Eveline Downing

Eveline Downing died from an illegal operation. She died in Lambeth Hospital on 6 August 1924.

The coroner said that it was clear that the operation had been carried out by a skilled person, adding that it was probably a medical man.

She was a war widow. At the inquest, the doctor who had treated her said that he did not know that war widows would lose their pension if they gave birth to a child. He said that Eveline Downing never mentioned her pension to him. The doctor said that he had previously treated Eveline Downing for consumption and had sent her to a sanatorium but that she had returned after wishing not to stay there.

He said that on 2 August 1924 Eveline Downing's mother spoke to him about Eveline Downing's condition and that he then spoke to Eveline Downing but she denied it and did not seem happy about it, being a widow. The doctor said that he then sent her to Lambeth Hospital for general peritonitis.

The Coroner said that it was a very unsatisfactory case, it being quite clear that she had died from an operation performed some skilled person and that the case would have to be left undecided because there was a conspiracy of silence to defeat the ends of justice.