Alice Pemberton

Alice Pemberton died at Salop Lunatic Asylum in Shrewsbury from acute pneumonia, accelerated by fractured ribs.

Her death had at first been reported to the Coroner as due to pneumonia, but a post mortem showed that she had seven fractured ribs, all on the left side.

Several nurses from the asylum were called and gave evidence at her inquest, stating to the effect that Alice Pemberton had been put in a padded room, and that there had been no struggle with her.

The superintendent at the asylum, a doctor, said that he had been surprised to see the fractured ribs. He said, 'She was one of the most restless patients I have had in the asylum'.

He said that he had made exhaustive inquiries as to her injuries, but could find no evidence of any violent struggle. He said that he had been of the opinion that part of the frame to her bedstead, which projected a little beyond the mattress, had caused the injuries, due to her throwing herself against it.

When the Coroner summed up, he said that there was no evidence to show how her ribs came to be fractured. He noted that he would rather have known how her ribs came to be broken, but added, however, that it was veiled in mystery, and that he supposed it must remain so.