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Florence Emily Evans

Age: unknown

Sex: female

Date: 29 Sep 1913

Place: 11 Clarendon Street, Pimlico, Westminster, London

Florence Emily Evans died following an illegal operation.

She died in a nursing home at 11 Clarendon Street on 29 September 1913 from blood poisoning. She had been a domestic servant in Richmond.

The verdict at her inquest was one of wilful murder against a person or persons unknown with a rider that the death certificate given by the doctor was false.

A doctor was charged with giving false information on her death certificate which stated that she had died from appendicitis and a secondary cause being peritonitis and heart failure. However, the doctor said that he had no suspicion that an illegal operation had been carried out.

He later admitted that he had omitted the word 'miscarriage', stating that Florence Evans had appealed to him to not tell her sister and that he had promised not to tell.

A nurse stated that the doctor had called her and asked her to come and fetch Florence Evans at once as he was very anxious to get her to the home and that he had carried her himself to a taxicab. She added that he told her that Florence Evans had told him not to 'give her away'.

The autopsy showed that her appendix had not been removed. The doctor said that it was difficult to determine the cause of death before an autopsy in many cases.

When the doctor appeared at the Coroners he said, 'On August 8 deceased consulted me at my house. She complained of pain. I found a scar from an operation for appendicitis, and she said she was leaving her place. I prescribed for her, and told her to rest in bed. I made a charge of 3s 6d, and that was the only money I had from her. On the 11th she was much better, but complained of being weak and run down. On September 2 she again complained of pain, and I gave her a small box of opium pills. On the 25th she called to see me, but I was not in. I saw her later, and on making an examination discovered her condition. She said, 'Do not tell my sister'. I asked her to go to Westminster Hospital, but she refused. I then sent for a nurse from a nursing home. The girl told me that she had not been interfered with in any way, and I had no suspicion that she had been illegally operated on'.

However, at his later trial for perjury the prosecution said that the doctor should have had the strongest possible suspicion of her condition when she had called at his surgery, knowing that she was unmarried.

It was also heard that after Florence Evans's death that the doctor met with her brother and gave him the certificate of death and that her brother then took it to the registrar after which the doctor communicated with the coroner.

The doctor was found guilty of making a false declaration on the death certificate and fined £10 with £10 costs at the Westminster Police Court on Thursday 4 December 1913.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer - Friday 05 December 1913

see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Thursday 30 October 1913

see Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Monday 01 December 1913

see Weekly Dispatch (London) - Sunday 02 November 1913