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Alice Elizabeth Jarman

Age: 41

Sex: female

Date: 19 Feb 1915

Place: Hyde Park, London

Alice Jarman was found dead in a ditch at Hyde Park near the Buck Hill bastion in the North Western corner of the park.

An old sword-bayonet was found in its scabbard nearby in Pimlico in a sewer.

The spot where she was found was not far from the Powder Magazine and close to the Hyde Park Police Station.

She had a wound in her throat which nearly severed her head as well as a wound in her abdomen and her forearm.

The police issued a statement which read:

About 7.45pm on Feb 19, the body of a woman since identified as Alice Elizabeth Jarman a known frequenter of the park, was found in a ditch bordering Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Her throat was cut, and there was a wound on her right arm and two cuts on the body. It is probable that her assailant was splashed with blood, and his or her clothing badly blood-stained. From the condition of the ground it is equally probable that her assailant's clothing would be in a dirty, muddy condition.

The jury at the inquest recommended a rider that the ditch between Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens be filled in or the railings at the bottom of it be removed and replaced that the top of the bank.

The coroner said that the bayonet had probably been placed in the sewer by an idiotic prankster and that he thought that the murder had been carried out by a homicidal lunatic as there was no evidence of any motive.

The divisional surgeon said that the sword bayonet fitted all the wounds on the body and that the stab wounds might have been carried out by a left handed man.

Alice Jarman had lived in Crescent Street in Notting Dale, West London and was also known as Hoppy and was also known to the police. She had been the daughter of an ex-police constable of the Metropolitan Police and was described as being a little weak-minded and delicate and never having done any regular work. She also had one leg shorter than the other and as a result of her limp was known as Hoppy.

She had twice been kept under observation in St. Pancras Workhouse and was said to be in the habit of running after men.

The police found out that since she had disappeared from the knowledge of her friends who had done their best for her by putting her into private homes and obtaining hospital treatment for her she had frequented the park at night.

It was known that many soldiers had been working close to the scene of the crime practising trench digging but after questioning and even detaining a number of soldiers no progress was made in the investigation including inquiries into the movement of soldiers billeted in the Notting Dale area.

She was last seen by her sister in March 1914.


*map pointers are rough estimates based on known location details as per Place field above.

see www.londonremembers.com

see National Archives - MEPO 20/1

see Framlingham Weekly News - Saturday 27 February 1915

see Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette - Friday 12 March 1915

see Diss Express - Friday 26 March 1915

see Dundee People's Journal - Saturday 27 February 1915

see Hull Daily Mail - Tuesday 23 February 1915