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Mabel Brown

Age: 32

Sex: female

Date: 11 Oct 1928

Place: Southgate, Market Weighton

Mabel Brown died from an illegal operation.

The doctor said that death was due to violent general peritonitis, which in his opinion, could only have been caused by the use of instruments.

She lived with her mother in Market Weighton.

Her sister had been with a friend to visit her mother on 5 October 1928 and had brought a friend along with her but at the inquest she refused to say who the friend was. She said that she was unaware of her sister's condition and did not know why she was in bed at the time of her visit. when the Coroner pressed her for the name of her friend saying that she was liable for contempt she still refused to say who the friend was and began to cry.

Mabel Brown's fiance said that he was aware of her condition on the Sunday before she became ill and said that he had discussed marriage with her. He said that when he went to the house on 25 October 1928 he heard some funny rumours that someone had been to the house. He said that Mabel Brown's mother said that the woman was a stranger to her and had only stayed a few hours and that Mabel Brown's sister had told him that the woman was a friend of hers. He said that Mabel Brown's manner when he spoke to her about her condition gave him no grounds for thinking that she did not wish to have a baby and said that her family had not complained about it to him.

When the Coroner summed up he remarked on how jury's the task was made more by the fact that people who were expected to assist them had made them feel more suspicious.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Yorkshire Evening Post - Monday 19 November 1928

see Driffield Times - Saturday 24 November 1928

see Leeds Mercury - Saturday 17 November 1928