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Child

Age: 0

Sex: female

Date: 28 Jul 1905

Place: Castle Grounds, Tonbridge

The body of a female child was found in a stream in the water fields in the Castle Grounds at Tonbridge in a brown paper parcel.

A schoolboy from Tonbridge School said that he had been out on the Sunday afternoon about 2.15pm walking with two friends in the water fields when he noticed a brown paper parcel in the stream that flowed into the Medway. When he looked closer he found the child's body inside the parcel which he said appeared to have been thrown over the hedge.

When the police arrived they found the body fully exposed in about three inches of water and about ten yards from the spot there was an army blanket bearing a military mark, a piece of canvas, some brown paper and a paper bag bearing a London address. They also found a very much torn handkerchief that was marked with the letter 'A'.

A doctor examined the body and said that it was very decomposed with the skin peeling off and the body much swollen.

He said that it was not possible to say how the child had died due to the decomposition. He said that as far as he could say the child had had a separate existence and thought it had been dead for about two weeks. He also noted a mark over the skull but could not say how it had been caused.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Kent & Sussex Courier - Friday 28 July 1905