Millie Shor

Millie Shor died following an illegal operation.

Her inquest concluded that she died from septic peritonitis consequent upon an abortion feloniously procured by some unknown person.

The Coroner said, 'This case remains a mystery, and I am afraid it will always remain so'.

Millie Shor was the wife of a manufacturer but had been living with a German engineer in Ascot Court in Grove End Road at the time. The German engineer said that he had met Millie Shor in Bournemouth a year earlier but said that he didn't know that she was married at the time. He said that after they met she came to live with him and said that they were going to get married once she got a divorce.

However, he said that she became ill in November 1934 and went to a doctor who gave her some injections and said that they afterwards went to Paris where Millie Shor called on a doctor who she had previously consulted in July 1934. He said that Millie Shor thought that she was in a certain condition and that she remained in the clinic in Paris for three days for examination and nursing and that she paid the doctor 1,000 francs. He said that the doctor then assured Millie Shor that her condition was not what she had suspected.

The German engineer said that they afterwards returned to England and then went to Germany and that Millie Shor then returned to England alone on 2 January 1935 feeling unwell.

A doctor in Maida Vale said that he had consulted Millie Shor on 30 November 1934 about her condition and said that he gave her some injections and said that when he saw her again on 2 January 1935 he formed the opinion that she had peritonitis and said that after consulting with another doctor he ordered her to be removed to St Johns and Elizabeth Hospital in Grove Road where she was operated on. However, she died soon after on 7 January 1935.

When the pathologist examined her body, he said that she had died from acute peritonitis consequent on an abortion and septic infection and said that he found an injury that had been caused through the use of some instrument.

The Coroner said that it was a highly suspicious story and noted that as always happened in such cases, it was very difficult to arrive at the truth because of a conspiracy of silence.