Attempted suicide (1916)

Post date: Apr 08, 2016 11:45:37 AM

Extract from Kent Messenger of 5th August 1916

W A T E R I N G B U R Y .

A SPLASH IN THE MEDWAY.—On Monday last, at a sitting of the Malling Police

Court, Maria Edwards, of Warrington,was charged with attempted suicide at

Wateringbury, on July 23rd.

—At the previous hearing evidence was given by Henry Baker,

a stranger, employed cherry picking, that at about 6 p.m. he heard a splash in the Medway

near Bow Bridge, and saw the prisoner in the water. He went in up to his knees and

pulled her out. He asked her how she came to be in the water, but she kept screaming.

—Other evidence showed that she had previously been seen in a distressed condition,

and that when the police arrived she said: “I was tired of life .”

— She was remanded. The prisoner was again brought up on Tuesday

and committed to the Quarter Sessions. In a statement she said she hurt her foot while

working at Mr. Blundell’s farm at Halstead, that this injury had since troubled her, and

that on the date named she was bathing her foot by the river when she fell in.