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

Tom Duncombe's story - a local Spanish Civil War International Brigade volunteer

Following our piece on West Ham-based members of the International Brigade, volunteers who fought for the Republicans against the fascist military usurpers, we have uncovered a more detailed biography of one of the featured members, thanks mainly to the efforts of his nephew to preserve his memory. He provided us with treasured family photographs, documents, and memories to tell Tom’s story. It is a fascinating tale.

 

The Spanish Civil War

By way of background, a Republican government was democratically elected for the first time in Spain in early 1936. Elements of its armed forces’ officer corps found this objectionable and began a military uprising against it in July that year.

For the most part, democratic countries in Europe looked the other way and refused to send troops to defend the young democracy. Fascist countries, like Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, got involved, arming and physically supporting the emerging Junta, which was soon to be led by the young military officer Francisco Franco, despite having signed a non-intervention pact with Britain and France.

Appalled at the prospect of another fascist government emerging in Spain and their own government's inaction in resisting it, supporters of the Republican government from around the world flocked to Spain to defend the fledgling democracy. They were ill-equipped and, for the most part, lacked training, but formed themselves into International Brigades.

Our previous article (see here) featured 16 men with West Ham links who enlisted in those Brigades. This is the story of one of them.

Tom Duncombe 1913 – 1938

A portrait of Tom Duncombe

Tom was born in West Ham and listed his address as 37 Rosher Road, Stratford, when he enlisted. A Rosher Close still exists nearby, close to Carpenters Road.

There was a house fire on Carpenter's Road when Tom was a teenager. Aided by a policeman, Tom climbed onto an adjoining roof, smashed a window, rescued a young child, lowered it into the policeman’s arms, and then climbed down himself.

The policeman and child had their photograph published in the Stratford Express, and the policeman received a medal for bravery – but Tom did not get a mention!

Tom and his brothers, Charlie, Joe, and Harry, became card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the 1930s, and held the red flag in the infamous Battle of Cable Street, in October 1936, opposing the march of Mosley’s fascists into the East End (see family photo).

 

Tom, holding the Communist banner (underneath the "ST"), attending anti-Mosley march in Cable Street, October 1936)

The Communist Party urged its members to join the International Brigades, and despite pleadings from his brothers and father (a gunner during World War One) to not do so, Tom enlisted.

He attended a rally at Trafalgar Square, where he was approached to enlist (which was illegal at the time) and quickly signed up. He was told to take a specific train from Victoria to Dover, and in a scene that seemed straight out of a cheesy spy movie, was instructed to have a packet of Woodbine cigarettes sticking out of his breast pocket, as a form of recognition.

Also at Trafalgar Square was Pablo Picasso, who was quickly sketching drawings to raise money for the International Brigades. Tom bought two—of Lenin and Stalin (he mentions them in a letter to his mother, dated February 28, 1938, which still exists—see below). After the war, his brothers asked their mother what she had done with them. She replied: “When it was confirmed that he had died, I burned them, along with his other useless possessions”!

Several days after his recruitment in Trafalgar Square, Tom travelled to Dover, sporting his Woodbine packet, and was approached and given tickets to his onward journey to Spain.

A packet of Woodies - the secret sign!

 

He described his journey, in the first surviving letter to his mother, dated 19 February 1938: “I had a rough crossing going over, but everything is alright in gay Paree now. I’ve been here a day or two, but will be moving out tomorrow.”

He apologized for not saying his farewells before he left England:

Tom's first letter home - from Paris

 

I’m sorry I could not say goodbye to you, I could not get myself to do it, but you will understand the reasons I came out here … Mum, you know no one made my mind up for me to come out here, so don’t make a fuss. I came here of my own free will.

International Brigade (IB) records show Tom arrived in Spain on 25 February and joined the International Brigade on the 27th, becoming part of the British Battalion at Albacete, which is halfway between Madrid and the Mediterranean coast.

He was killed in action within six weeks. 

Tom’s last surviving letter to his mother was written the day after he joined the IB. The address he gave for himself was 270 Plaza del Allazona, Albacete. Much of the letter’s content is personal and family-related. Still, his fierce anti-fascism and determination to fight for freedom and democracy stand out, as some of these extracts show:

The last the family heard from Tom

 

Mum, don’t shed any tears, you should be proud that you have not brought up a coward …I am out here to stop murder, not only of the Spanish people, but people throughout the whole world … The fight against fascism is a fight against war.

Well I hope Harry still has the Daily Worker every day because you will find more news about this war than I can tell you.

