Baby

The body of a newly-born female child was found on the foreshore just east of Thorpe Hall Avenue in Southend on Monday 24 January 1921.

It was found on the foreshore wrapped up in a brown paper parcel at 3.30pm.

A doctor that examined the child said that he had come to the conclusion that it had been born from 24 to 48 hours earlier.

He said there was a piece of string very tightly wrapped five or six times round the neck, and entangled with it was a piece of tape.

He said that when he carried out the post mortem examination on the Tuesday that everything he found pointed to the child having had a separate existence, and that death was undoubtedly due to asphyxia, through the tying of the string round the neck.

A verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown was returned at the inquest on Wednesday 26 January 1921.