The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1890-01-17 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE TRAGEDY AT KEW. Mr. A. By axton Hieks, the coroner for Mid. Surrey, has received information of the discovery of two dead bodies in the Thames, at Kew Bridge, under unusually cad circumstances. The bodies are those of a cabman named Charles Hill and his wife Ann, who resided at 28, Stonehill Road, Gunners. bury. It appears that the man and his wife, who are an elderly couple, had been in straitened circumstances for some time past, and an execution for distress had been levied. On Tuesday morningr they left their home shortly after eight o'clock and walked arm-in-arm down the steps on the Surrey side at Kew Bridge and up the towing-path towards Richmond. Not long afterwards their bodies were discovered in the river by a man named Pine, of Strand-on-the-Green, who dragged them ashore, and gave information to the I once. Both bodies were floating on the water faoe downwards. The man's right arm wag linked to the woman's left; and their wrists were tied together with a pockethandkerohief. Evidently they had agreed to die together. The bodies were conveyed to the pariah mortuary at Mortlake to await an inquest. Only 4d. were found in the man's pockets. No money was found on the woman. When the discovery was communicated to the daughter, a married woman named Palling, who resided with her parents at Stonehill Road, she attempted to cut her throat with a carving knife. At the West London Police Court, Miriam Palling, a married woman, residing at 28, Stonehill Road, Gunnersbury, surrendered to answer the charge of attempting to commit suicide by cutting her throat with a carving knife on Tuesday morning after hearing that her patents had drowned themselves in the river near Kew Bridge.—Mr. Arthur Purkiss, a surgeon of Gunnersbury, deposed that on Tuesday at 12.40 he was called to see the prisoner, who was in a very depressed condition. He examined her neck, and found several scratches, the skin in front being slightly cut, and evidently inflicted with a sharp instrument, but fortunately she had not sustained any serious injury.—Mr. Plowden : le her ' husband in court F Inspector Woods (the officer who arrested the prisoner) : Yes, sir.—The husband was then called into the witness-box and questioned by the magistrate. He stated that he had been marri d ten years. Hie wife's father and mother lived with them. Mr. P 1 wdeu : I gathered yesterday that your wife borrowed £3O. The Husband: Yes, she borrowed the money unknown to me to start her father with a horse and cab. He had a horse and cab, and failed. Itlr. Flowden : What are you? The Husband : lam an engineer's fitter, 'working at -Woolwich Arsenal. It was further explained to the magierate that the loan was contracted under a bill of sale, and as the monthly instalment of £lO was due, a man was placed in Fosse/mien of the goods. the husband stated that the circumstance preyed on the minds of the old people, causing them to commit suicide. He added that it was through trouble, and from no other cause. Mr. Plowden, addressing the prisoner in feeling terms, said he believed that she had neither the will nor the strength to carry out her purpose. He had never heard a more sad and painful cue in a police court. Just at the moment when she was overwhelmed with debt, disgrace, and despair, she heard that her parents, in a tit of desyeratiou, Lad destroyed their own lives. Ordering her to be discharged, he expressed his intention of atc-isting her from the poor-box, at the same time venturing to hope that persons who re id the particulars of the case would come forward and help her to tide over her great misfortune. A sum of money was then handed to the unfortunate woman, who left the court in the company of her husband and friends.