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Baby

Age: 0

Sex: female

Date: 29 Apr 1905

Place: Felpham, Bognar

The body of a newly born female child was found on the seashore at Bognor.

The child was found by a Naval pensioner on Saturday 29 April 1905 as he was going along the sands at Bognor near Felpham with his dog.

He said he saw the body, which was that of a newly born female absolutely naked, partly floating and partly resting on the sands. He said that he got it out of the water and then reported it to a young gentleman visitor and told him to go for the police.

A policeman stationed at Bognor said that on the Saturday afternoon he received certain information between 2pm and 3pm and went straight to the sea shore where he saw the child’s body.

He said that he then waited for the doctor. He noted that the child had had a small bruise on its shoulder and a scratch on its face.

When the doctor arrived, he pronounced the child dead and removed it to the mortuary and reported the matter to the coroner.

The doctor said that when he carried out a post-mortem examination on the Monday between 2pm and 3pm that he found two scratches on the child's right cheek and a scratch on its neck and bruises on the shoulder and arms. He said that when he examined the child’s head he found a fracture of the vault of the skull and that when he examined her lungs he found that she had breathed. He added that he had no doubt that the child had had a separate existence.

He said that the child could not have been more than 24 hours old and that it might have died from its injuries at birth, its cause of death being due to fracture of the skull.

The jury then returned an open verdict.


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

see www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk

see Bognor Regis Observer - Wednesday 03 May 1905