to Miss Hibbs, but got no reply … She noticed that a landing window was open, and later, when she went into the garden, she saw the deceased’s body lying on the ground beneath the window."

The investigating police officer, PC Ware told the inquest that:

"The woman had apparently fallen from the landing window, which was four feet from the floor. However, on the landing beneath it was a laundry box, and on top of that, an attache case. The height of the box and the case was about two feet."

The medical evidence was that death was due to a fracture of the skull.

West Ham and South Essex Mail 7 Sept 1928

Bryce Rogers, another witness, friend, and confidante from Forest Hill, tried to give some context at the inquest. He said that Maria Hibbs confided everything of a financial nature to him, and that: “she was under the impression that she was in a bad way financially, but her ideas of financial disaster were delusional.”

He said he was able to show her she made a profit each week in her business, but “she had made an investment in an electrical concern, and the shares have fallen considerably, and this worried her.”

"She was, he said, very miserable and depressed and was in poor health. She was worried because her business was very bad. She had resources and was quite sound financially, but she exaggerated the matter considerably."

The jury’s verdict was: “suicide due to an unsound mind”.

Source: West Ham and Essex Mail 7 Sept

Strange Claremont Road deaths (1) - children

Our interrogation of the sophisticated search engine of the British Newspaper Library, referred to here and here has uncovered details of a number of strange deaths and the inquests following them of residents of Claremont Road in the first five decades of the street’s existence.

We will be featuring them over three posts, relating to suicides, accidents and this, the first article on unusual deaths of young people. There is a small amount of overlap between the categories, but duplication will be kept to a minimum.

1881 Constance Susan Hand: “Poisoned, while of unsound mind”, aged 16

Constance Susan Hand was born in Field Road, Forest Gate, in 1861, the daughter of John, a bricklayer, and Lucy.

In the early months of 1881, she took on a job as a nursemaid to the Berry family of 56 Claremont Road. The household comprised Charles Berry, a general shipping agent, his wife, sister-in-law, and one son. In addition to Constance, the family had another live-in domestic servant.

56 Claremont Road, today

Constance was dead, aged 16, by the end of March. Her story is a tragedy.

The inquest at the British Lion pub in West Ham Lane was extensively reported. On the day of her death, she went with a child she was caring for to see her mother, and asked to borrow 6d (2.5p).

By about 3 p.m., she went to Charles Dyer’s chemist shop on Odessa Road, bought a packet of Batter’s Vermin Powder with the money, and signed the Poisons’ Register. When asked, she told Dyer that it was to treat an infestation of rats at her employers’ home.

Chelmsford Chronicle 1 April 1881

 

According to Mrs Berry, when she arrived, “She went into the nursery. She then went up into her bedroom” and took the arsenic that killed her.

A little later: “Mrs Berry went into the nursery and observed that her eyes were very bright and swollen. A little later she found that (Constance) had been vomiting … she said that she had internal gathering and had been spitting blood … in a very short time the poor girl became convulsed and reportedly called for God to help her and asked to see the Rev R Ross, the clergyman of the Parish (Emanuel).”

Constance’s mother was called for, and “after being in great agony for an hour, the girl died at six o’clock”. A post-mortem was conducted by Dr Evans and samples of bodily fluids were collected and sent to the London Hospital in Whitechapel for examination.

Dr Charles Arnott Tidy, professor of chemistry at the hospital, analysed the samples and concluded: “I have no doubt that death was due to arsenic poisoning. There was enough arsenic in (the samples) to kill eight or ten people.”

The inquest attempted to understand the circumstances surrounding the death before pronouncing the cause of death.

Constance’s mother and Mrs Berry both testified that she seemed to be a cheerful girl. A friend and fellow domestic servant said that a boyfriend had called off an engagement about two weeks previously.

The friend said she didn’t think this was a factor, as Constance seemed quite cheered at the event: “She said that she was glad and it seemed to have no influence on her spirits”.

Mr Berry, her employer, made a very telling – in more ways than one – statement. He said he “... had never spoken an unkind word to the dead; in fact, he had never spoken scarcely half a dozen words to her. She had been in their employ only about two months, but believed she was suffering from religious mania.”

Mrs Berry returned to the witness box and perhaps inadvertently gave an explanation for the suicide: “Mrs Berry said the deceased knew she had missed some things and that she had said she might have to send the deceased away”.

Could this be that Contance knew the sack was looming, and couldn’t face the prospect?

Although it was clear that she had killed herself, at the conclusion of the inquest the coroner posed the jury with a dilemma: “If it was done by the hand of the deceased herself, it would have been their duty to return a verdict of felo de se, which would deprive the relatives of a Christian burial”. The Latin phrase was used to imply sanity at the time of suicide.

In the event, the jury “found that the deceased had poisoned herself while of unsound mind.” This verdict, that she was non compos mentis at the time of the suicide, would have enabled her to have a burial in a Christian graveyard.

Sources: Eastern Post 2 and 9 April, Chelmsford Chronicle 1 and 8 April 1881, Essex Newsman 2 and 9 April 1881. Find My Past

1885 Herbert Wilson Folkard: “Accidental death”, aged 11

Just four years later, another youngster from four doors down the road was killed in a railway accident.

In early May, Herbert Wilson Folkard, aged 11 from 48 Claremont Road was on his way home with his friend and near-neighbour Edward Frank Larter, after playing cricket in Victoria Park, when the accident happened. Herbert’s brother, Ernest William, a draper, was a witness at the inquest.

48 Claremont Road, today

The Folkard boys were brothers of Ellen Elizabeth Folkard, of the same address, who for some years was principal of the Claremont Ladies Academy (see here).

