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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: male

Date: 19 Oct 1941

Place: Penzance Promenade, Penzance, Cornwall

The body of a newly born child was found below the Promenade at Penzance.

The police were called at about 1.50pm on Sunday 19 October 1941 to a spot midway between two public shelters, almost opposite the pavilion, where they saw some bloodstained rags in some barb wire on the promenade. When they then looked down on to a ledge about seven feet below they saw the unclothed body of a baby.

When the doctor arrived, he pronounced life extinct. It was thought that the child had been born earlier that morning.

The police said that they found scratches on the child’s body, one on the muscle of the right arm, two on the child's head and a long one across the child stomach as well as a number of other smaller scratches. The police said that it looked as though the child had been pushed through the barb wire.

The police said that there appeared to have been a parcel that the child had been wrapped up in but that all that was left was the string.

It was thought that the child's body had been there for some hours.

In addition to the pieces of cloth, a handkerchief had also been caught in the wire.

The post-mortem concluded that the child had been born alive and had breathed for at least half-an-hour. The doctor concluded that the child’s death was due to haemorrhage following birth.

An open verdict was returned.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Western Morning News - Friday 07 November 1941, p6

see Cornishman - Thursday 23 October 1941

see Cornishman - Thursday 13 November 1941