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Edith Lucy Baker

Age: 78

Sex: female

Date: 20 Dec 1954

Place: 58 Duncan Road, Southsea, Hampshire

Edith Lucy Baker was found injured in Duncan Road, Southsea on 20 December 1954.

She died from head injuries after being taken to hospital.

Her inquest heard that she had been hit by a 15-year-old cyclist, but the cyclist said that she had already lying in the road when he hit her.

She had lived in 58 Duncan Road, Southsea. Her husband said that he had been expecting Edith Baker back home from an afternoon whist drive at about 5pm on 20 December 1954 but that at about 5.10pm he received a message saying that she had been involved in an accident in Duncan Road between Worthing Road and Albert Road. He said that he spoke to the person that gave him the message but that she told him that she could not say what had happened.

He said that he then went out to see and found Edith Baker lying at the end of Duncan Road. He said, 'She was conscious when I got there and she could not understand how it happened'. Edith Baker's husband noted that a cyclist at the scene told him that he had arrived at the scene when she was lying in the road and that he had not knocked her down.

The 15-year-old cyclist, a rivet boy that also lived in Duncan Road, said that he had hit Edith Baker's body whilst she was lying in the road. He said that he was riding his bicycle in Duncan Road towards Worthing Road, going at about 10mph when he hit her. He said, 'I did not see anyone in front of me. I suddenly went up in the air. When I got up I saw an elderly lady lying in the road'.

When the coroner asked the rivet boy why he didn't see Edith Baker, the rivet boy said that he thought it was because Edith Baker was lying in the road when he had hit her.

It was heard that there was a wheel mark on Edith Baker's coat to indicate what the rivet boy had said.

However, when the rivet boy had first spoken to a policeman, he had said that he had 'bumped into a lady and fell from his bike'. He later said that at the time he had thought that Edith Baker was already lying on the ground when he had hit her but that as he was not certain he had omitted that from his statement.

The pathologist that examined Edith Baker's body said that she had a laceration to her head and a haemorrhage over the right side of her brain which was the cause of her death. He noted that she also had bruising on her abdomen.

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 Portsmouth Evening News - Friday 14 January 1955

see Portsmouth Evening News - Friday 07 January 1955