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Baby

Age: 19 days

Sex: female

Date: 18 Jan 1957

Place: Willingdon Avenue, Hollington

A 19-day old baby girl was found dead at her home on the day that she was to be taken away to a nursery for care.

The child was found to have died from suffocation but there was no evidence to show how that had occurred and an open verdict was returned.

The child's 41-year-old mother was found to be mentally unstable and had refused the Coroner's request to attend the inquest.

The child's 41-year-old father said that the baby had been 'going on nicely', but that on the Friday the week before, 18 January 1957, whilst he was out, that the baby had fallen down stairs when its mother tripped over a hot water bottle. However, he said that the child was examined by a doctor who said that she was all right.

He said that whilst he was downstairs preparing breakfast on the Tuesday morning, 22 January 1957, that his wife called out to him from upstairs and told him that the baby was not well. He said that she told him that when she got up to get dressed that she found the baby was lying on its side and had seemed to be asleep and so she had not disturbed it but that when she went back she found her lying on her face.

He said that when the doctor was called that the baby was found to be dead.

The child’s grandmother on the mothers side who lived in Oxford Road, Hollington said that she found out that her daughter had been feeding the baby on cold sugar water in the mornings and said, 'I thought ut did not seem normal behaviour and I wrote to the doctor'.

She said that on one occasion she had spoken to her daughter who had said to her, 'I don't feel I could look after it. Can I get it adopted?'. She added that she offer to have the baby but said that her daughter had refused. She also said that she had told her daughter that she didn't think that she was well enough to feed the baby properly.

The doctor said that the child's mother had been a patient of his for about nine years and that she had been mentally very unstable. He said that she had been to Hellingly Hospital as a voluntary patient in 1954 to 1955 but that she had not stayed very long and said that at the end of 1955 that she had been certified as suffering from delusional insanity and had then remained at Hellingly until February 1956.

He said that on the Friday 25 January 1957 after the grandmother contacted him that he arranged for the mother to go to St Helen's Hospital on a three-day order as she was obviously incapable but said that her husband later telephoned him to say that his wife was looking after the baby and herself better and that he didn't wish for her to go.

The doctor said that the child's mother had not been eating properly for years and was not capable of feeding the baby herself and that when he saw the baby again on the Monday that he arranged for it to be weighed at the welfare clinic. However, he said that when the welfare nurse told him that the baby had not gained any weight that he asked for it to go to the nursery. At that point in the inquest the Coroner asked, 'If this death had not happened on Tuesday the child would have been taken away?', and the doctor replied, 'Yes'.

A police surgeon said that he saw the baby's mother at the police headquarters after the baby was found dead and concluded that she was of unsound mind.

He said that the post-mortem showed that the major cause of the child's death was suffocation but that there was no evidence to show how it had come about, adding that there was no sign of violence. He added that he found no evidence of neglect and that the examination showed that before the child had died that she had taken quite a considerable meal of milk.

The Coroner commented, 'It is tragic to think that this child would have been moved from the house to a place where it would be looked after on the very day it was found dead'.

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 Hastings and St Leonards Observer - Saturday 26 January 1957, p2