John Wright

John Wright died after being found injured in Stockwell Road, Stockwell on 29 October 1900.

Two dealers were tried for his manslaughter but the evidence against them was deemed insufficient and they were discharged.

John Wright had a fractured skull and died in Lambeth Infirmary from concussion of the brain, coma and paralysis.

He was said to have been assaulted by the two men who had knocked him down and that he had struck his head on a kerbstone.

They were said to have been drinking in the Plough public house where they had had a row and that they had then had a squabble afterwards outside on the pavement during which they had punched him in the head, face and body causing him to fall.

John Wright was picked up by the police and taken to the Lambeth Infirmary where he died the next morning, 30 October 1900.

His inquest had returned a verdict of manslaughter against the two men. The jury had also added a rider stating that in such cases of assault, either on the police or public, the perpetrators, in addition to imprisonment, should have fifty lashes, to be inflicted on the day of their release.

The Plough public house had been at 90 Stockwell Road but closed in 2002 although the building itself is still there.