Weekly News. — 1892-10-13 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

YOUNG WOMAN D.ROWNEV AT I;OURNE MOUTH.  AN OPEN VERDICT.  On Friday morning the body of a young woman was found on Bournemouth sands, half-way beta eon Botcombe Pier and Bournemouth Pier. It was identified as that of Miss Edith Fenn, aged 18, who left the residence of her aunt, Mrs. Hawker (whose husband, Mr. Hawker, is a photographer in Bournemouth), with whom she was staying, at half past nine on that same morning. The body was conveyed to Nyassa, Wimboree Road, where she had lived, and Mr. Bernard Hatfield, County Coroner, held an inquest there on Saturday afternoon.— William John Hawker said deceased had lived in his family for the last five weeks. She came to assist with the children as a sort of mother's help. She would have been 19 on the 28th November. When she first arrived she was homesick, but afterwards became cheerful. There was no fault to find with her. She was anxious to please, and almost too nervously conscientious. No complaints had been made to her on Thursday or Friday morning. She ate a good breakfast on Friday morning, and afterwards dressed two of the children, who went along the Wimborne Road with witness. Deceased was sent after them, and she brought them back. Then she looked in at the kitchen window, and walked hurriedly away. That was the last the family saw of her alive. It was not her custom to go out in the morning, indeed, except to church, she never went out alone. She came to Bournemouth to see if the change would do her good. She never threatened self-destruction. She was a religious girl. She did not wish the children good-bye or say anything to them before going.—Margaret Zebedee, domestic servant at Nyassa, said she believed Miss Fenn was happy in her place. She certainly never heard her say she would commit suicide. Miss Fenn was not subject to fits.—Richard West, Wyndham Read, Pollesdown, an employe of the Bournemouth Corporation, said on Friday morning between 10.30 and 10.45, he was walking on the East Cliff, when a gentleman came alone and said there was a body lying en the beach. Witness went down and found the body rolling over and over in the surf. It was that of a woman fully dressed, with the exception of her bat, which was lying 250 yards further along the beach in the direction of Bournemouth. The hat, he thought, had not been in the water at all. Dragging the corpse out lie turned it over on its side, and a little water ran out of the mouth and nose. There were no signs of life. He had recovered the body within five minutes of receiving the warning. There were very few people about. The tide was nearly up to the base of the cliff, and just at the point where the girl's hat was found the cliff bad slipped, and jutted out. The water came up there very fiercely quite three feet deep. If the girl were caught there she might easily have been thrown otT her feet and carried away in the backwater. The set of the waves and the wind might have drifted her on towards Boseombe.—Frank Gillett Cory, physician and surgeon, said he was called to Mr. Hawker's house on Friday. He got there at two o'clock, and found the body of deceased lying on a bed. She was quite dead, and cold in parts. Her face was pale, and her mouth open. Her tongue was not bitten, as it would most probably have, been the case had she had an epileptic fit. Death was due to drowning.—ln answer to Mr. Hawker, who complained that a doctor had not been called directly the body was recovered, Dr. Cory said a doctor could not have been brought to her in less than half an hour. which would have been too late, even supposing the girl's life was still in the balance when taken:from the water.—The jury was exceedingly surprised that the gentleman who first saw the body and told West about it did not go down the cliffs and rescue it himself. West did not know the gentleman, and thought he must be a stranger. He might have gone down the cliffs and reached the body quicker than West could. He was a very smart man, between 20 and 30 years old. Ho did not hurry or call out, but just walked till he got up to West to tell him what he had seen, and then passed on. West scrambled down the face of the cliff, not waiting to go round and down by the steps. Several jurymen thought the gentleman must have been afraid, but the coroner suggested that, not knowing who the gentleman was, or his physical state, it would be unfair to censure him. If be was sound in wind and limb he deserved censure. In summing up the evidence, Mr. Harfield reminded the jury they might find a verdict of found drowned; or they might assign the death to accident; or they might consider it a case of suicide. In the last alternative he should wish to place certain letters before them. There was nothing na them, and he would not read them unless the jury wished. The jury decided that they were not necessary evidence, and gave an open verdict, "Found drowned."