Baby

The body of a newly-born child was found on the floor of Norbury Railway Station on Friday 5 October 1917.

It was found by a porter whilst he was sweeping the floor. He found it between 12 noon and 12.30pm just behind the doorway in the booking hall.

He said that it smelled so strongly that he took the parcel to the back of the station and got a clerk to open it. It was then found to be the much-decomposed body of a baby.

The porter then informed the stationmaster who sent him for a policeman.

It had been wrapped up in a paper parcel, but there was nothing to disclose any information regarding its parentage.

The body was that of a female child.

The porter said that when he swept the hall on Thursday the parcel had not been there. He said he also swept the hall on the Friday morning at 7am, and it had not been there then either, and that it was not until he swept the area in at midday that he found it.

He said that he had seen nobody about acting suspiciously and had no idea how the parcel got there.

He said that it would have been easy for anyone to walk into one entrance of the booking hall, place something behind the door and to then walk out by another door.

The police constable that was called out said that the child was wrapped up in a piece of unmarked linen, and then two pieces of newspaper with the headings and date torn off, and then a piece of brown paper.

The doctor that carried out the post mortem examination said that the child had been dead for a number of days and was much decomposed. However, he said that he thought that death had been due to inattention at birth.

The inquest returned a verdict of Found Dead.