Baby

The body of a newly-born male child was found in the Grand Union Canal at the second lock at Aylesbury wrapped up in a parcel floating in the water.

The parcel was found by two men who had been fishing in the canal. They took the parcel out and found it contained the body of a dead child and informed the police.

They had been down to the second lock of the canal and around 9.20am they saw the parcel floating in the water. They got ot out with a fishing rod and found that it was fastened with a pin. When they opened it they saw the child's head and shoulders.

When the policeman arrived he put the bundle into a bag and basket. When he examined it he found that the inner covering of the parcel was a copy of Lloyd's Weekly News dated 27 October 1907. Outside of that there was a piece of drab jane which was normally used for the pockets and lining of coats which was fastened around the body with half-a-dozen pins and then tied with string which had a loop of four strings hanging by its side which was thought have itself contained a weight or stone. Around all of this there was a covering of light brown paper.

The child's weighed 6.25lbs, was of average height and was partially decomposed. Its right temple was slightly discoloured although there were no marks of violence on its body. The doctor said that the child had had a separate existence and that he thought it had been in the water for about a week. he said that there was no evidence of drowning and that the cause of death had probably been haemorrhage resulting from want of attention at birth.

It was noted that the last boat to have gone through the lock was at 5am the previous day going away from Aylesbury.