Kenneth Clarke

Kenneth Clarke was found dead beneath the cellar at a house in Ashdell Road, Sheffield.

His 22-year-old mother was charged with his murder but there was not sufficient evidence to take the case to court.

It was said that she had murdered him on or about 6 June 1917.

Kenneth Clarke had been illegitimate. His body was discovered by the police buried in the cellar of a house in Ashdell Road, Sheffield where she had been employed as a domestic servant. The body was partly decomposed.

Kenneth Clarke had been born on 5 January 1917.

His mother had been a servant girl and single. She was arrested at 207 Chippinghouse Road.

She was noted for persistently refusing to name the father of the child.

On 5 June 1917 the mother wrote a postcard to her mother asking her to bring Kenneth Clarke to Sheffield as she had a person who was going to adopt him coming over. Her mother brought Kenneth Clarke and left her in Sheffield at 4pm.

Nothing further was seen of Kenneth Clarke.

It was noted that at the end of May 1917 that the mother's employers left Ashdell Road for a period of holiday, and that it was on 5 June 1917 that the mother wrote for Kenneth Clarke to be brought to her.

It was claimed that between her mother leaving her at 4pm, and her returning to her place of work at Ashdell Road, that she murdered and disposed of him.

The grandmother was said to have frequently interrogated her daughter over the whereabouts of Kenneth Clarke, but that the mother had refused to say, beyond representing that it had been adopted by a person, whose name or address she refused to disclose.

However, the grandmother was not quite satisfied and she went to the Sheffield police and they went to Ashdell Road where they carried out a search and found Kenneth Clarke buried in the cellar. It was heard that in the course of their examination that their attention was attracted to two flags in the floor of the cellar that had the appearance of having been recently tampered with, inasmuch as there was fresh clay or sane round their edges.

On lifting the flags they discovered the body of Kenneth Clarke. He was dressed in a woollen singlet, a nightdress, and wrapped in an old blue skirt.

The grandmother later identified the clothes that Kenneth Clarke was found in as the clothes that he had been wearing on the day she handed him over to her daughter.

It was noted that following the discovery of the body that her mother went missing. It was said that when she was last seen that she had been dressed in a lightish navy blue costume, with white cuffs and collar, cream coloured blouse and blue lace veil. She was also said to have been wearing a rather large round hat covered with black silk and with white silk under the brim and to have bene carrying a dress basket containing a black dress and a dark blue viole dress made of thin material.

She was said to have been fond of the company of soldiers and to have been frequently seen in the vicinity of military barracks and encampments.

She was later arrested in Sheffield.

The pathologist that examined Kenneth Clarke's body said that owing to the decomposition that he could not satisfy himself as to the cause of death. However, he said that he had come to the conclusion that he had been dead for three months or more.

He added that as far as anything was revealed at his autopsy, that Kenneth Clarke could well have died from natural causes.

When Kenneth Clarke's mother was questioned by the police she said, 'When I woke up next morning I found he was stiff and cold when I touched him. Then I buried him the day following in the cellar'.

Her defence stated that there was no evidence to show how Kenneth Clarke came by his death except that of his mother, and stated that if that statement was true that she was not guilty of murder, adding that the whole of the evidence did not contradict that statement.

Following the murder charge being dropped, it was stated that instead, a charge against her of attempting to prevent an inquest would be tried.