Age: 31
Sex: female
Date: 13 Dec 1914
Place: Upper Montagu Street, Marylebone, London
Muriel Gillett Baumphrey died from an illegal operation.
She was a nurse in a nursing home on Upper Montagu Street, Marylebone and died in St. George's hospital.
Whilst she was in hospital she refused to disclose the name of the person who had carried out the operation on her. She said that she had visited a woman on 12 December 1914 and had promised not to say who the person was or what address she had gone to.
The police searched her rooms and found an address book and made inquiries in regards to all the names and addresses in it but found no useful information.
When her mother went to see Muriel Baumphrey in hospital and asked who she had been to see for the operation Muriel Baumphrey said 'I went to a woman and was as much to blame as she was'. Muriel Baumphrey's mother had lived in New Brighton, Cheshire.
A nurse that worked with Muriel Baumphrey in Upper Montagu Street said that Muriel Baumphrey had told her about a month earlier of her condition and said that she was going to get an operation performed. She noted that she advised Muriel Baumphrey not to do that. However, she said that Muriel Baumphrey afterwards mentioned a woman at Hammersmith or Fulham and that on 12 December 1914 she went out and when she returned she told her that the operation had been performed and that she felt quite well.
However, the nurse said that Muriel Baumphrey became ill and made a statement to her about a tin box which she afterwards found and that she eventually called a doctor.
A man that lived in Maida Vale said that he knew Muriel Baumphrey intimately and that she made a certain statement to him regarding her suspicions and told him that she was going to do all in her power in the matter. He said that she told him that she was taking medicine and said that he advised her to go to a doctor.
He said that she never asked him to find anybody to perform an operation and that he had tried to dissuade her from having an operation.
Her inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person unknown.
see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
see Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Wednesday 30 December 1914
see Aberdeen Journal - Wednesday 30 December 1914
see Aberdeen Press and Journal - Wednesday 30 December 1914
see Dundee Evening Telegraph - Tuesday 22 December 1914
see Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser - Wednesday 30 December 1914