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Mary Elizabeth Giblin

Age: 47

Sex: female

Date: 6 Nov 1943

Place: Beverley Road, Hull

Mary Elizabeth Giblin was knocked over by a car on the Beverley Road near Hull.

Following her death, the police released the following notice:

'At about 10.15pm on Saturday, November 6, 1943, a woman, Mary Elizabeth Giblin, residing at No. 32, May Street, Hull, was knocked down while crossing the Beverley Road, Hull, near to Beverley Road Baths, and received injuries which had since proved fatal. The vehicle concerned is a small dark-coloured four-seater saloon motor car, and was travelling out of the city towards Beverley. The driver did not stop and the car is likely to be damaged at the front. Will the driver of the car, or any person who witnessed the accident, please communicate with the Chief Constable, City Police, Hull, telephone Hull Central 16000, or any police constable'.

She had been talking to her husband and some friends at the time she was hit on the Saturday night 6 November 1943.

She died from an extensive fracture of the skull and laceration of the brain and other severe multiple injuries. The doctor that examined her body said that he didn't think that she had been run over by the car.

Mary Giblin's husband, who was a chipper and painter employed by Messrs Joseph Rank Ltd, said that they had gone to the Rose Hotel public house on Beverley Road and had stayed there until about 10pm. He said that they were quite sober when they left and that they stood outside talking with some friends for a while and that as they were moving away he saw a motor car flash past and felt Mary Giblin knocked violently from his side. He said that at the time he heard a loud bump and saw Mary Giblin flung towards Grove Street. He added that she landed about 10 yards from where he had been standing.

He said that the saw the car travelling fast towards Newland, closely followed by another car that he believed was blue in colour. He said that by the light of the second car he saw that the first car was yellow and said that it was a fairly larged sized saloon car. He added that he was unable to see the identification marks.

Mary Giblin's husband said that he accompanied Mary Giblin to the infirmary where she was pronounced dead.

At the inquest, Mary Giblin's husband said that visibility had been good at that night, about 60 yards, and said that no warning was given by either of the cars.

The day after Mary Giblin was knocked over, a woman who lived in Greenwood Avenue in Hull said that she and her sister and a friend had engaged a taxi at Paragon Station and had passed the Rose Hotel on the Saturday night. She said that the car was a small old-fashioned type of car and that she sat in the front seat. she said that as they passed the Rose Hotel she felt a bump as if something had hit the car, and that the car then began to make a funny noise. She said that she asked the driver to stop but said that he did not do so. She added that at the same time that she felt the bump she saw something whiz by.

The woman said that when they left the car in Greenwood Avenue, she noticed a delve in the near side mudguard. She said that she then saw the rear identification plate with the registration number 8434 which she then wrote down on a piece of wallpaper whilst her sister paid the fare of 4s 3d, including a tip of 6d.  However, she said that she did not think that should would be able to identify the driver again.

Another one of the women that had been a passenger in the taxi gave similar evidence and when she was asked at the coroner’s inquest what conclusion she came to after discussing the matter with the other passengers later, she said that she was sure that they had hit something.  She then said that the following morning when they went to work they heard some other girls talking about the accident and decided that as soon as six o'clock came that they were going to report it, stating that they had made their minds up that the car that they had been in had been the car that had hit Mary Giblin. She said that when she heard that the incident had happened outside the Rose Hotel, that they knew that it must have been the car that they had been in.

A policeman said that when he went to inspect motor car WF8434, he found that it was damaged, saying that there was a dent in the mudguard and a number of fabric marks, including yellowish-green wool fibres identical with the surface fibres of the green coat that Mary Giblin had been wearing at the time she was knocked over.

The owner of the car who lived in Mayfield Street, was a long distance motor driver, however, when the police questioned him he said, 'I have never had this car out since I purchased it', adding that he kept it a garage in Albany Street and that it had been there on the Saturday night, 6 November 1943, along with his employer's motor lorry.

He said that the damage to the car had been caused on the Saturday morning when he had knocked into it with his lorry as he was starting it up.

However, the coroner said that he considered that it had been proved beyond doubt that his car was the one that had knocked Mary Giblin down.

When the car owner was questioned, he agreed that the car was in running order on the Saturday 6 November 1943, but that he had never driven it mechanically on the road at any time.

The inquest also heard that the car and the lorry were both kept in the garage but that it was not big enough for both vehicles and that one of them, depending on which one had gone in first, would be left protruding through the garage doors meaning that the garage could not be locked securely.

However, it was also heard that his mother and his wife both confirmed that the car owner had been with them on the Saturday night at the Eagle Hotel in Spring Bank until closing time. The car owner said that after they left he accompanied his wife and mother to their home and then went off to his own home and was in bed at 11pm.

When the coroner summed up he said that he had no choice but to return an open verdict, noting that the car owner had an alibi.

He said that there was the possibility that due to the fact that the car had been left in the garage without the door being locked that someone might have taken it out, but he said that he thought that if it had been taken out by an unauthorised person that he would hardly expect them to have taken the trouble to return it and risk being caught, noting that the ordinary tactics of car thieves was to abandon cars after exhausting the petrol. He also noted that on the night of Saturday 6 November 1943 that the car had been used as a taxi and that the only return that the driver had got from it was apparently 3s 9d and a tip of 6d. As such, he said that it took a lot to believe that the car had been taken out by an unauthorised person but that as far as the evidence went that he had no alternative but to return the open verdict.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Hull Daily Mail - Monday 10 January 1944

see Hull Daily Mail - Monday 08 November 1943

see Hull Daily Mail - Wednesday 10 November 1943