I want Joe to put my two pictures on the wall, you know Lenin and Stalin. (see story of their origin and fate, above).”

It seems that he would have been sent to the Aragon front, where the Republicans were resisting the military fascists’ advance toward Catalonia. By this point, he would have had little to no training. Almost every available man, whether sick, wounded, or unprepared, was pushed to defend Republican towns and territory.

It appears probable that he was killed during the First Battle of Gandesa, which occurred in early April. Nationalist troops advanced toward Catalonia, while Republican forces retreated. The XV International Brigade was pushed back to Gandesa and was determined to defend it. Despite the bravery of British volunteers, the town fell on 3 April, and 140 members of the British and American International Brigades were captured. Tom seems likely to have been among them.

"Finding a brother who fell at the Elbro" - picture courtesy of International Brigade Memorial Trust

 

The resistance of those IB members allowed the Republican forces to regroup and move supplies and troops across the Ebro River for the next phase of defending democracy. A comrade of Tom’s met up with his family members in the early 1950s, passed on a few possessions, and shared some memories. Among those was a mention that, although they were both injured during the battle, they both swam the Ebro (Tom had won swimming medals for West Ham before the war), helping comrades who couldn’t swim get across. This comrade survived the Civil War, though Tom sadly didn’t.

Surviving International Brigade records suggest that the last mention of him was “’Missing’ Aragon”, March 1938. The family has subsequently acquired a copy of his death certificate (reproduced below). 

 

Tom's death certificate, from the Republican forces

The image is faint, but a transcription reads:

Mr Antonio Gordon Garcia, Colonel of the Artillery of the Sub-secretariat  of the Ministry for War for National Defence:

Certified: Thomas Duncombe, of English nationality, born in England on the 14^th January 1913, a voluntary fighter at the order of the Government of the Spanish Republic, in the XV Brigade, fell in a sector of Gandesa, on the 3^rd April of the current year, as a result of wounds received in action.

And for this purpose, this document is issued in Barcelona on the 7^th December 1938.

Tom’s uncle, Mike, the source of the family story told here, says: “I have no knowledge of his fighting, and little other memories of him (Mike was born after Tom was killed). His brothers rarely spoke about him other than to say: “He died for his beliefs, fighting fascists with the International Brigade”.

Footnote. Huge thanks to Tom’s nephew and former Forest Gate resident, Mick Duncombe, who lived in Albert Square, Stratford, for the first 25 years of his life, for sharing much of the above with this site.

Book review: On Romford Road by Andrew Sanger

On Romford Road is Andrew Sanger's fifth novel and a family saga and revenge drama about two East London families whose feud carries from the 1900s to the 1990s.

Book cover

Review by Sandra Walker, Forest Gate local resident.

This is the story of two warring London families which spans four generations. It’s set in and around what is now the London Borough of Newham including my home in Forest Gate. 

Strong female characters; Harriet, Maud, Elizabeth and Alex lives guide the reader through the social history of the 20th century. A violent family feud beginning just after the turn of the 20th century continues  to impact upon these women’s lives as the years go by and each new generation is affected.  

Former Princess Alice pub, one of many local drinking holes to feature in the novel

Although the world is changing, the ghost of the feud continues to haunt the women and the two families as chance meetings and relationships always lead back to the fateful, violent day in 1910!

Personally, I really enjoyed the book. Its local place references fire my imagination and make the story almost real for me . I imagined and visualised the chance meetings in local parks and the homes of the characters. 

Former synagogue on Earlham Grove, one of many local landmarks to feature in the novel

The ‘strong women’ theme leaps out through the four heroines and most of all through Maud’s character. Rattling through the working-class social history of the 20th century also had me engrossed, given my interest in family history.

The reader is ‘thrust’ straight into the drama and characters as the story begins. I thought that perhaps a slightly more developed character would have provided a deeper understanding of each woman.

Overall, I found the book to be an absolute page-turner and very enjoyable. This story would certainly make a popular TV drama, a bit like Peaky Blinders, so come on, Netflix …..

I give it 9/10 enjoyment factor. I hope fellow Forest Gate residents will enjoy it too.

Footnotes

1. Why Romford Road? Although Andrew was born in west London, his wife was born in Forest Gate and brought up on Sixth Avenue, Manor Park. His son and girlfriend have recently moved into Forest Gate. So, the road runs through his family's life story.

Author, Andrew Sanger

He writes: "Essentially the story I wanted to write was about social mobility and social change. To my mind, the central character is really Maud, who is in every chapter and witnesses all the changes that occur over four generations."

