Elizabeth Craig

Elizabeth Craig was found dead in the River Thames with serious injuries near Hurlingham on Friday 29 January 1904.

She had disappeared on New Year's Eve 1903.

An open verdict was returned.

She had been a cook and had lived at 80 Willoughby Road in Kingston-on-Thames.

She had left her situation on 26 December 1903 and gone to stay with her sister in Kingston. On New Year's Eve, the two of them, along with a third sister arranged to go to a watch-night service. Elizabeth Craig set out a few minutes before the others, but was never seen again.

At the time she left she had had about 15s on her.

Her inquest heard that she had been in the water for between two and three weeks by the time she was found. All her ribs were broken and her skull had been fractured, and part of her right arm had been either sawn or chopped away, and both her legs were fractured, part of the left leg being missing. There was also a deep wound to her left groin and her tongue was bitten through.

The doctor that carried out her post mortem noted that biting of the tongue never occurred in drowning and added that Elizabeth Craig had not been subject to fits.

However, the doctor said that he thought that all of her injuries had occurred after she had died and that she had died from shock following immersion in the water.

A licensed victualler of the Blue Anchor in Richmond, said that Elizabeth Craig had been a general servant in his employ but left on Boxing Day. He said that she had been under notice to leave and on Christmas Eve had been under the influence of drink.  He said that on Christmas Day and Boxing Day she had seemed rather funny in her ways and that when she was requested to attend to the household duties, that she said she would leave. He said that she put on her things and went out.

He said that after she had left they found empty spirit bottles under her mattress.

He noted that she actually left their service at 12 noon on Boxing Day.

A maid that lived at St Leonard's Lodge in Surbiton said that on New Year's Eve she heard screams at 12.15am. She said that she had been standing at her front door when she heard the screams coming from the direction of the river, not very far away. She said that the noise lasted for about five minutes and ended in a smothered sound. She said that she didn't attach much importance to the screams and made no notification to the police.

A police sergeant that gave evidence at the inquest said that he made inquiries after having received a letter from the maid’s mistress. He said that the spot where the maid had said she had heard the screams coming from was very lonely and was largely frequented by vagrants and that shrieks were often heard there.

He added that he thought that it was only right to inform the court that never, during all his experience at Kingston, had it been known that a body had passed through Teddington Lock.

Another police sergeant said that in order to get to the place where the screams were said to have come from that a person would have had to have crossed Kingston Bridge.

He added that from information he had received that it had appeared that Elizabeth Craig had appeared to have been of intemperate habits and weak-minded.

The pathologist that carried out the post mortem at the West London Hospital, said that he found the body to be well nourished. He said that there were signs of decomposition well marked on the abdomen and back, but that otherwise the body had been in a fair state of preservation.

He said that there were several large wounds on the skull and one transverse fracture over the right temple.

He said that there was a laceration of the tongue, but hypothesised that whilst her body had been in the water that her jaw had relaxed and the tongue had then protruded, but that at some later period, from a steady pressure on the jaw, that it had shut, and that in doing so had cut the tongue.

He said that her ribs were extensively fractured on the right side and that two thirds of her left leg were missing and that the tissues were torn away.

He said that there were four main points of importance in the case, the multiplicity of the wounds, their complex nature and the obviously purposeless character and said that the next question to consider was how many, if any, of the wounds had been inflicted during life and concluded, after a careful demonstration, that all her wounds occurred after death.

He then said that at the time of immersion that there had been life in the body but that death occurred immediately after from syncope, caused by the shock of coming into contact with the water.

Following the evidence, the jury returned an open verdict, stating that Elizabeth Craig had died from sudden shock of immersion in the water, but that there was no evidence to show how she came to fall into the water.