Herbert’s friend, Edward, lived at number 49, son of Rous Larter, a schoolmaster, with his four siblings and two domestic servants.

At noon they were on the platform of Stratford station waiting for a train to Forest Gate. A train from Fenchurch Street rolled in and was about to depart when Folkard started to close some still-open carriage doors. As he did this, the train moved on, he slipped and fell between the train and the platform.

Essex Times, 9 May 1885

Although the train braked sharply, it was too late: one wheel had passed over his body and a second was resting upon it. “It was found the boy was quite dead”.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.

The Leytonstone Express and Independent also covered the story and accompanied it with a less than sympathetic editorial:

“There are few more common sights on the railway platform than the schoolboy who constitutes himself an amateur porter, and delegates the slamming of the door with even greater vigour than does his prototype, the bona fide one, to the annoyance of the public and at their own eminent peril.”

There was little sympathy for Folkard in their conclusion, but an urge for attention by the railway companies:

“This sad occurrence should surely teach the boys the folly of indulging in their dangerous practice, and should make the officials more energetic in putting a stop to it.”

Sources: Essex Times, 8 May and Leytonstone Express and Independent, 9 May.Find My Past

1889 Vincent Martin Young: “Death from accidental suffocation”, aged 8

In late August 1889, an inquest was held at the Rising Sun pub (still standing) into the death of eight-year-old Vincent Martin Young of 103 Claremont Road. He was the son of a mercantile clerk.

103 Claremont Road, today

Vincent had been playing with three friends on a Saturday earlier in the month in a “ballast hole” (a pit filled with water) on Romford Road. They were jumping into the hole.

It started raining and ten minutes later the friends heard the sand in the part of the hole Vincent was in begin to slide. They looked for him, couldn’t see him, but didn’t tell anyone of the event and left the scene.

Alfred Birnscomb, a clerk from Hampton Road, went to the Young household about eight o’clock that night and heard that Vincent had not been home since noon. He made enquiries, and finding that there had been a slip of earth at the ballast hole, went to the police station (round the corner) and—with some friends—borrowed spades.

Barking, East Ham and Ilford Advertiser 31 August 1889

 

A search was made, and after about an hour and a half, Vincent’s body was found. “He was quite dead”. There were about 18 inches of sand upon him. The jury returned a verdict of “Death by accidental suffocation”.

At the conclusion of the inquest, the Rev Cowan, father of one of Vincent’s friends, said that “Mr Corbet was the owner of the property: four deaths had occurred at that place, and he thought it was too bad that with Mr Corbet’s immense wealth, the property was not fenced in. Boys would naturally go to such a place, when nobody was there, to play.”

Archibald Cameron Corbett - developer of Woodgrange estate

A rider was added to the verdict requesting “the coroner to write to the property owner and ask him to fence around a certain portion of the property on the north side. “

It seems shocking that the hole had been unattended, despite it having caused three previous deaths. Such negligence would today result in a charge of manslaughter.

Despite the slight misspelling of his name, it seems highly probable that the person who owned “the ballast hole” was, in fact, Archibald Cameron Corbett, the developer of the Woodgrange estate. He could certainly have fitted the description of being of “immense wealth”. The hole probably existed due to construction work on the Romford Road part of the estate.

Sources: Essex News 31 Aug, Barking, East Ham Independent 31 Aug

 

1900 Frederick Ambrose Ball: “Accidental death”, aged 9

Nine-year-old Frederick Ambrose Ball, lived with his auctioneer father George, mother Louise and seven siblings at 44 Claremont Road in 1900. He was described as: “always of a cheerful disposition, but was perpetually in mischief”.

44 Claremont Road, today

On a Saturday morning, at the end of July he was “told to go up in the bathroom and wash his face”.

According to the West Ham and South Essex Mail (4 August):

"Nothing being heard from him for some time, his sister forced the door of the bathroom which had the catch up and was horrified to find her brother hanging from the side of the bath with a towel wound several times round his neck. Medical aid was at once summoned, but life was found to be extinct."

Dr Cannon, of 94 Woodgrange Road told the inquest that:

"He was called to see the deceased at about a quarter to one. And found him quite dead. … He was under the impression that the boy was playing with the towel and slipped. He must have become insensible and unable to help himself."

The jury reached a verdict of “accidental death”.

A few things emerging from the incident seem strange to the modern reader. Firstly, the police do not seem to have been called to a highly unusual, and seemingly implausible incident (the police station was just around the corner). Second, the only non-family member to be a witness was a doctor.

Eastern Counties Times, 4 Aug 1900

Third, perhaps the relationship between the boy and the family member who found him.

The boy Frederick was born in 1891, after the census in April, when the family lived in Ramsay Road, Wanstead. His “mother”, Louise Lee Ball would have been 38 at the time. His “sister” Louise Jane would have been 14/15.

By the 1901 census, Frederick had died, and the family had moved to Claremont Road. Seven siblings lived in the house; six of them were assigned occupations in the census, but Louise Jane, Frederick’s designated sister and the oldest, was not.

Could Louise Jane Ball have given birth to Frederick at age 14/15 and led the child and society to believe that his “mother” was, in fact, his grandmother, the 38-year-old Louise Lee Ball?

Louise Jane married Charles Arthur Thomson, a dock clerk, in 1908 and was living in Ilford by the 1911 census. Her parents and three siblings were still living at 44 Claremont Road.

Sources: Essex Newsman 4 August 1900, Eastern Counties’ Times 4 August 1900 and West Ham and South Essex Mail 4 August 1900. Find My Past