2. Buying the book. On Romford Road, by Andrew Sanger (Focus Books, 2025, ISBN 9780955820182) is available as a paperback (£9.99) and e.book (£2.99), from all good outlets.

A Wanstead Flats WW2 mystery solved

Frequent contributor, Peter Williams, takes us on a detective hunt to discover the origins of a piece of WW2 debris he discovered on Wanstead Flats, in 2018, with colleague Mark Gorman.

During WW2, Wanstead Flats was heavily militarised with anti-aircraft guns, searchlights, and PoW camps.  Later in the war, prefabs were built as temporary housing for families displaced by bombing.

In 2018, a particularly extensive grass fire covered many acres. In the days after the fire in the City of London, on the advice of the fire brigade, called in an agricultural contractor to harrow some of the ground to open it up so the brigade’s water would penetrate the soil surface and extinguish the fires that had burned for about a week.

Once the fire was out, Dr Mark Gorman and I walked over the burnt areas to see what was revealed, as the vegetation had been destroyed and the soil surface turned over. We made some interesting finds, which were carefully noted and mapped by the City GIS team under the guidance of their heritage manager.

We found World War II shrapnel, concrete remains of emplacements, and even remnants of Victorian picnics in the form of shards from stoneware lemonade bottles. On one walkover, Mark found a particularly intriguing small object, shown below. It was a German object, marked ADTY NUERNBER:

 

The German object marked ‘ADTY NUERNBER’ found by Mark Gorman on Wanstead Flats, August 2018 after the large grass fires.

Our initial thoughts were that it appeared to be made of some form of plastic, not metal. We speculated that its purpose may have been to penetrate barrage balloons, which were flown over the Flats. The object was clearly broken, as the German stamp was incomplete, and one end appeared to have been sharpened but was also damaged.

Internet searches of “ADTY NUERNBERG”  produced no clues as to its identity. The mystery remained.

In 2023 we were leading a guided walk on the Flats about its history. We took the object along and it got wet in very heavy rain. I then realised for the first time that it was made of graphite, as it behaved like a pencil in the rain. But the internet still yielded no clues.

In 2024, I remembered that my wife had a close German friend who, for many years, edited the most popular German history magazine, comparable to the BBC's history magazine.

I sent details to him, Dr. Franz Metzger, who forwarded the query to a military technical museum run by volunteers near Nuremberg (http://www.wehrtechnikmuseum.de/Info/english/english.html) and at last the mystery was solved.

A few months after the initial enquiry, an answer came back in German from one of the museum volunteers, Herr Sunkel. Using Google Translate this is what we discovered:

‘Your "bullet" is the remains of a presumably burned-out electrode for an anti-aircraft searchlight - in German searchlights with a diameter of 1.5 m, the negative electrode had a diameter of 13 mm (length 540 mm) - the positive electrode measured 16 mm diameter x 800 mm. The minus coal is made of pure graphite and burns to a point, the plus coal has a wick made of mineral salts to increase the light output (so-called Beck coal) and has a so-called crater when it burns.

Your electrode has a different diameter, and the tip could also be mechanically made.

Unfortunately, we don't have any English headlight regulations and the former manufacturer stopped production after it was sold to its Indian competitors and the company's staff was radically reduced. The old documents must have been destroyed long ago.

The manufacturer was the Conradty company in Röthenbach/Pegnitz - headquarters in Nuremberg . Conradty was one of the largest pencil manufacturers in Nuremberg and moved the production of the new graphite electrodes to a new factory in Röthenbach. With the introduction of arc lamps for street lighting and the electrodes for Siemens-Martin furnaces for steel production, Conradty experienced a boom..........

The Conradty company certainly exported graphite rods to England before 1939. The stub is either a discarded remnant after use in a searchlight position, or someone carved a pencil from a found object... ‘

The graphite company’s website is https://www.graphitecova.com/company.html

Screengrab of the "history" section of graphitecova's website

It is ironic that in the 1930s, the German firm of Condraty must have been supplying the British military with graphite components for searchlights, which were later to be used against German bombers during WW2 in East London.

It is an added twist that a soldier stationed on Wanstead Flats probably found this object, sharpened it, and used it as a pencil before discarding it, for it to emerge from burnt ground in 2018.

Footnotes:

1. You can contact us at pows.wanstead@gmail.com

2. We are authors of Wanstead Flats - a short illustrated history (2023) and other booklets on the Flats published by Leyton History Society, http://www.leytonhistorysociety.org.uk/wanstead_flats_publications.html

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