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Olinda Lardelli

Age: 32

Sex: female

Date: 24 Jul 1905

Place: Ecclesbourne Glen, Hastings, East Sussex

Olinda Lardelli was found dead at the bottom of the cliffs between Ecclesbourne Glen and Fairlight Glen near Hastings on Monday 24 July 1905.

She had lived with her sister in Tonbridge for some time but had gone to Hastings some weeks before to recuperate her health which was far from good and stayed in lodgings in Caroline Place in Hastings with friends but on Monday 10 July 1905 she mysteriously disappeared.

Her decomposed body was later found on Monday 24 July 1905 at the bottom of the cliffs.

She was a young Swiss lady and had been single  and would occasionally visit a friend in Hastings who was a furniture broker. The furniture broker said that Olinda Lardelli came to visit him and his wife in Hastings about five weeks before she vanished and that there was no fixed time for her return.

He said that on Monday 10 July 1905 that she had breakfast and went out at 9.30am saying that she would not be long. He said that he had gone out at 9am himself and that when he had returned shortly after Olinda Lardelli was gone.

He said that he made a search for her as he didn't think that she could take care of herself as she had been unwell and had been ill in bed for six or seven days and had only just got up that morning for the first time since.

He said that as she didn't return a diligent search was made for her and advertisements were inserted in local newspapers, but to no purpose.

He noted that Olinda Lardelli had suffered from epilepsy and depression and had been medically attended in Portsmouth for ten months prior to her coming to Hastings.

However, he said that at times she was very cheerful and had never threatened to do herself any harm.

A station officer at the Ecclesbourne Coastguard Station said that he saw Olinda Lardelli on Monday 10 July 1905 at 10am near to a garden of one of the coastguard's cottages. He said that when he asked her what she was doing that she told him that she was looking for the road. He said that if she had gone another two yards that she would have fallen over the cliffs. He said that she appeared quite cheerful and that he directed her towards the road and that she went off in the direction of Fairlight.

Another coastguardsman at Ecclesbourne said that he had seen Olinda Lardelli in his garden near the edge of the cliffs on the Monday morning and that he saw her again later that afternoon through the glass coming from the direction of Fairlight towards Ecclesbourne. He said that he lost sight of her for some time but said that she eventually re-appeared on the East Hill where he was no duty. He said that she smiled and nodded at him and then went off towards East Hill Lift and later came back and sat on a seat and subsequently got up and went off towards Ecclesbourne Glen and that he didn't see her again.

He noted that there was nothing to lead him to believe that she was insane.

He said that the reason that he had watched her through the glass was because she had constantly leaned over the fence near the cliffs and waved her handkerchief.

Her body was later found at 5pm on Monday 24 July 1905 by a coastguardsman about 100 yards eastward of Lee Ness Point lying between two rocks about ten feet below the high-water mark, apparently having been washed up by the tide.

A doctor that examined her body said that there were no fractures to her legs or arms and that her body was very much decomposed and that in his opinion her death had been due to suffocation from drowning.

When the Coroner summed up he called the attention of the jury to the possibility that Olinda Lardelli might have been seized by an epileptic attack on the rocks on the seashore that might have caused her to fall into the water.

A verdict of 'Found drowned on the seashore' was returned.


*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

see Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 29 July 1905

see Historical Hastings