Mary Ann Boyce

Mary Ann Boyce was found dead in the River Thames at North Woolwich.

She vanished on her wedding day.

She had lived at 8 Orchard Street, Woolwich.

She had married earlier in the day, Saturday 23 December 1911, at the Woolwich Registry Office and later in the evening, at about 9pm, had gone shopping with her husband. Her husband said that they went to a public house and that whilst there he had left her for five minutes talking to a woman that he didn't know and that when he returned he missed her and never saw her alive again.

He noted that during the afternoon of their wedding day that Mary Boyce had been out alone and that when she came back she had a black-eye, saying to him, 'Look what I've got', adding that her brother-in-law had struck her.

Mary Boyce's husband said that Mary Boyce had been a widow when he had met her in August 1911 and that she had not drunk to excess since he had known her.

He said that when Mary Boyce didn't return home that night that he thought that she had gone to one of her sisters. He said that he saw his brother-in-law the following day at the ferry and asked him whether he had seen Mary Boyce and said that he told him that he had not, noting that in the course of the conversation that he mentioned that a woman's body had been picked up at North Woolwich.

He said that he later sent to the mortuary and learned that the body there was that of Mary Boyce.

Mary Boyce's daughter-in-law said that on the Saturday afternoon after the wedding that the party went to the house of Mary Boyce's brother-in-law at 150 Powis Street and that later in the day they went back to 8 Orchard Street. She said that whilst they were at Mary Boyce's brother-in-law's house that her brother-in-law came in at some point and ordered Mary Boyce out of the house, but said that she didn't know why. She said that Mary Boyce's brother-in-law and Mary Boyce's sister then had an argument in another room but that Mary Boyce interfered and received a blow in the eye, but said that she didn't think that the blow was meant for her.

She said that she then went for a policeman but that by the time she arrived that the row was over and that she then went home. She noted that Mary Boyce had been sober.

She said that Mary Boyce later went out shopping with her sister and was still quite sober when she returned and that she afterwards went out with her husband between 8pm and 9pm and that she didn't see her again.

Mary Boyce's brother-in-law, an overlooker in the Royal Arsenal, said that he arrived home from work on the Saturday to find his wife, Mary Boyce, her sister and another woman downstairs and upbraided his wife for not having the dinner ready and that when he went to smack his wife's face that Mary Boyce got in between them with the result that he struck her unintentionally. He added that Mary Boyce was not a sober woman and that he had objected to his wife going to the wedding.

A pier man at Woolwich Free Ferry who had lived at 47 Auberon Street in North Woolwich said that he had been letting the 10.40 boat go from the south pontoon on the Saturday night when he heard a shout and saw Mary Boyce getting over the chain on the pontoon. However, he said that he ran forward and pulled her back, noting that she appeared to be attempting to jump on the boat as it was moving away. He said that she would have fallen into the water if he had not caught her and said that she then said to him, 'Did you think I wanted to commit suicide? I could easily have jumped on there'. He said that she then added that she wanted to catch a train from North Woolwich.

He said that she then went into the ladies waiting room where she remained alone in an excited state. He noted that he could not say whether she had been sober, but thought that she had been quite rational. He said that she took the 11pm boat to cross to North Woolwich and that the following morning he identified her body at North Woolwich.

Mary Boyce's sister said that she had arranged to go with Mary Boyce to see some friends in North Woolwich but that she didn't make the journey.

Mary Boyce's body was found on the Sunday morning by a stevedore who had lived at 16 Manor Street in Woolwich Common. He said that he had been on the foreshore when he saw a pair of boots protruding from the water about 50 yards from the free ferry pier and then found that there was a fully dressed body there which he then dragged out and then informed the police.

The divisional surgeon that carried out the post mortem said that her death must have occurred about six or seven hours before he saw her body on the Sunday morning. He added that her body showed signs of chronic alcoholism of an excessive nature and that her death was due to suffocation from drowning.

The jury at her inquest returned an open verdict of 'found drowned'.