William John Honour

William John Honour was found in the River Thames with a piece of cord tied tightly round his neck.

He had been a general labourer and had lived at 11 Molesworth Street in Lewisham.

His mother, who also lived at 11 Molesworth Street said that he was a single man and had been in no kind of trouble.

She said that he left home between 4pm and 5pm on Monday 11 February 1924 and that she never saw him alive again.

A stage hand said that he saw William Honour on the night of Sunday, 17 February when he met him at the corner of Tottenham Court Road by the tube station. He said that they had some drinks together and parted at Leicester Square and that he never saw him again.

He said that William Honour had been a popular man and that as far as he knew nobody had any grudge against him.

His body was found floating in the River Thames off Somerset House at 11.30am on Thursday 13 March 1924 by a police constable in the Thames Division. 

He was found to have had a piece of cord tied tightly round his neck with a bow and his left wrist was bandaged. No money was found on his body, but several football racing sweepstake tickets were found.

The doctor that examined his body said that it had been in the water for between two or three weeks. He said that the cord had been tied very tightly, but that there was no necessity for the bandage round his left wrist.

The doctor said that he could have tied the cord himself and that it was sufficiently tight to have caused unconsciousness, and that he could have then fallen into the water.

William Honour's nephew, who had lived in Marsala Road, said that on Monday 11 February, William Honour worked with him at City Road, shifting scenery for the London Opera Company.

He said that the cord found round his neck was similar to that which he would carry in his pocket to tie anything with. 

He added that he was not aware of any trouble that William Honour had been in.

When the Coroner summed up, he said that it was rather curious that the cord was tied in a bow, stating that it was not the kind of way it would likely to be tied if it had been done by somebody else. However, he said that he had been unable to discover any motive for suicide and that there was no evidence as to what actually happened. 

He said that in the absence of more definite evidence, that he would record an open verdict, stating that there was not sufficient evidence to show how he came by his death.