Charlotte Sarah Ann Stallard

Charlotte Stallard was found murdered in her bed by her 13-year-old daughter at her home in Stone Street, Southsea.

She was naked in her bed covered only by a counterpane.

Her nasal bones had been fractured and her eyelids and lips had been cut through, and her face was all bruised. It was thought that she had been beaten by a man’s fist who had been wearing a massive ring.

She had been the wife of a general labourer from whom she had lived separate for 14 years.

She had had three children since separating from her husband, two girls and a boy and had lived the life of a prostitute and used to take men back to her home at 83 Stone Street in Southsea.

She was last seen alive in or about Stone Street about 9.30pm on the Sunday night, 29 August 1915.

Her children used to sleep away from the house at a house at 2 William Court in Stone Street. Charlotte Stallard saw her children at about 9.20pm on the Sunday night and on the Monday morning they went to 83 Stone Street, and when they entered the house, which had four rooms, the eldest daughter, a girl of 13, found Charlotte Stallard lying in a darkened room with the blind drawn.

Charlotte Stallard was lying on the bed obliquely, with her legs over the side, covered with blood.

There were bloodstains on a part of the wall and stains about other parts of the room.

At her inquest, the Coroner said that it could be seen that it was a very serious state of affairs and a doctor said that Charlotte Stallard had died from blows, serious injuries, committed by someone.

She had severe bruising of both eyes and her face, laceration of the lips and a fracture of the nasal bones.

It was noted that there was also the impress of a hand on the bed clothes, which looked like the hand of a man.

Her inquest concluded on Thursday 7 October 1915, with the jury returning a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown.

It was noted that her murder was very similar to that of Mary Ann MCarthy in Charlton Street in 1913 and another woman, Jessie Dagwell, in Voller Street, also in 1913.