Edward Lambourn

Edward Lambourn was run over by a car or taxi near Sir Harry's Road and dragged a mile to Pershore Road where he was deposited near the Earl Grey pub at about 10.20pm.

Police were asking for anyone in the Selly Oak and King's Norton districts that had hired a taxi-cab or motor-propelled hackney carriage, which might have been near Sir Harry's Road, Bristol Road on the return journey at 10.10pm on the Thursday to communicate with them.

A woman that had passed in a horse brougham said that she was returning from the theatre and being driven by a coachman when the horse shied at an object in the middle of the road. She said that she got out of the brougham and saw Edward Lambourn who she examined and seeing that there were others in attendance she then went home. However, she said that she had seen a motorcar driving away in the direction of Sherlock Street and said that her impression was that it was a green car driven by a man in uniform.

The incident was seen by another man who had been waiting on the footpath for a Cotteridge tram from town. He said that it was a dark night with a ground mist, but that it was possible to see the outline of any person across the Bristol Road. He said that he had seen the outline of Edward Lambourn across the street and said that he was surprised to see him completely vanish from site after the car had passed.

The man was so convinced that there was a mystery that he called over two policemen to search for Edward Lambourn and all they found was his Trilby hat lying in the tramlines near Sir Harry's Street. It was later shown that the Trilby hat had belonged to Edward Lambourn.

Edward Lambourn was first recognised by the landlord of the Earl Grey pub, who knew him, where he had been taken pending the arrival of a doctor. Then a policeman arrived who also knew him.

The police said that they were not certain that Edward Lambourn had been knocked down by a private car or taxi-cab but said that from information gathered about the car's number and plate suggested that it may have been either a taxi-cab or a motor-car hired from a garage known officially as a hackney-carriage.

A police inspector said that every taxi-driver in the city was being interviewed concerning his movements on the Thursday night.

Edward Lambourn was said to have left his business at 7pm after locking up as normal after which he had gone to the Rodway's Restaurant in the Horse-fair as usual where he had a plate of meat without anything to drink. He then left at 8pm but it is not known what he did next although it is thought that at some point he travelled from the city by tramcar and alighted at Sir Harry's Road as was his invariable custom where he was then seen to vanish by the man waiting for the Cotteridge tram.

Edward Lambourn lived ten houses from Sir Harry's Road in the direction of Bournbrook and it is thought that Edward Lambourn had tried to cross the road immediately after alighting from the tramcar.

Edward Lambourn's hearing was good and it was thought that there was no reason why he would not have heard a motor-car horn if one had been sounded in the vicinity.

The inquest said that piecing all the pieces together, and judging from Edward Lambourn's broken legs and other injuries that Edward Lambourn had been run down near Sir Harry's Road and dragged all the way to where the woman in the brougham had seen him lying in the road in Pershore Street not far from the Earl Grey pub, a total distance of about one mile.

Edward Lambourn had lived at 201 Bristol Road and 27 Wrentham Street and was a furniture dealer on the hire purchase system. He was also known as Teddy Lambourn.