Baby

The body of a newly-born male child was found in the women's conveniences on the High Street side of the Memorial Hall grounds in Newmarket on the Tuesday, 28 January 1941.

The body was found by some women at about 1.25pm. A married woman said that she had gone to the lavatory next to the Memorial Hall with friend and her daughter and that her friend and her daughter had gone into the lavatory whilst she waited outside and that soon after her friend came out and said, 'There's a baby in the lavatory’. She said that she went in and found that it was true, and they called for the police.

The daughter that found the child with her mother said that her mother had put a penny in the slot and that when they went into the lavatory, they saw the body of the baby in the lavatory pan.

The woman that cleaned the lavatories said that she took the money out of the locks on 28 January 1941 at about 8.15am and said that there was no infant there then.

When a policeman arrived at the scene at 1.30pm, he said that when he flashed his light on he saw the body of a male child head uppermost in the pan of No. 1 lavatory and said that life was extinct.

The doctor that carried out the post-mortem said that the body was that of a full-time male child and that there was no sign of any injury and that the child appeared healthy. He also added that there was no sign that the child had drowned and that there was no reason why the child should not have lived.

He concluded that in his opinion that child died from inattention at birth.