Alice Cromby

Alice Cromby died from puerperal fever after giving birth, but it was thought that the fever had been brought about prior to the birth through the use of a dirty instrument by a third party, but the evidence was considered slight and an open verdict was returned.

Alice Cromby was a married woman but had been lodging with a woman at 36 Belgrave Street and had not lived with her husband for about eight years. Her sister said that she last saw Alice Cromby about six weeks before her death.

She had been employed as a servant up until about seven weeks before her death.

In the early hours of the Sunday morning 20 August 1905 Alice Cromby got up and told her landlady that she was sick and asked for a drink of hot water after which she said she was 'all right'.

Her landlady said that she didn't hear any more of Alice Cromby that night and that when she next saw her later that Sunday morning when Alice Cromby knocked on her door she saw that she had given birth to a child. She said that she had not known that Alice Cromby had been enceinte and went for assistance.

The landlady first went for the assistance of another woman who lived in Sydney Street, stating that she had used the woman herself when she was last in bed, but a doctor was later called. At the inquest the coroner asked the landlady why she had called for the woman that she did, noting that the doctor was much nearer and the landlady said that Alice Cromby would not giver her consent for her to go for anyone else.

She added that during that time that Alice Cromby had been at her house she had not been waited on by anyone else, no friends or strangers.

The woman from Sydney Street said that she had never seen Alice Cromby before 20 August 1905 when she was called out to see her.

She said that when she arrived the child was dead.

When a police constable asked her whether she was a registered mid-wife, the woman from Sydney Street said, 'No, I go when there is a doctor there'. When she was cross-examined over the fact that she had gone to see Alice Cromby before the doctor arrived, the woman from Sydney Street said, 'Well, I did not know what it was before I went there'.

She denied having gone to see Alice Cromby at 4am earlier that morning and said that she had never seen Alice Cromby before and did not even know that she lived there. When she was asked whether she knew of anyone else visiting Alice Cromby, the woman from Sydney Street said, 'No, I don't know anything. I was not in five minutes'. She also said that when she went to see Alice Cromby that the landlady's mother was also not there.

When the doctor arrived he found Alice Cromby in a very collapsed condition and said that although she appeared to recover somewhat, she died on the Monday 22 August 1905.

He said that he saw that she had miscarried and said that when he asked her how her miscarriage had been brought about she told him that she believed it to be when she had fallen down some steps at the Empire two or three nights earlier.

A doctor that carried out the post-mortem said that he thought that she had died from puerperal fever which he said often occurred after birth, but said that it was extremely rare for a woman to die from it so soon after birth and said that he thought that Alice Cromby had received the infection before confinement through the use of a dirty instrument that had been used to initiate an abortion.

He added that he thought that the instrument would almost certainly have been used on Alice Cromby by someone else and that her infection would have started days before.

When the doctor was asked at the inquest whether he thought that a fall might have brought about her illness, the doctor replied, 'That’s an old tale', and added that a fall would no more cause the fever than they could get potatoes to grow in a place unless they planted potatoes, that being that the germ must have been planted there.

When the jury considered the suggestion of felonious intent, it was agreed that the information before the court was so slight that they could not suggest anything of the sort and agreed with the course that Alice Cromby had died from puerperal fever which had been caused by a germ that must have been there before her child had been born.

A juror noted that they would not set any slight on anybody's character unless there was definite evidence.

When it was noted that the medical evidence was not absolute, a jury member said, ‘Then we ought to give them the benefit. I am only thinking of the family. Whatever has happened the woman has suffered for it with her life. Leave it an open verdict’.

The coroner then returned an open verdict, it being said that Alice Cromby’s death was due to puerperal fever, but that there was no evidence as to show how such fever was caused.