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Maud Frances Davis

Age: 37

Sex: female

Date: 2 Feb 1913

Place: High Street Kensington Underground Station, London

Maud Frances Davis was found dead on the railway line in a tunnel between High Street Kensington and Nottinghill Gate.

Her head had been decapitated.

It was reported that her death was generally considered to have been a suicide, but that nothing came forward to suggest any reason for that. It was suggested that she had gone into the waiting room at High Street Kensington and then stabbed herself repeatedly and to have then gone down the stairway and into the tunnel where she was hit by the train.

When her post-mortem was carried out it was found that she had no fewer than fifteen punctured wounds over her heart which were thought to have been caused by a hat pin. However, it was suggested that they were self-inflicted and that it was very unlikely that they had been caused in a struggle. Part of the hat pin was later found embedded in her heart. However, it was also noted that the injuries to her chest would not have caused death.

Maud Davis was an authoress who had just arrived from New York at Liverpool after which she had then travelled by train to London. Nothing was heard of her after she left her luggage at Euston. Whilst at Euston she visited a waiting room and took a ticket for High Street, Kensington to visit some friends.

However, it was thought that she had died at 4.30pm which was the time that her watch stopped.

Maud Davis was said to have entered heart and soul into economic and social subjects in her work and her publisher, Fisher Unwin, said that her work, 'Life in an English Village: A Study of the History and Economic Conditions of the Parish of Cosley, in Wiltshire' had almost become a classic. He said she was a level headed, charming and gifted lady and said that what Charles Booth had done for the City of London and Rowntree did for York, she had done for her native village, Corsley. It was said that she was a deep student, and ardent reformer, and that her book was an undoubted success. She was also described as the authoress of several other volumes dealing with village life. Another one of her books was titled, 'School Care Committees' and was published by Thomas Burleigh at sixpence.

Maud Davis was described as an ardent Socialist and was interested in the Anti-Sweating League, the Fabian Woman's Group, and the Women's Industrial Council.

She had just come back from a voyage around the world and was described as a lady of independent means.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Sheffield Evening Telegraph - Friday 14 February 1913

see Derry Journal - Friday 14 February 1913

see Nottingham Evening Post - Friday 07 February 1913

see Nottingham Evening Post - Monday 10 February 1913

see Amazon - Life in an English Village by Maud F Davies