Margaret Ward

Margaret Ward was found with her skull fractured on some back land off of Shuttle Street in Glasgow. Her body was found by two girls.

Her skull had been fractured and there was severe bruising on her face and lower jaw. She also had marks on the front of her neck as though a foot or a boot had been pressed down violently on it.

The doctor stated that death was due to violence.

Occupants of a nearby house said that they heard a woman groaning shortly after midnight and saying 'oh don't, don't', followed by a thud. The incident preyed the mind of one of the girls such that the next morning she and a friend went out into the court at the back of their home where they found the dead body of Margaret Ward. The girl said that there was nothing in the first court but in the close of the backland she said that her friend said she saw blood and ran off but the girl said that she didn't see any blood and went through again but that time saw blood and then when she went into the next court she saw the body and then ran off frightened and they then went to get a policeman.

She was thought to have come from Dundee 6 weeks earlier and had been staying in a sublet house at 4 Burrell's Lane. She was found to have had two pawn tickets in her possession under the name of Maggie Ward.

She had been a hawker. She was also thought to have been called Margaret Walsh who had once lived in Cleghorn Street but had vanished in 1910.