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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 19 Jun 1923

Place: Regents Canal, Grove Road Bridge, Bow, London

The body of a newly-born child was found in the Regent's Canal.

A piece of tape had been tied tightly around its neck.

The body was found by a builder's labourer that had lived at 143 St Anne’s Road in Notting Hill. He had been working at a spot near Grove Road bridge on the Tuesday morning when he needed some water for mixing mortar and went to the canal to fill a bucket. He said that whilst standing on the bank that he noticed something floating in the water, and that when he drew it in to the bank that he found that it was a child's body.

He then reported the matter to the police.

A police constable said that when he examined the body that he found a piece of tape tied tightly round the neck. He said that a piece of sheet and some brown paper that the child's remains had been wrapped up in bore no marks of any kind.

At the inquest, a plain clothes police officer said that inquiries with reference to the case had revealed nothing.

He noted that the spot where the child was found was situated close to the outlet of a tunnel leading from Maida Vale and that it was quite possible that the body had floated from a considerable distance through the Paddington locks.

The police divisional surgeon that carried out the post mortem said that the body appeared to have been in the water for about a week and that its death was undoubtedly due to strangulation.

The inquest, held at Marylebone, returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Gloucester Citizen - Tuesday 19 June 1923

see Marylebone Mercury - Saturday 23 June 1923