Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found in Folkestone Cemetery.

It was found by two ladies who then went to see the Cemetery Curator on the Monday at 4.30pm. They first saw the sister-in-law of the Cemetery Curator and said, 'There is a parcel down the Cemetery, a brown paper parcel in a pillow case. It is bulky, as though there must be something in it'. The sister-in-law then called the Cemetery Curator who went to have a look and said he saw a white package about 25 yards west of the Lodge and 10-12 yards west of the church and 17-18 yards from the Cemetery wall and 10 yards from the path. He said he could hardly think that it had been thrown over the wall. He said that inside the pillow case he found a baby wrapped up in brown paper.

The coroner noted that it had been snowing and hailing that day but that the pillow slip was only just damp.

A doctor carried out a post-mortem and said that the child had not been washed since birth and was a newly-born female weighing 6lbs. He said that the lungs were pink in colour and floated, indicating that the child had had a separate existence. He also said that there was a large extravasation of blood beneath the scalp, but no fracture, and that there was blood on the surface of the brain on the left side and concluded that death was due to concussion of the brain which in his opinion was caused by a fall on the head at birth.

An open verdict was returned that the child was found dead from concussion caused by some form of violence.